Let's Get This Revolution Started

On Friday, January 18, during the annual Capstone Consultancy Day at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership’s participants shared questions emerging from their in-progress Leadership Capstone projects with more than 100 colleagues, mentors, friends, and experts. This day of learning started with remarks from Perrone Sizer Institute co-founder and co-director Carmen Torres about her friend and motivational force, Luis Garden Acosta.

Carmen Torres at the PSI Capstone Consultancy Day, Jana

Carmen Torres at the PSI Capstone Consultancy Day, Jana

Good Morning/Buenos Días, and welcome to the Perrone Sizer Institute consultancies.

I want to take a moment this morning to honor the recent passing and memory of a sometimes unknown hero named Luis Garden Acosta. Luis was a force to be reckoned with and a good friend. Luis stopped just short of becoming a priest and then a medical doctor. Instead, he organized an innovative program to restore the spirit and health of his community. He founded El Puente in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He led El Puente into a grass-roots model for improving local health, education, environmental efforts, and social services by engaging residents in political, human rights and social justice campaigns as well as cultural projects. He was a great friend and inspiration to many, including PSi’s namesakes, Vito Perrone and Ted Sizer, both admirers of Luis and advocates for El Puente.

Luis believed that transformative community building could only be achieved through a creative justice approach. His life's work with the El Puente community showed that the passion found in creativity could move people from inspiration to action as leaders for social change. He urged people to always ask "For the sake of what?" when they proposed initiatives. When we were first developing PSi, Luis advised Linda and me to make sure that we taught that passion and love were the premise and requirement for change.

Luis’ favorite quote, by Che Guevara, continues to inspire me: “The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”  

Thank you and let's get this revolution started!

For more:

  • To learn more about Luis Garden Acosta’s life and work, as well as the organization he created, please visit El Puente.

  • You can read more about our 2019 PSiCapstone Consultancy Day on an overview post, coming soon.

  • We’re accepting applications for the 2019-2020 PSi cohort! Click through to learn more and apply.


Carmen TorresComment