Merrill Collins

Everybody's Everybody is a dramatic musical for children, by children, for raising awareness around hunger and helping children who are hungry.Written by Merrill Collins and Frederick Gums, Everybody's Everybody was originally produced as a benefit for hungry children during the 1985 famine in Ethiopia. This guide for adult directors and volunteers promotes awareness of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which consists of 54 articles that define children's rights, and guidelines for how governments should work together to make them available to all children. Anne Frank said, "Hunger is not a problem. It is an obscenity. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Under the terms of the convention, governments are required to meet children's basic needs and help them reach their full potential. Hunger and famine can appear anywhere, anytime, and can be temporary or persistent. But feeding the hungry is an immediate benefit that anyone can do, anywhere in the world. This musical project is an excellent way to raise awareness and bring communities together to help.An instrumental soundtrack is available for those who can't perform with live musicians, which is always preferable. The book also contains a 5-minute excerpt, "Help them Live," which can promote the musical or stand alone.

Every Man, Woman, and Child & Every Living Soul is an educational performance piece by composer Merrill Collins based on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Community groups of all types can use this project to cultivate and perpetuate the deepest levels of respect between people and toward all of life. This was the first grassroots arts project to embody and promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, premiering in 1987. The original project manual was displayed at the United Nations Center in Geneva as an example that has inspired thousands of expressions at the grassroots level since then. This new version, dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of the UDHR, contains the original score plus a new non-binary version and instructions on how to present the 30 articles of our foundational human rights document in any language through singing, dancing, meditating, doing yoga, and community ceremonies. Schools, studios, museums, civic organizations, and places of worship-any community wishing to create a uniting event-will find this exciting and uplifting project easy to implement with this well-prepared toolkit. Learn more at www.spiralingmusic.com.Suitable for ages 5-adult.

We Declare Songs, Chants, Dances, and Multimedia Projects by composer and musician Merrill Collins presents a unique melding of music, interactive projects, and learning about musical instruments from around the world. This collection of songs are based on Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration, a document that outlines the common values of all the world's religions. This book contains instructions, lyrics, scores and educational materials for songs, chants, dances, and multimedia projects based on the music, rich with photos and facts about instruments from around the world. * * * There are instructions for eight musical experiences in this book, adaptable all ages, from preschoolers to children to teens to adults to senior citizens. The parts for participants are largely chant and percussion, which can stand alone or be played with the instrumental music soundtrack, which is available wherever music is streamed or sold (see www.spiralingmusic.com). * * * The text of Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration, reprinted with permission from the Council for a Parliament of World Religions. * * * We Are Interdependent "We are interdependent. Each of us depends on the well-being of the whole, and so we have respect for the community of living beings, for people, animals, and plants, and for the preservation of the Earth, the air, water and soil."Golden Rules "We must treat others as we wish others to treat us. We make a commitment to respect life and dignity, individuality and diversity, so that every person is treated humanely, without exception. We must have patience, and acceptance. We must be able to for- give, learning from the past but never allowing ourselves to be enslaved by memories of hate. Opening our hearts to one another, we must sink our narrow differences for the cause of the world community, practicing a culture of solidarity and relatedness."Forsaking Violence "We commit ourselves to a culture of non-violence, respect, justice, and peace. We shall not oppress, injure, torture, or kill other human beings, forsaking violence asa means of settling differences. Make a just and peaceful world, with nature-friendly ways of life."Humankind Is Our Family "We consider humankind our family. We do not live for ourselves alone, but also serving others, never forgetting the children, the aged, the poor, the suffering, the disabled, the refugees, and the lonely."Opening Our Hearts "Opening our hearts to one another, we can move mountains."Cause and Effect "We take individual responsibility for all we do. All our decisions, actions, and failures to act have consequences."Every Man, Woman, and Child* "Give every man, woman, and child our human rights." * * * *this bonus track is from the song, Every Man, Woman, and Child, which is a musical setting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. More info can be found in the Every Man, Woman and Child volume of the We Agree series. * * * This is book two of the We Agree series by Merrill Collins. Learn more at www.spiralingmusic.com