Creative Inspiration – August/September 2023
Friends! We’re starting a new monthly series where people in the IndieSpace family share something that has been inspiring, nourishing, and/or creatively fulfilling.
It’s important to share the things that sustain and spark with one another.
These days I am sitting in the inspiration and joy and sadness of the last show at The New Ohio. It was super great to be in the audience with so many indie theater makers - absolute classics - and supporters of the work. Robert and The New Ohio have left a lasting mark on our community. I could feel the energy and love towards him and towards all the incredible work that has been created in the walls he has stewarded. I felt its spirit and the spirit of our community and it's been motivating and has kept me inspired these last couple of weeks. I took a few photos that night to share with everyone who couldn’t be there.
- Randi Berry
Sometimes, I realize that I am seeking an answer to a question that I haven’t even articulated to myself yet. When that happens, I like to read experts in non-theatre discipline’s creative or speculative writing on the world, their expertise, or creativity.
While reading The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, & Dreams Deferred by astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinsten, I read a line in the forward that took my breath away. It is a quote from Lena Blackmon’s poem “quantum distributions for Sarah Baartman”.
we the black bodies understand each other at visible frequencies
without a dissection or death—which is to say witness
us the black bodies rejoice to become mortals again because
here is what is true:
a black body radiator be in thermodynamic equilibrium which is to say
a black body be at rest yes let the black bodies rest
I still don’t know what is the exact question that my body is asking, but I think reading this poem got me closer to an answer.
You can purchase The Disorder Comos here and/or read “quantum distributions for Sarah Baartman” here.
- Veshonte Brown
My day/month always improves when I receive a monthly Substack newsletter curated by Vesna Jaksic Lowe. It’s called Immigrant Strong. It is a collection of writing about immigrant and refugee life—the struggles, triumphs, and quirks—by immigrants and refugees, and children of immigrants and refugees.
It consistently provides stories, essays, and writing that nourishes my creativity and emotions. Each month I find something that is inspirational, something that makes me cry and go for a walk around the block to process, and something that expands my understanding of the immigrant/refugee experience.
The only downside of this newsletter is that I have been purchasing books penned by some of the folks featured in it. And my pile of books to read is FAR OUTPACING my ability to carve out time to read.
You can subscribe to it here – it comes out once a month. Or read the latest issue from July here.
- Justin Clark (I help the IndieSpace team with digital communications and website updates)