Precious the Gift: A Short Film by Rene Sing Brooks

As in nature, a diverse system or community, where each member has the opportunity to contribute to its overall success, is one that is potentially more robust, vibrant and resilient.

Last year, I interviewed John Maney (Connections: An Interview With John Maney, Jr...) about the writing and poetry workshops he conducts. During those sessions, he creates a safe space for those who have often lacked the ability or opportunity to give voice to their experiences. In so doing. . .helping them to capture and share their diverse, but often marginalized, perspectives.

This desire and ability to include rather than exclude is indeed a precious gift artists share with us every day.

Therefore, I am very pleased and excited to present here, this brief film, an artistic collaboration between Queens micro-filmmaker Rene Sing and Bronx poet/writer John Maney, giving us an additional peek into John's creative process.

Enjoy!

Connections: An Interview With John Maney, Jr. - Poet & Creative Writing Workshop Leader

In nature, bio-diverse systems tend to be more productive, robust and resilient. Each element contributes to the system’s overall success, as do the web of relationships that exist between those elements.  This phenomenon is mirrored in human networks or communities, which are also strengthened when they are diverse, and where members feel respected and valued for their contributions.

In this inaugural Connections conversation, I sat down with Bronx poet, John Maney, Jr. John conducts creative writing and poetry workshops with those who often lack opportunities to develop their creative voice and to share and contribute their perspectives and experiences with others.  Read on to learn how creative writing has helped John’s students connect with themselves as well as their wider communities, enriching their lives as well as his own. 

You conduct writing workshops. What kind of writing do you teach and why?
John Maney, Jr.: I teach creative writing, because I love it, and want to nurture this in others.

What types of communities do you work with?
Maney: Well, I work with all kinds of communities. I’ve worked with the formally incarcerated. I’ve also done work with recovering heroin addicts. And of course, I’ve conducted workshops for the general public.

How did you come to work with these communities?
Maney: I’d been studying writing, attending workshops, and sending things in for publication, while at the same time volunteering to work with the less privileged. It was in one my favorite writing workshops put on by Cave Canem that I met Angeli Rasbury. She worked as a Creative Writing Workshop Leader for an organization called the New York Writers Coalition. This organization had a social justice bent, and offered workshops for people who normally wouldn’t have access to them. Angeli suggested I apply. I did, and was accepted. Some of my previous work was with the formally incarcerated. I requested the Coalition help me start a workshop with this community. My first workshop was at the Fortune Society, an organization dedicated to giving formally incarcerated people a chance to turn their lives around. I wanted to be part of this by helping validate their stories, and thereby them as human beings.

Wow! It sounds like taking a creative writing might not be at the top of the list for members of some of the groups you’ve worked with! How have they responded to taking your workshop?
Maney: Of course the effect of my workshops varies depending on each individual. It’s true many participants never thought of themselves as writers, until workshop prompts awakened something in them that required a written response. Crafting that response in a non-judgmental, nurturing workshop environment, helped many participants realize they had important things to say. This in turn made them realize, maybe for the first time in a long time, that they were important. And so, writing took on a new significance for them. I still stay in contact with several previous participants, and often find they continue to write. It appears once people discover they have a voice, it’s very hard to shut them up. If my workshops have done nothing else, I’m pleased to know they’ve done this for at least some in the ignored, under-served communities I’ve often worked in.

Why do you feel it is important for members of the communities you’ve worked with to learn to write creatively?
Maney: It’s my belief that everyone has a story to tell, and in having people listen they’re validated as human beings. The communities I’ve often worked with whether ex-cons, or recovering junkies as society likes to refer to them, are comprised of people whose stories are often minimized if heard at all. I feel the work I do helps people tap into their stories, and tell them in a more effective way.

We’ve talked about why you’ve chosen to work with certain communities, but do you feel you get something in return from teaching creative writing in those communities?
Maney: This is a good question. To tell the truth sometimes I think I get more out of my workshops than other participants. I of course write along with them. The play of thought and emotion that comes from writing with others can be very inspiring. Designing the workshop also gets my creative flames burning, as I think about who may be attending, then design prompts to capture their imaginations. So in addition to writing, I must listen to the words and hearts of those who to write with me, and respond creatively. This causes me to be creative on several levels. It’s truly an enriching experience.

