What communities invite you to inhabit your true self?
On Stein's salon, the sisterhood, and the creative common room
Dear reader,
When I was in college, a friend of mine started hosting Pinot & Poetry nights in her apartment. A shoddy group of us nixed the house parties to instead gather on Saturday night in various states of disarray - young, stressed, overly or underly emotive. We sat on the floor and we listened to each other’s art - poetry, music, fiction - the stuff we wrote or practiced in dorm rooms or childhood bedrooms. We were only just learning we had something to say. Our voices were still full of clichés and we hid our vulnerability in abstractions. But it was glorious. Life-giving. Spirit-stirring.
Creativity can be strengthened in community.
In the 1930s, at 27 Rue de Fleurus in Paris, in an apartment decorated floor to ceiling with paintings, lived a writer critics dismissed as incomprehensible. Gertrude Stein opened her doors for creatives to gather around the fire, peruse her art collection, and exchange ideas. Here, Ernest Hemingway met F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ezra Pound. Stein gleaned writing inspiration from her painter friends - Picasso and Matisse. This community took each other’s abnormal (at the time) experimentations seriously. They mentored and supported each other, seeking truth and beauty through art in the wake of World War I.
Even more powerful was “the sisterhood,” a group of Black female writers in the 70s with a bond deep as blood, meeting in a Brooklyn apartment over gumbo, champagne, and poems.
Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, and others gathered to discuss not just literature, but also liberation. Together, they advocated for Black writers in publishing and academia. They ran up against racism, sexism, and homophobia, but they had each other to draw strength from. They celebrated, elevated, and supported each others’ voices. Each other’s value. The necessity of their stories.
How incredible that none of these culture-shifting artists had to create alone.
That their voices were empowered within community.
Some of my favorite moments of being a human on this planet are moments of creative community. Moments in which I can tap into a deep thrum of collective energy, fed by connection, and contextualized by compassion.
Which is why I am so thrilled to launch The Creative Common Room this February.
The Creative Common Room will meet online every Saturday from 9 to 10:30 AM Central Time to ritualize our creative practice.
Sessions begin with guided grounding in breath and body. We then transition to setting personal aims for the session. If you're looking to experiment, there will be prompts and exercises provided. After our solo making time, we'll link back up to share inspiration, resources, and insights.
To learn more or sign up to join, click here. Please also reach out with any questions, comments, or concerns! I would love to connect.
The question I’ll leave you with today:
What communities invite you to inhabit your true self?
Until next time,
A
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