💜[10/31] the creativity for good friday five

1. We Have to Move (Kelly Hayes for her own newsletter, “Organizing My Thoughts”)

I’m a shameless Kelly Hayes fan — if you’ve been reading this newsletter for any length of time, you’ve probably seen me quoting her work. She’s also been on the front lines protesting ICE in Chicago. This week, her newsletter focused on what that’s been like, and the exhausting, frustrating, sometimes overwhelming feelings of we’re too late and it’s not enough and what are we going to do now?

But, she reminds us — and this is the important bit — there is always a next right thing that can be done. More specifically, she writes:

Kelly’s newsletter reminds me, however cliche the reference, of that infamous parable about a young person walking along a coastline, picking up starfish who have washed up to shore and throwing them back into the waves. An older person — perhaps a parent, perhaps a grandparent, perhaps a total stranger — asks, “You can’t throw them all back in. Do you really think that’s going to make a difference?”

In response, the young person throws another starfish back into the ocean and says, “It made a difference to that one.”

You don’t have to change everything in order to have an impact. But there’s always a next right thing to do. You just have to find it.

2. Texas Is a Lot More Queer Than You Think. I Am Too. (Olivia Messer for The Barbed Wire)

Every time we have a Republican in office doing predictably shitty garbage, there’s always some holier-than-thou poster who comes out to talk about how people in red states voted for whatever the garbage is, and therefore should be cut off and abandoned and basically told to suffer.

Putting aside that most of those states aren’t “red” so much as “gerrymandered to shit,” an issue that’s only going to get worse, those states are also, without fail, so much more diverse than people think. Or, as Olivia Messer writes:

People have been building community in the unlikeliest of places as long as there have been communities to make. Messer’s essay is a good reminder not to count anyone — or any place — out of the movement to build a better world.

3. why grief work matters — and how tarot can help (meg jones wall for their newsletter)

YOU DIDN’T THINK I’D LET AN ENTIRE NEWSLETTER GO BY WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT GRIEF, RIGHT? Of course not.

I had the absolute joy of talking to Meg about their tarot work last year. When we spoke, one of the more interesting things they brought up was that key to the way they build tarot spreads is starting with, and discovering, the right question to ask in a particular moment. In this week’s letter, they wrote:

Grieving for creative energy, for the time and the space and the desire to create, is exhausting, and miserable, and so hard. But it’s also, I think, a beautiful part of the cycle of creation. Meg reminds us that we are all, in one way or another, engaged in this universal work of grieving — just as I would remind you that we are all, in one way or another, engaged in the universal work of creativity. What that means to you might depend on the pull of a card, the stroke of a pen, or something different altogether. What matters is that it’s yours.

(Also, Meg is a delight. If you’re not subscribed to their newsletter, fix that!)

4. Fall of Freedom, “a nationwide wave of creative resistance,” starts next month. (James Folta at Literary Hub)

The only things I love more than creativity and community? Creating in community.

The only thing I love more than that? Creating in community while saying fuck you to fascism!

Described as “an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation,” Fall of Freedom is “an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part — and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.” The goal, Folta writes, is to encourage creatives to collectively imagine new forms of resistance: through art, writing, or performance; in community spaces and cafes and museums; with an MFA or a set of kindergarten pencils. Folta writes,

Wherever you look, wherever you are, whatever you know how to do, someone in your community is probably offering a way for you to lend your talents to this moment. And if you look around and see nothing, well — what can you create?

5. Portland coffee shop has now raised over $200,000 to feed people losing SNAP benefits (Lizzy Acker for The Oregonian)

I know I sound like a broken record, but I’ll say it again: creating communities of care is part of the ways we use creativity as a force of good.

It probably sounds odd coming from a professional fundraiser, but I’ll be real: I don’t believe fundraising will save us. Individual donors, however mighty we are when we come together, cannot fix institutional, political, societal problems.

However, that doesn’t mean we can’t make an incredible difference in the short-term to help our communities in critical moments. In less than a week, a Portland coffee shop has raised more than $200,000 in small donations — some as little as just over $1 — to support neighbors who will lose their SNAP benefits on November 1.

Since Heretic went viral, more Portland-area coffee shops and businesses have followed their lead. Heretic has also stepped up their own commitment, pledging to offer free, no-questions-asked, no-proof-required breakfast to anyone who has lost SNAP benefits starting November 1. (Their donate page is still live, by the way — drop them a few dollars if you can!)

It starts with one suggestion. One click. One link. One person.