Black people since the end of the Civil War were searching for an aesthetic. They're searching for an aesthetic that will free them of minstrelsy, freedom of the burden of minstrelsy, freedom of the degradation of minstrelsy. What emerges from that is a form called the "Blues" and it's a very useful form. It's elastic. You can do a lot with it because it's simple.
-- Gerald Early, Jazz
The blues is about sculpting meaning out of a situation that seems to defy you're being able to find meaning in it.
-- Gerald Early, Jazz
(Jazz) is America's music. Born out of a million American negotiations; between having and not having; between happy and sad; country and city; between black and white; and men and women; between the old Africa and the old Europe, that could only have happened in an entirely new world. It is an improvisational art, making itself up as it goes along, just like the country that gave it birth.
-- Jazz
The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not "get over" the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to.
-- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
... I have learned that emotions are energy in motion. And it's important that I feel the full range of my humanity. And anger that is processed becomes strength and motivation.
-- Ashley Judd
Often when people talk with me about having brain fog when they're bereaved, it's like they think they're damaged. You're not damaged. Your brain is simply busy trying to help you. But you need to help it as well by giving it awareness and self-compassion.
Just listening to music activates more brain regions simultaneously than any other human activity.
-- Alexander Pantelyat, M.D. Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine
Two nights ago, I attended the latest edition of Hope College's Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series, featuring novelist Tsering Yangzom Lama and poet/memoirist Shane McCrae.
Last night, I attended an event featuring author/educator Dana VanderLugt and poet/retired professor Jack Ridl at Hope College. The two engaged in an on-stage conversation about VanderLugt's new book, Enemies in the Orchard.
... language is a form of power. It creates categories that help us interpret the world, and that which is not easily available in language is often ignored in thought itself. A shared vocabulary makes ideas more accessible while a lack of language can render an experience illegible. It can isolate.
-- Angela Chen, Ace, p. 17
I think all creative people, you get something in your head, and then you have to figure out how to express it. And I feel like that's the best way to understand what it's like to be an artist.
