The shapes of creative containers
The shapes of creative containers
Protecting our gratitude, attention, and practice
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As I prepare for a season of dedicated work time with others, I find myself resistant to the weekly output of the newsletter format. I find myself desiring weeks or months of complete privacy with no public synthesis to chew on or share.
My book proposal stares back at me and the long form writing I miss looms above the frequency of the newsletter.
I love the container, what a gift of a job, what a gift to frame my whole week around. And yet I wonder how it fragments my attention - to think in essays, to think in public essay form, to think in - how might this benefit the reader? How might this benefit me to think about in a deeper way?
I do love the devotion of sitting down on Mondays, to offering up what comes to me, I called Holly to lament about the feeling of being noise amongst the noise. And while I know this is a true feeling I can have with any medium - book writing, quilt making, dancing, etc - I consider what it might feel like to pause, to wade longer in the cold water of thought before shaping it into the thing for the reader.
Sometimes I skip a Monday though and it’s like my whole week doesn’t make as much sense. I remember a friend asking once - do you ever dance and not record it? Not really, I replied. What if there was a weekly essay no one saw? Now I dance in the kitchen and no one sees. No one sees the kitchen and no one sees me, and that feels uncomfortable. To be seen brings a level of purpose and brings me a sense of discipline, if it’s just for me will I do it?
February is quiet, my family is visiting, and I find myself being less and less scared of the deep alone, the sweet unseen, and the sweet protection of my space and time and energy. I notice the burden of output yet I stay grateful for the container I have crafted for my work, and I become curious about how the containers can shift.
Last night when Beyonce won the most Grammys of anyone who has ever won Grammys she paused and said - I want to thank God for protecting me. Thank you, God. My self protection - of my friendships, my creative practice, my career, my home, my relationships, are not just up to me - they are up to god and the protection I am granted by seeking conscious contact.
May each shape I make be protected, may those who no longer fit into the shapes I craft be seamlessly let go of, may the containers that no longer serve my work shift, may prayers run effortlessly through my fingertips
FLEXIBLE OFFICE WINTER/SPRING SESSION
THE GREAT ANYWHERE OFFICE : JOIN ME TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS WE START TOMORROW!
ADMIN TUESDAYS + DEEP WORK THURSDAYS
Yesterday I hosted a special visioning session that was recorded - when you sign up for Flexible Office you have access to it forever! Up on the home page now
Sign ups will remain open through the end of this week <3
Flexible Office is sliding scale and there are a handful of scholarships, email info@marleegrace.space xo
Quilter, organizer, artist, and AQISH alum Saylem Celeste is organizing this quilt raffle for the Angel House in Detroit :
The King Street Community and its host of revolutionaries are located in the North End neighborhood of Detroit. The community has come together to provide a deeply integrated network of support and care; Co-owning communal garden space and homes on the block, sharing home preservation skills to maintain the overall health of the block, and generally supporting each other as
neighbors in their individual and collective pursuits in art, music, carpentry, activism and more. The King Street Community is also the home of The Joy Project.
The Angel House at 999 King St. is a collectively owned home that the King Street Community is transforming into an artist residency and art studio. This will be one of a few community ran artist hubs in Detroit, and in solidarity, this quilt raffle (no.2) is for Angel House.
Amazing installment of Dear Polly that hits home for me on the continued path of healing codependency and the religions we build out of people instead of God
ICYMI - Friday Thread for paid subscribers
This necklace by Rachel Saunders and jewellery designer Hleziphansi Zita of Nandi Naya
Yumi Sakugawa reminding me I will not be surveiled, I will not be controlled, I will be my own full expansive self
Virginia Woolf’s Idea of Privacy / The New Yorker
Check out Liz’s spring classes
Beautiful workshop from my friend E Wolff at Room Project in Detroit
WORKSHOP: Writing from Our Queer Bodies
2/26 at 2 p.m.
IRL at Room ProjectJoin Shira’s next In Surreal Life this April
This song
A portion of February’s paid subscriptions goes towards the Dancing through Prison Walls Fundraising Campaign : also stay tuned for special edition prints to raise even more funds
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Read the newest installment of Yes Yes my monthly advice column : the comment section is really special, grateful to the readers for their thoughtful reflections