Naomi Even-Aberle introduces us to her community: her gym. She shares how impactful it can be to take part in the successes, failures, and challenges of her students and peers as well as their extending support systems. … [Read more...]
Part of Something Bigger
Jaclyn Roessel reflects on the first time she felt like a part of a community, when she was 12 years old and had her Kinaaldá ceremony, in which she became a woman and felt the kinship of not only her nuclear family, but a larger tapestry of community members. … [Read more...]
A Real Community Will Stretch You
What are the qualities of a rubber band? Flexibility: the ability to bend without breaking. Clinnesha Sibley shares a reflection on the first time she felt the power of community as a teacher at Piney Woods School, and shares a list of guidelines for how to find community. A spiritual leader once gave me a rubber band to wear on my wrist to remind me that God will constantly stretch me toward my purpose. When I went to work for The Piney Woods School in Mississippi, I wore a rubber band. Whenever I felt that I was being tested, I tugged on it. … [Read more...]
Finding Magic in Community
Sometimes joining a new community can open up new, magical worlds that you never imagined were possible. This was Quentin Turner’s experience when he gained a new set of friends, teammates and community through Muggle Quidditch. It begins in 2010, during the spring of my third year in college at Eastern Michigan University. Over the holiday break, I was visiting with one of my best friends who just returned home to Detroit from his East Coast liberal arts school. He told me that he had begun playing a weird sport that was getting big in the … [Read more...]
Welcome to the Community
We are all a part of communities of many different shapes and sizes. Large or small, local to our region or universal, communities offer connection, purpose and a sense of belonging to a group larger than our individual selves. Creative Community Fellows is a nine-month fellowship for cultural entrepreneurs working uniquely at the intersection of culture and community. When Fellows apply to the program, we don’t define what community means. Rather, we ask that they tell us what community means in their context - whether it is geographic, … [Read more...]
Community of place
When I think about what community means to me, I return to the definition set forth by the organization Alternate ROOTS. ROOTS defines community as communities of place, tradition, and spirit. The root of this definition for me is community of place, because it is in these specific geographical areas that our traditions are created. It is in these places that one encounters the spirit of the community, that intangible thing that makes them unique. I recently moved away from my home town of Knoxville, Tennessee to New York City for graduate … [Read more...]
Liberty
In Todd, NC in the month of June, community means preparing for the annual "Liberty Parade" held on July 4. Every year, hundreds of people gather for this parade in our unincorporated community, expecting it to happen rain or shine. The costumes, props, and puppets worn or held in the parade were made by community members over the past 12 years and every year, we invite the public to participate for free. As the new director at Elkland Art Center, the parade "host," this was my first time directing the parade effort. Sitting in the distant … [Read more...]
The duty of community
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be”. This comes from one of the greatest men of the 20th century, a personal role model and someone who used his God-given gifts as a catalyst for change during a time when many had already lost hope. In this day and age, … [Read more...]
Community is natural. But we’re losing it.
We talk about community a lot. The word gets thrown around so much that it begins to lose its meaning. It begins to sound like just another empty word... like sustainability or vibrancy or placemaking or excellence. Community is fundamental to human life on earth. We are not solitary creatures. We exist in context with those around us in a shared reality that we co-create in real time. We are able to shape this reality and accomplish great things only by working with others, by engaging, by being a part of the world together. We are born … [Read more...]
Community: A Poem
Community is beautifully imperfect. Community is acceptance, not tolerance. Community is the past, present, and future. Community is innovation, an open door. Community is a space where all voices are heard. Community is eloquence without words. Community is a mosaic made of hopes and dreams. Community is the unifying thread between you and me. … [Read more...]
Family
To me community means family. It means we're in this together no matter the outcome. Community is unity, love, compassion. Community is dancing with your tribe just because your happy. Community is being able to learn from your mistakes and given another chance to redeem yourself. Community is meeting someone in need and offering a helping hand. … [Read more...]
A practice of commitment
I've been noticing a trend that many of my friends and colleagues will, after having children, attend church or participate other memberships and meetings so their developing family has a sense of "community". It often makes me reflect on this seemingly basic desire that we have for belonging, and perhaps even accountability to each other. But it also issues a challenge to think about what that term means, what are the parameters of what makes a community, and what it serves to fulfill, or how it might set a foundation for living. In his … [Read more...]
Community within
As a community artist, I operate with the philosophy that creativity is a pledge to embrace and value one’s own existence and self-reflection is a process for changing awareness and behavior. The marriage between creativity and self-reflection brings forth a unique language of art that speaks beyond words. It signifies change that helps individuals to visually express feelings and emotions, which are difficult to articulate through conventional means like speaking publicly about stories of abuse, etc. It is a tool for personal metamorphosis … [Read more...]
A misshapen Venn Diagram
Erin Salazar, is an artist, muralist, seamstress, public art curator and Creative Community Fellow. She shares what community means to her in this time lapse video: … [Read more...]
Actively making a place better
I'd like to share these images of what Community means to me. These images were taken recently outside the Old Dutch Church in Kingston, New York. The Reformed Protestant congregation hung 49 rainbow flags along the railing of the church in tribute to the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting. The impact of the flags was three-fold for me: That while walking the perimeter of the church and passing each flag, I could sense the immensity of loss of life; That there was a pervasive sense of solidarity of members of one community supporting … [Read more...]