In The Wind
“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” - Toni Morrison
In the Wind is an experiment in capturing lightening in a bottle, transforming the ephemeral into the material, and the mundane into the strange. I weave together wavelengths from my varied worlds: art, performance, handcraft, nature, activism, care work, and sex work and synthesize them into this offering.
With a finger to the wind and a toe to the earth, I pull together resources from my reading, creative exploration, community care practice, and whatever else comes through the ether to provide insight on what the heck is going on and where we might choose to go, through the curious eye of an artist.
I’ve begun calling myself a “resource magpie” (my web browser bookmarks folders are STACKED). Over the past few years, in my varied pursuits, I have found myself most often in the role of a teacher. I’ve discovered a skill for keeping my antennae out, feeling for vibrations in the web, and alchemizing it into something legible. The image of The Magician has been on my mind in the consideration this project: being a conduit between the seen and unseen, the ether and the earth. I’ve been full of information, dreams, half-finished art, intentions, concepts…and yet, stuck, without an outlet, without a space for these wisps to coalesce into something more. I am hoping this can be that place.
There is an urgency in the air these days; plates are shifting under our feet and pieces of what we have come to know as reality are slipping away, faster and faster every day. We are inside the revolution—at least 9 years deep, if not 16—and it’s gathering momentum. I feel like I’ve been anticipating and preparing for years, and yet still feel I haven’t done enough. I’m not sure anyone ever feels prepared for the apparent impending collapse of a nation; I’m not sure one can ever actually be prepared. However, I have come to see our generation as cursebreakers: all of the intergenerational and collective trauma, the repression of feeling, the violence passed down from parent to child, the systems we’ve been told are “just how it is,” the status quo in general—we say enough. Enough of this. This ends with us. We will not only dream a new way, but we are making it real, right now.
So, I’ll close with an excerpt from an entry I wrote the other day. I’m so glad you’re here.
It’s time to create.
But what?
Nothing feels big enough
which I know isn’t the point
or even possible
it’s the work that is the blessing
the journey
walking with others, marking the way
a bit brighter
so that it doesn’t matter if we fall
because we created a path.
This will be a weekly publication, landing in your inbox on Fridays. At this time, In The Wind is a free newsletter—but free in the way that public radio is. If you value what I provide and can afford to support it, your patronage allows this space to exist. I believe in freedom and accessibility of art, and I also believe in community coming together to invest in cultural workers. Whether you subscribe for one month or twelve, I am grateful.