Orland Bishop combines a deep dedication to human rights advocacy and cultural renewal with an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology and indigenous cosmologies. He was a research fellow with the Center for the Study of Violence and Social Change at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and has consulted with many human development organizations. As director of Shade Tree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge.
Shade Tree reaches into gang and drug cultures where many young people expect to die before the age of 20.
“These young people feel that they are not welcome in the world, in the culture and in the future,” explains Mr. Bishop.
Shade Tree employs a unique process that draws on both contemporary and ancient practices, particularly that of the South African tradition of Indaba or “deep talk.” Hidden Forces of the American Dream refers to the creative, still unused powers available to the American people and land that were released through tremendous sacrifices made over the course of American history by Native Americans, African slaves and waves of immigrants.
ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation
http://shadetreefoundation.org/v-web/gallery/
Orland Bishop is Founder and Director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation, a Los Angeles based mentoring organization for youth. ShadeTree serves as an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth. Orland's work in healing and human development is framed by natural and spiritual sciences from many cultural streams, primarily those of South and West Africa.
Brief biography
“I'd like to begin by saying “Sawubona,” a Zulu word that translates as "I see you." It speaks to the necessity that in one human being seeing another, we owe each other something. Sawubona is an invitation to create a relationship for the future, to express gratitude that we have met.
We find ourselves interrupted by certain situations in our lives that force us to come to terms with life inside us. Some of us have chosen to enter our lives by taking an interest in human suffering. What can we do to under-stand the time in which we live? And, how do we give to it in such a way that we can resolve some of the struggles that human beings encounter living in this time?
In our own biographies is the entire story of the time in which we live. We need to see something in ourselves and in each other that creates a will to serve the future. Otherwise, we find ourselves exiled from even our own lives and the meaning it gives us.
The story of how I came into this work was in a sense an interruption. My first year in medical school, a young friend came to my home and asked for some help as he was addicted to drugs. I welcomed him into my home to try to find some pathways to heal this crisis.
We later discovered that his life was complicated by AIDS on top of drugs. As I investigated what was behind his need, my life changed. It was changed to the point where I became primary caregiver for someone who had nowhere else to turn for a relationship that would be deeply committed to his healing.
This young man, Lizar was his name, invited me into the conversation that I am still in: How to support what I came into the world to do? A few days before he died, he turned to me in the most compelling force of human will that I have ever witnessed, and said,
"You better do what you are here to do. If you don't do it, you will regret it."
This conversation would tear my life apart. In that moment, a weight descended upon me unlike anything that I have experienced–the responsibility to own and be challenged by my destiny. I didn't return to medical school. I remembered what I was here to do. It was not a specific task, but a capacity of remaining awake to something that lives in us as an absolute intention of clarifying life: for hosting not just our own sprit, but the spirit of the other; to welcome passion for doing the good, to choose beauty, awaken to truth.
This is the dialogue I am still in.I can't shut off this command of love. I rediscovered a way to live in the world that is helping others to stay alive with my life. We are given the opportunity to awake in many different ways. Regardless of whether we are prepared, the opportunity always visits us. We know when that moment comes when we are asked to take up something that represents not our own self-interest, but something that represents a collective matter to serve the necessity that birth has invited us into. ShadeTree is the pathway of creating community for the purpose of awakening human beings to their life, and to create the social support for each human being to stand and be ready to choose for their life.
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