You tell me. Is this conversation between myself and my muse or 2 kids at the school I work at?

“Hey, can I pull you on the wagon down the street?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know!”

“Okay sure!”

I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity—

What it is not: A burden, a sentence to a lonely and tortured existence, isolationism, perfectionism, doubt, a curse or hex, a cross or dagger, a promise, a regret, a fear.

What it is: that moment when the idea is aware of me before I am of it. As if it could lift off and suddenly birth itself if I just flew with it.

—and I’ve been thinking a lot about the trope of the “tortured artist.” I think the more it gets normalized and passed around, the more people will put art on the shelf and think it isn’t for them. Because they aren’t putting themselves through pain for it. Because they aren’t trying to be making “enough” money off of it, or any. Because they aren’t good. Because they’re “too old” or “too young” or they don’t look or talk “right.”

But. But! There are as many tropes for artists as there are people. I think we’re all born knowing this and SDE is a movement for helping kids retain their own inner voice that guides, the artist who crafts the world around them with curiosity. One way to find out what your artist trope is is by saying “okay sure” to whatever wagons come up without knowing why. 

DESCHOOLING: What I mention at the end here is a healing process folks talk about as “deschooling” and if you’re not familiar but want to be, check out the Raising Free People Network’s deschooling dictionary! Also check out the podcast, led by Akilah Richards, which is focused on inclusive personal and collective liberation practices for parents, educators, and adults and specifically centers BIPOC voices on their podcast and other media. Check out the podcast here!