How do you feel this creative exchange might enhance or alter how we all experience the world?
Maney: Hearing other people’s stories, (their pain and struggles, their dreams) helps us see better how we’re all connected. Once we see that then the next step is learning to care. Once we care, then maybe we’ll start to change things for the better.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us here at With Intent!  Do you have any workshops or projects coming up that you’d like to share with our readers?
Maney: Yes. I'll be conducting a new Saturday creative writing workshop series entitled "Finding Your Poetic Voice" starting February 22nd, through April 5th, 2014.  We’ll be meeting from 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm at the Kingsbridge Library in the Bronx, NY (291 West 231st Street).
 

~~~~

John Maney, Jr is a poet and creative writing workshop leader.
He has been published in several anthologies and magazines. You 
can connect with him at jmaneyjr@gmail.com or his 
website maneywords.

A Night at the Theater: Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and What it Teaches Us About Living With Intent

The Tempest: Public Works/Public Theater
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

Last summer, a friend invited my partner and I to see him in a production of The Tempest (shout out to Patrick Mattieu in the role of Gonzalo!) at the Delacourte Theater. While tickets to the Delacourte are free, you still have to enter a lottery to get them so we were quite excited to actually be picked. This production was part of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park series as well as their inaugural Public Works initiative.

Entertaining

Now, I had attended performances at the Public Theater before, but little did I know the treat that lay in store for me this time. In his welcoming remarks to the audience, Oskar Eustis, the Public’s artistic director, promised that before the night was over, no fewer than 250 people would stand or move across the stage.  Well, he definitely delivered on that promise! What followed, under a beautiful summer night’s sky, was 100 minutes of pure magical, whimsical delight.  This production took its inspiration from a staging of Caliban by the Yellow Sands, conceived and staged as a mass-participation pageant by poet Percy MacKaye in the early 1900’s at Harlem’s Lewisohn Stadium.

Community Building

The Tempest attained an exquisite vibrancy, reflective of the diversity that is New York City, by intentionally including an exciting mix of

• community organizations located in neighborhoods across the city's five boroughs who work with populations that are under-served or considered to be marginalized
• experienced, professional actors, novices and the non-experienced (three members of the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance made a brief appearance!)
• the very young and the "seasoned"
• colorful costumes
• cultural and ethnic influences
• dance & musical traditions such as hiphop, ballet, mariachi, pop and more

And, I assure you that it was all artfully orchestrated by Lear DeBessonet in her Public Theater directorial debut.

An Act of Intent

What’s any of this got to do with living with intent?

As discussed in Building Blocks of Intent: Part 2, the arts are a source of delight and a welcome interlude from the inevitable stresses of daily living.  From that standpoint alone, this production worked marvelously, and therefore moves us towards a lifestyle grounded in intent.

However when we consider the Public's founding principles as stated by Eustis in the program notes:

“. . .theater and democracy are inseparable. . .” and “. . .Joe Papp [founder of the Public Theater (1967)] believed that the best theater in the world—the greatest playwright, the greatest actors—belonged to all Americans and should be available free of charge."  Further ". . .in order to complete the democratic theatrical circuit, it was not enough to offer great plays to New Yorkers, he needed to put the voices of those New Yorkers on stage”.

as well as the following

“Art is an experience, not a commodity; art like life, is a set of relationships, not an object . . .” and it was “. . .hoped this production of The Tempest embodie[d] those truths.” [emphasis added]

we can begin to see how the intentional emphasis placed on creating opportunities for diverse, community participation and engagement— both as part of the theater's overarching mission as well as the specific goal of this production— are consistent with core values of permaculture and therefore an intentional lifestyle. Additionally, describing art as a set of relationships also aligns the creative process, its participants and its output with those same values.

It is this combination of factors that make the Public's production of The Tempest an excellent example of the role art can play in a life of intent.

Changing Your Intent

 

 Support the Arts: What You Can Do Now!

1. Attend a local cultural program or event, volunteer with or donate to a community arts organization in your neighborhood. Your local paper is an excellent place to start to checking out what's going on near you.


