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Chinese-Jamaican gay man, community organizer and spiritual counselor, Larry Chang has much to offer the Asian-American, LGBT, Caribbean-American, and People of Color communities, but it is his urgent message of developing local sustainability that is of immediate interest to all.

Larry was born in Jamaica of Hakka Chinese immigrant parents; he is a founding member of the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals & Gays, J-FLAG . He had previously organized a gay group in Jamaica, the Gay Freedom Movement (GFM) as early as 1978 in a fiercely hostile climate. He held the position of General Secretary and was Publisher and Editor of its newsletter, Jamaica Gaily News .

A leader and active participant of the social justice community, Larry came to the U.S. as a asylee in 2000, and was granted political asylum in 2004. He currently resides in Washington, DC, where he continues to educate and work for social justice. He is featured in the Phillip Pike documentary, Songs of Freedom, which had its world premiere in Toronto in January 2003, and has been shown in selected US cities, Toronto, Montreal and Kingston. He also appears in Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World , which documents the struggle for human rights of LGBT people in the global south; it premiered at the New York Film Festival in June 2003.

In June 2008, Larry founded EcolocityDC to promote local sustainability in response to peak oil, climate change and economic collapse. He has adopted the Transition model and is in the process of implementing this in the Greater Washington region.

Larry completed Religious Science Studies to Level 3 under Dr. Rev. Elma Lumsden at the Temple of Light Church of Religious Science in Kingston, Jamaica, and has been profoundly influenced by Zen Buddhism. Introduced in May 2006 to much acclaim at Book Expo America, Larry's anthology of quotations, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing is now available in bookstores and online, as well as the follow-up, Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk . He's currently at work on Wisdom for the Soul of Queer Folk, slated for release in 2008.

He has the enthusiastic support of many scholars:

"Larry Chang is a first-rate activist, and a superb thinker and analyst of political/social issues. Anyone who hears him speak will not be disappointed."
- Thomas Glave
Assistant Professor, Department of English, General Literature and Rhetoric
State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton, NY, USA
Author of Whose Song and Words To Our Now.

"Larry Chang brings a special spirituality to whomever he meets. He has the amazing ability to transcend race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation in his efforts to heal the planet. His wisdom might well be the path that we need to lead us to both individual and global peace."
- Jerry Wright
Professor, Social Work and Anthropology
Savannah State University, Savannah, Georgia, USA

"... dependable, thorough, focused, and knowledgeable about the arts ... He is not, however, limited to being an "expert" in the arts. His interests are diverse, and he has been able to combine history, mathematics, anthropology, psychology, and sociology into an integrated whole that define him as both an intellectual and a practitioner of his craft."
- Davilla T. Davis
Former Professor/Director, Study Abroad Programs
Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

"I have had many opportunities to meet with Larry Chang. Invariably I have come away greatly enriched. He is a man of enormous knowledge and wisdom, an excellent counseller and speaker, a true humanist. I have learned a lot about Jamaican culture, about spirituality, about human nature, from him."
- Wolfgang Binder
Professor/Academic Director, North American & Caribbean Literatures
University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

"Larry Chang is original and insightful. He is a speaker well worth inviting to provide new perspectives and stimulate discussion."
- Frank H. Wu
Professor, Howard University School of Law
Washington, DC, USA
Author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White

Larry Chang is an ENGAGING SPEAKER with experience as a SPIRITUAL COUNSELOR, WORKSHOP FACILITATOR, WRITER and ARTIST. His diverse background caters to a spectrum of communities such as the LGBT, People of Color (POC), Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Caribbean Diaspora Communities and in fields of LGBT, Asian-American, Gender, History, Latin American & Caribbean Studies.

Background and Topics:

• LOCALIZATION & RESILIENCE
  - when he graduated in 1971, majoring in environmental design, Larry had difficulty finding a job; no one knew exactly what it was he did. Now that he can relate his training to permaculture and the design of sustainable communities, his particular skill set is now in demand. Combining scientific, aesthetic, spiritual and economic factors with group dynamics, he can spur and assist in the re-making of community.

• SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT
  - with training in Religious Science and dharma study, Larry assists in the exploration of life questions within the paradigm of the sanctity and beauty of the individual ensconced in and inseparable from the multidimensional whole. He has developed a playful yet incisive tool, reading Wisdom Cards a la Tarot, to facilitate this process. His ideas are even now coalescing into a discourse known as I-sight.

• EMPOWERMENT
  - based on training and experience in the human potential movement and drawing from experience of working with LGBT, spiritual and alternative health groups, artisanal and rural micro-entrepreneurs.
  

  "Larry Chang was contracted to provide technical design expertise and training in product development to mainly small and medium size enterprises focused in the innovative industries. He has a capacity for connecting with the client and assisting in bringing forth their highest potential."
  - Valerie Veira, CEO, Jamaica Business Development Centre, Kingston, Jamaica

• WORKING WITH DIVERSITY/BUILDING BRIDGES
  - being an Anomaly: Asian in Black Jamaica, Gay in homophobic Jamaica, Asian-Jamaican in African-America, Hakka in predominantly Mandarin/Cantonese Chinese-America, Free-Thinker in an increasingly Fundamentalist Orthodoxy, Exile with no Country, A ROLE FOR THE ETERNAL OUTSIDER.

• WORKING IN THE LGBT PEOPLE OF COLOR COMMUNITY

• HISTORY of Gay Activism in Jamaica, Chinese in Jamaica, Legacy of Slavery in Gender Roles, Violence & Homophobia

• INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS : Asian/Black intimacy

• THE TYRANNY of anal sexism among MSM

Recent Presentations Include:

• Participant, HIV Community Coalition Seminar on Religion, Spirituality, and Sexuality
  Washington DC, February 2002
• Panelist, 12th Biennial Midwest Asian Pacific American Student's Conference, "Transcending Boundaries: Communities, Crisis, and Resistance"
  Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, March 2002
• Presenter, Asian Pacific American Awareness Conference (APAAC): "Affirming Identity"
  Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY, April 2003
  Presentation/Workshop - "Building Then Breaking Out of the Box: Claiming, Creating and Transcending Identities"
• Panellist, "Examining Jamaica's Policy towards Homosexuality & Dealing with the Impact of International Scrutiny"
  presented by Jampact , St. Francis College, Brooklyn NY, January 2005
• Speaker, Amnesty International 2005 Get On the Bus Rally
  All Souls Church, NYC, April 2005
• Speaker, hosted by Rainbow Pride Union
  SUNY Binghamton NY, April 2005
• Panellist, "Beyond the Music: Reggae and the Cultural Contours of Homophobia," Stanford University Black Law Students Association Conference, Stanford CA, February 2006
• Speaker, hosted jointly by Amnesty International and Lambda Union
  Oberlin College, Oberlin OH, April 2007
• Speaker, hosted jointly by Asian Students Union and Rainbow Pride
  SUNY Binghamton, NY, April 2007
• Speaker, hosted jointly by African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American caucus (AHANA) and Chinese Students Association (CSU), Boston College, Boston MA, March 2008

Larry's sites

SoulVentures

Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing

A Web Resource for LGBT Refugees

The world's first bilingual Jamaican-English site, devoted to the Jamaican language

Notes of an Iconoclast

YES
STRINGS
ATTACHED
Men dating Men

Larry is available to individuals, groups and organizations as a presenter and facilitator at a nominal fee. He is initiating a new service,
SoulVentures - Exploring the Possible
offering counselling, coaching, imagineering, spiritual/holistic marketing and promotion. In light of present challenges, he is offering a 2-hour presentation/workshop "Introduction to Transition" to groups and communities ready to regain control of their economies and develop local resilience. For more information or to schedule an interview or appearance, send an e-mail.

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