Weekly Wide-Awake #49

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Sangha. Fellowship. Public Art.

Living the Comma #21

Sangha. Two-Week Projects. Rest.

“The next Buddha will not take the form of an individual, but rather the form of a community practicing understanding, loving-kindness, and mindful living.” — Thich Nhat Hanh

Dear Writer Friends,

I read an interview recently, “Rebecca Solnit Says the Left’s Next Hero Is Already Here.” Solnit explains,

One of the great weaknesses of our era is that we get lone superhero movies that suggest that our big problems are solved by muscly guys in spandex, when actually the world mostly gets changed through collective effort. Thich Nhat Hanh said before he died a few years ago that the next Buddha will be the Sangha. The Sangha, in Buddhist terminology, is the community of practitioners. It’s this idea that we don’t have to look for an individual, for a savior, for an Übermensch. I think the counter to Trump always has been and always will be civil society. A lot of the left wants social change to look like the French Revolution or Che Guevara. Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war. Too many people still expect it to look like war. I denigrate politicians I don’t respect as windsocks. I just want us to understand that most of the important change is collective.

Our moment is about embracing the Sangha. Let me explain. Connection — families, friends, colleagues, neighbors, congregations, the stranger in line at PetSmart — are the pulse of collective effort. Protests, marches, door knocking, phone calls, postcards, letters, emails, and conversations are collective effort. I want to suggest the Sangha embraces it all and asks us to pay attention and mindfully and consistently and persistently act. Social change toward big love will happen together, and I agree with Solnit that it will look more like caregiving than war.

That is the ask. That is our charge. That is the prayer. Peace. In our heart. In our home. In our community. In our world. Expand our circle of influence to embrace our circle of concern through collective effort. For us writers, one word at a time.

Our next in person writing session will be April 13 (to accommodate Easter, which is April 5th) at VHC after snack time.

We are scheduled to meet from 12:15 to 1:30 in May, too. To virtually connect with the group during our meetings, use this link — https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85095318186.

This newsletter — Living the Comma — is delivered weekly to keep our community up-to-date and writing.

Read the entire post here.

Spit and Spaghetti #13

Pitches from Wind and Wall

BMI — Kluge Fellowship

“Artists and scientists are activists. They look at the world as changeable and they look upon themselves as instruments for change. They understand that the slice of world they occupy is only a fragment but that the fragment is intrinsically connected to the whole. They know that action matters.” ― Anne Bogart, What’s the Story: Essays About Art, Theater and Storytelling

I currently live across the street from a renovated brick factory in Atlanta. The original owner of the brick factory, B. Mifflin Hood, led the fight against convict leasing in Georgia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This project will define and analyze convict leasing, explore the struggle to end the practice, and discuss its relationship to current public funding of private prisons — which includes significant investments in prison labor. At heart, this project examines the ways in which the lessons of past progress can inform and guide current social justice work.

Read entire post here

Taking A Walk #3

Solar Wind, Whirling Wheels, 33 Oaks

I celebrate art and science on my Beltline walk. My walks allow me to get outdoors and breathe in strength and peace. I head out to see the magnificence of spring. Steel and innovation and sunshine. Trees and wind and bicycles. Nature and life and beauty. The art I am looking at this week showcases the way in which art initiates a discussion of use, sustainability, and conservation. In artist’s hands, the tools of art raise awareness, encourage investigation, inspire creativity, and advocate for safety and health. Beltline art invites everyone to consider the art in science. Right in front of us, we explore how we build, sustain, and conserve our world. Right in front of us, we imagine something different than consumption, traffic, and waste. Right in front of us, we heal our bodies and our earth.

Read the entire post here.

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