How to Practice Freedom
DeColonizing Ourselves Via Creativity
Do we dare to write our truths? Or to make things that speak to our truths? Do we have a hard time scheduling time in our studios or at our desks? These are signs that we have been colonized.
I was raised by 2 tyrants at war with each other. No democracy, we had a top down system, a hierarchy. 2 warring states, and I was enlisted to soldier for both sides. Eventually partitioned into divorce, I travelled between 2 countries at the mercy of 2 completely different sets of laws commanded to serve each. I was rarely given a vote, and then only over the trivial. The irony of choice instead of real choice in constant conflict.
While this Substack is not a political space per se, I am a political person. I didn't take on the name Emma Goldman-Sherman randomly. Emma Goldman was once known as the most dangerous woman in the U.S. She was a pacifist and an anarchist. She was raised by a violent stepfather in a tyrannical home against which she rebelled. She tried to decolonize herself and all the people around her. Often arrested and eventually deported, she spoke out for peace, unionized labor and sexual freedom in a land that does not and has never valued or allowed much free speech unless you're speaking from and to maintain the status quo.
We are living in a time of enormous upheaval. Many of us react as bodies. I have a hard time stomaching the times. I struggle to literally take in what is happening. I can't digest it. Because it's toxic. But I'm here to discuss writing and all forms of creativity and how these lead to wholeness, even now.
Writing and art are ways through all of this. How we learn to trust ourselves. How we learn to see reality for what it is, aware of our own subjectivity, from our personal points of view. This is a radical act. If we can't accept what is, we can't begin to see it for what it is or figure out how to really change it.
Are we are afraid of what we might find in ourselves if we look? Are we conditioned to keep our mouths shut, our true feelings hidden, and our truths denied? Who does this serve?
When those first attempts to speak our truths come out, we often judge them as irrelevant or unimportant. We diminish our early drafts about our grandmother's jam. We decide to stop. Or we don't decide, we just don't persevere. We don't preserve the past. We don't preserve our present. We live in the loud silence of what we might have done.
We often tell ourselves we're no good, or the work isn't good. We go back inside our shell to hide. Yes, I do this too.
I believe that your story about your grandmother's jam is political. You are preserving a piece of your history that would have been lost in the middle of a time when our lives are supposedly not mattering, in a time when we are supposed to accept this, and be silent. You are preserving your response to your own history. You are documenting whether through fiction or fact how you live. And it's real and it actually matters.
Whatever is coming out of you matters. It might not be its final form. It often takes me many drafts and much time, but I want to leave a wake and a wave.
I want to inspire people to dare to write the things they are afraid to write. Start with grandmother’s jam. Start with whatever you find within yourself as spark.
I want us all to step into our roles as leaders, speakers, persons who know we matter. I want us to take up our pens or paints to discover our voices, to respond to living right now. May our memories be for a revolution.
art by Scott Sherman at ScottShermanStudio on Instagram
Writing Prompt:
My Grandmother's Jam... pick a grandmother or any ancestor you feel some affinity for (or dislike works too - any strong feeling of connection or disconnection works) and make a list of what they loved (hate works too).
What was their jam? What did they do or make or talk about or want or obsess over or get upset about or feel passionately toward? What drove them? What's the story the family tells the most? What was it you connected to in them (or disliked/hated in them)?
What is/was the road between the two of you like? Is/was it a super-highway or a back-country path? What traveled between you? What messages got through? What was passed down?
How do you live today carrying those messages? How do you honor or toss what came through? Is there a tension in that? Is there a legacy burden? Is there (or was there) a way to free yourself or a way to commit yourself to this history? How?
Announcements:
Brave Space is a community that meets several times a week on Zoom. I’d love to add your announcements or events. LMK: Post a comment with a link or send me an email. This is read in 10 countries by almost 700 people! Please check below to see what your community members are doing! Support is important! Also I post a few deadlines for opportunities, like these below.
Work with Me, Here: Jenna Lourenco is looking for Autistic Theatre People for a study Examining Environmental & Cultural Challenges to Autistic Accessibility in Theatre Workspaces" through the end of October 2024:
On Zoom, August 12th: Jen Rudin offers ACTORS a free monthly Zoom chat here
Deadline July 31st horror audio scripts! More here
Deadline August 15th! The International Human Rights Art Festival seeks performance work (plays, self-produced). Submit Here
Brave Space Schedule:
Brave Space is a pay-what-you-can ($5-20/session) or don’t-pay-if-you-can’t offering of support for writers and artists to create in a generative space. With Sharing Salons for what you generate!
We begin with an embodiment practice and prompts that meet you wherever you are. We create for an hour with chat support and a discussion about the process of creating.
2x/month there are Sharing Salons where you can bring up to 10 minutes (about 1350 words) for sharing and nurturing feedback. 1x/week you can share after Brave Space in workshops for fast feedback for up to a page.
Brave Space supports female and afab nonbinary people, and 1x/week All Humans. Join us in person on zoom!
7/22 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/22 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/23 Tuesday 7pm ET Adv Brave Group Coaching 7/24 Wednesday 11am ET Adv Brave Group Coaching 7/24 Wednesday 7pm ET Brave Space for All Humans 7/25 Thursday 11am ET Brave Space w/wkshp 7/26 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/26 Friday 3pm ET Brave Sharing Salon 7/29 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/30 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/wkshp 7/30 Tuesday 7pm ET Adv Brave Group Coaching 7/31 Wednesday 11am ET Adv Brave Group Coaching 8/1 Wednesday 7pm ET Brave Space for All Humans 8/2 Thursday 12pm ET Brave Space 8/3 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space 8/5 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 8/6 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space w/wkshp 8/6 Tuesday 7pm ET Adv Brave Group Coaching 8/7 Wednesday 11am ET Adv Brave Group Coaching 8/7 Wednesday 7pm ET All Human Brave Space 8/8 Thursday 12pm ET Brave Space 8/9 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space
Thanks for an empowering and very validating post, Emma.
Exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you Emma!