One World Tribe stands for many positive things. Founder Kennedy Thompson assembled a highly skilled ensemble of talented musicians, and great music is one of our primal connections. Music can reach through any barriers given half a chance, and we discovered that there really weren't any barriers anyway.

Which brings me to the second positive aspect of OWT - it's obvious and not-so-obvious diversity. Many people point out the mix of Black, White, Asian/Jamaican, African, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Indian, etc., and how well everyone works together "despite" these differences. For us as musicians, this is really old news.

The diversity we find is the diversity of experience, viewpoint, opinion, history and perspective that spices every conversation and discussion over fifteen years of spending time together. Our experiences were different because we were in different places, at different ages, listening to different music and really coming to the same conclusions in many ways.

Like the understanding that music is music, we concluded that we couldn't limit ourselves to one style or even instrument. Every aspect of music has been explored by OWT members, including classical, jazz, folk, country, rock, blues, and of course the Funk, Reggae, Hiphop, Latin and World music that we bring to our fans today.

And just as music has diverse forms and expressions, so do the people of the world. This is the real diversity, which comes from the understanding that every point in the universe is different at every moment. Putting the people you meet into big, generic boxes completely misses the unique attributes that every single individual you will ever meet will have.

If you take something away from the One World Tribe experience, I hope it will include this understanding; that we are all one, but each of us is a unique, irreplaceable part of that whole, and to stereotype is to blind ourselves to what is right in front of us - one more way to enhance our experience, and to understand one more unique aspect of ourselves.

Perhaps the clearest definition of love is acceptance, so love your brothers and sisters, and accept yourself.

peace - chelaBOP