2. Giving the gift of the arts is also a lovely way to express your appreciation of friends and loved ones. You'll be creating experiences and memories that last a lifetime, don't take up space (except in your heart and mind), and never have to be exchanged or discarded.


3. If you've created, attended, or participated in a cultural event or program or plan to do so soon, drop me a comment here, or start a discussion on the With Intent Facebook or Google+ pages.

Three More Building Blocks: Spirituality, Philanthropy, Arts & Culture

In last month’s five-part “Living With Intent” series, we looked at three underlying philosophies for creating an eco-intentional lifestyle: permaculture, cradle-to-cradle and feng shui. Then, last week we looked at three basic building blocks you could use to expand on that foundation and begin creating your own unique approach to living with intent. This week we’ll look at the remaining three (spirituality, philanthropy and arts & culture).

1. Spirituality

Let me be very clear in saying that it is not my intent to prescribe, in any way, the manner in which anyone chooses to pursue his or her spirituality. Whether that ends up being through formal religious affiliation and worship of whatever denomination, or one’s own personal practices or observances, that is best left up to each individual to decide.

However, what I do want to emphasize is the need to realize and understand that there are consequences to the actions we take, and we need to give them our mindful consideration, as much as possible. A spiritual base helps us to do that by infusing our thoughts and actions with a sense of moral respect and regard for the wellbeing of others and the world around us.  When coupled with an impulse towards service, you have a very powerful tool for building a life of intent.

2. Philanthropy

Philanthropy can be thought of as the material manifestation of one’s spirituality.  Unlike organizations in the private sector, consider the almost impossibly, contradictory imperatives under which non-profits (and more recently, social enterprises) typically operate:

1. they address problems (both locally and globally) of often staggering magnitude or dimension, such as the alleviation of conditions associated with issues like poverty, the environment or injustice, to name just a few
2. as a result they have limited discretion in the selection or make-up of the "markets" they serve, as dictated by their underlying missions
3. particularly in the case of non-profits, they have relatively modest or uncertain sources of revenue, without benefit of market driven forces to ensure their ongoing viability, in order to meet the first two challenges!

Non-profits and social enterprises are often at the forefront of building, repairing and sustaining community. Therefore, supporting them affirmatively acknowledges and makes tangible the spiritual principles by which we aspire to live, and is an inherent act of intent. 

3. Arts & Culture

Finally, we come to arts & culture. Now, you may not have previously thought about the arts as being particularly green or sustainable, but they are an extremely important component of eco-intentionality. For one thing, cultural organizations and institutions are themselves often structured as non-profits or social enterprises, the significance of which we just looked at in the preceding section.

Additionally, as I have continually pointed out, economic health (see Center for an Urban Future’s "Creative New York", 2005) plays a critical role in a community’s vibrancy and resiliency, and the arts deliver that in spades. Earlier this spring the Municipal Arts Society’s (MAS) hosted Arts Forum: Building Resilience Through the Arts.  MAS President, Vin Cipolla noted in his remarks that

Arts and culture unite communities—they provide the glue that brings neighbors together and are a key ingredient in the recipe of neighborhood pride, cohesion, economic activity and vibrancy,”  and that artists regularly “. . .cross disciplines, foster neighborhood growth, activate creativity and engage in social activism,”

You can view video of the full panel discussion here.

But most importantly, as McDonough & Braungart have also noted (see Living With Intent - Part 3: Cradle-to-Cradle), deprivation and austerity only get you so far.  Such an approach has little to offer in the way of long-term motivation or incentive for most people.  The artist, on the other hand, provides society with beauty and delight, which are far better incentives for keeping people happily engaged with the world around them.  Additionally, the unique perspectives that artists bring to living can also offer creative solutions to the persistent problems and challenges we face.  For this reason, more than anything else, I believe arts & culture to be as green a tool as any we might typically think of as such, when it comes to creating a life of intent.

The arts are truly the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down!