A Morning Offering

From Minneapolis---Community,Art, Courage. Ways to live, survive, thrive in this madness.

As I tap this out, Mad Man Rump has taken us into a war with Iran, a spiral into chaos. No good will come from this—no good was intended.

A friend , a Vietnam Vet himself, has a son deployed in Qatar, on one of the largest of the USA military bases in the region. His son has shared the accuracy of the strikes from Iran, taking out a $500 million radar system first strike, hitting command bunkers. They are under constant attack. His son—is under constant attack.

We—USA top leaders in military and power—learned nothing from Vietnam.

Now what?

I offer resources and examples—.

First—a ritual of gathering and caring from one of my heros, adrienne maree brown.

Second, an affirmation and encouragement to support, experience, enjoy living arts. They are essential resources as we navigate through this mad maelstrom. Not “frosting on the cake”. They are the body of the cake, the soul is nourished.

First—

It is Our Turn to Carry the World

by adrienne maree brown

a community safety ritual: write down or bring to mind the names of those you commit to protecting, specific names, and targeted groups of people. it can be a long list or a short one, it just needs to be a true commitment for you.

(—I suggest—read this out loud—)

it is our turn to carry the world

we are each other’s safety

right now, and every day

decide who you will protect

yourself, your own and who else

it’s time to cover all that we love

land, creature, place, person

intertwine your roots with mine

in this way our lives become miracles

there will be strangers

they will become comrades

we will each say our needs

we will learn to let community come closer

every part of us is a shield

our words, our trust, our hearts

our bodies in action

and the freedom to think for ourselves

we are the adaptation

no oppressor can imagine

our love is water – form-shifting power, river, vapor, life

we flood each other with belonging

we are building our stamina

we dream of the real world

we carry god, and see god, in each of our faces

your holiness is not too heavy, not for me

our attention and courage

show us the next stand to take

the next hill on which to hold each other

and if needed, the next hiding place: survive!

our imagination and memory

find the wisdom of our ancestors

find our future in the rubble

find the seeds in our songs

we choose our freedom

we keep each other’s souls intact

safer than any cage of empire

we know something better is coming

we are each other’s safety

we see each other’s freest selves

we will hold on tight, in public, in private

over and underground

and we will never let go

we will never let go

we will never let go

we will never let go

now take this and memorize it —write it-– this is your spell of community safety. when you have it in your tongue and bones, bury it into dirt you love so the earth holds this commitment with you, with us. Burn it a FIRE, so the flames take it into the world.

Explore adriennes works here

https://adriennemareebrown.net/

adrienne maree brown (she/they) is growing a garden of healing ideas. Informed by decades of movement facilitation, somatics, science fiction scholarship and doula work, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Loving Correction as ideas and practices for transformation.

Second—

I encourage you to experience, support, join in, living arts. Sing with others. Support small dance, theater, music, spoken word poets, write, share that with others, any and all that is local, personal—in person. Creation is an act or resistance and survival—and your own thriving. This is a way to nurture yourself and strengthen community.

Consider this—

Agape Movement Writing Circle Creates Space for Healing Near George Floyd Square

A biweekly creative writing circle hosted by the Agape Movement , led by Marquise Bowie, near George Floyd Square is offering Minneapolis residents a space for healing, reflection, and community care through shared storytelling.

Every other Tuesday, just steps away from George Perry Floyd Square at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, a group of people gathers around tables with notebooks and pens. Some arrive unsure of what they will write, but by the end of the evening, many leave with lighter thoughts.

This Tuesday evening gathering is local, in person, welcoming and on a site of great pain —George Floyd Square, now a site of commitment to community. Agape’s mission—which Marquise lives each hour and which the Healing Writing group he leads makes real—

Turn Street Energy Into Community Energy

—the work goes on—5 years after Geroge Floyd was murdered, still now in the ICE Occupation (winding down—still here)

and this—

Art Not As Distraction—But As Witness

Courageous Imagination—What is Created —What Is Imagined

From conversations hosted by the Playwrights Center come insights from people and organizations active as creative forces in shaping the resistance. Minnesota has a long history of valuing and building a civil society—AND—the arts, cultural ecosystem is a key force in that.

Do Not Let Fear shrink your Imagination.

Here are some significant insights:

1. The arts-culture communities are sources of relationships, ideas, people, places, networks, that support, launched and now sustain the creative resistance.

2. This capacity was built over decades of private, city,state and foundation investment in arts and cultural organizations.

3. These investments in arts and cultural work were valuable beyond measure, resulting in networks of collaboration and trust—and practices in public actions.

4. Lessons from the Uprising following George Floyd’s murder in 2020 were applied. These included networks of community care, healing stations, food and resources voluntarily gathered and shared, citizen street patrols. Volunteer led organizing with clear and flexible leadership (no one carries the load all the time)

5. Place matters—the Minneapolis resistance has place specific roots—a street, a corner, a neighborhood, a school, a cafe, a park. People felt and saw their home, their neighborhood was violated. Big ideas—”save democracy!”—are realized in people taking action, bodies in action——one person with another.

6. Place matters—conceptual space, historical space, political space. The occupation —and the Regime—wants to shrink spaces—to narrow the possible. Theater and arts organizations --the Creative Resistance —opened up spaces—ideas, imagination, stories, joy and grief, dance, music,—expanding the possible now—and the possible futures.

7. Many theaters, arts organizations, have for decades had a core value for justice, social good, in mission statements, in practices and programs. They acted from their these core strengths and commitments—with muscles built over years.

8. The resilience to state oppression by Dakota,Lakota, Ojibwa are constant sources of inspiration, practices, ideas. Especially the foundation of relationships.

Relationships are the foundation of resistance and of creation . The Big Lie is that we are all separate—that life is always each one for their self—others are to be used.

The arts are living explorations of relationships. Messy. Vital. Experienced.

Arts and cultural work is the living embodiment of the truth to that Big Lie.

Warnings from the Creative Resistance

There is no final destination—this is forever work of imagination and creation, of action, witnessing, naming, seeing clearly what is—and what must be—that will Never be complete. This is what it is to be alive— to be a citizen in this nation in this time. To be a human—always becoming—never complete—always creating.

Creation and Resistance cannot be commodified, sold, scaled up and remain vital. It is essential local and specific—even as we know we are part of larger forces and concerns.

Buy the tee shirt, the pin, the hat, the flag.

Do Not Mistake that for Action.

Image of the Loon, Minnesota state bird (yes—it is)projected on historic water tower. Loon rising, guided by the North Star. This is Public Art-Community Sharing .