Worldchanging 101

No Advance Praise Available

About the author:

David LaMotte is an award-winning songwriter, speaker, author, and activist. He has performed over 2500 concerts nationally and internationally, developing a devoted fan base on five continents. Along the way, he has released eleven albums, won several international songwriting awards, and earned accolades from the Boston Globe, Washington Times, Soundcheck Magazine (Germany), and BBC Radio Belfast, which praised his “charm, stories, humour, insightful songs, sweet voice and dazzling guitar ability.”

But music is not his only calling. He is also the founder and president of PEG Partners, which supports schools and libraries in Guatemala, and the Clerk (Chair) of the AFSC Nobel Peace Prize Nominating Task Group, as well as a Consultant for Peace and Justice issues for the North Carolina Council of Churches. About half of his current public appearances are as a speaker and workshop leader, and he works with activists dealing with racial tensions and other justice and conflict issues. Earlier this year he traveled to Zambia to help lead a conflict resolution training, and later visited Harrison, Arkansas to work with racial reconciliation activists near the home town of the KKK’s Grand Wizard. He was recently interviewed on an Al Jazeera news special on the recent rise in hate group activity in the United States.

Wanting to give more energy to that part of his work after 18 years on the road as a musician, LaMotte suspended his music career in 2008 to accept a Rotary World Peace Fellowship, earning a master’s degree in International Studies, Peace, and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. As part of that program, he also spent three months in rural Andhra Pradesh, India, working with a Gandhian development organization.

LaMotte lives in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina with his wife, six-year-old son and two back yard chickens.

Worldchanging 101 is LaMotte’s third book, though his first full-length publication for adults. His first two books, S.S. Bathtub and White Flour, are illustrated children’s books. S.S. Bathtub, based on LaMotte’s award-winning children’s song of the same name, is a whimsical rhyming book for younger children. White Flour introduces children to creative nonviolence through the true story of a 2007 Knoxville, Tennessee Ku Klux Klan rally that was met by a group calling themselves the Coup Clutz Clowns, who challenged hatred with humor. White Flour has been praised by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, who called it “important, beautiful, and moving,” and famed clown doctor Patch Adams, who called it “brilliant.” Like White Flour, Worldchanging 101 was funded through crowd-sourcing on Kickstarter.com, achieving 131% of its funding goal through the support of 358 backers.