How far into the future are we? Is it destruction or growth? Vandalism or art? I am traveling one state over to visit family in the time of covid; is this compassion, recklessness, stupidity? Decisions are not made easy in these strange days. Should we be driving through the city? Seeing the faces of ones who are gone, boarded up buildings with portraits of George Floyd on every block, and the Christmas lights hung with precision and care draw stark juxtaposition within the towering buildings.
This was my city at one time many years ago and it has its own presence. This city looks like I feel. And it pulls a light through it that cuts the cold dead structures. A light that is needed everywhere. Its people destroying buildings that were never theirs, smashing in all the windows like the chambers of my heart, claiming space! What can you do when you are broken but no one can see it? What can you say when no one is listening? What words can speak what needs to be shown? It’s the only way, it makes it real, show them… show them what they have done… show them what our minds create… show them so that maybe they will understand. Slow down and see: As within, So without. Humanity walks on a thin edge of existence. Seeing into our truth gives us so much more than perspective, it helps us walk the fine line to the other side and say: “I hear you; I respect you, I love you.” Art and culture are no strangers, but deeply intertwined. Destruction and beauty co-exist in a remarkable collage of resistance and meaning. As we all become changed by the growing feeling of hope mixed with pain.
Just as our group holds space for our creative potential, so too are people everywhere holding space for a time of hope and growth. Growth as humans living on this earth that we still know so little about, growth as people so that we may share the blessings of empathy, growth as individuals so that we may realize our full potential.
Ean Nicole
Ean Nicole
Ean Nicole
Ean Nicole
Ean Nicole
Sally Stenton
Svetlana Atlavina
