I listen to a ton of podcasts on creativity - there are so many great ones to choose from.
I recently had the honor of being interviewed by Meg Kissack of That Hummingbird Life in the UK. The episode on her Couragemakers podcast is entitled "Rediscovering Your Creativity and Being Yourself." Our conversation went deep in a way that surprised me. I felt healed by it and the effects reverberated for days. Because Meg is an earnest interviewer. She's funny in all the right ways. And she's dedicated to creativity and the promotion of courageous voices...
In this episode, one of the most important things we talk about is:
Real and not-so-shiny creativity:
So much of what we see on the web these days has a shine and gleam to it.
That's not the nitty gritty of the artist's life that I know. Why do we feel we have to represent ourselves in this way? And many of us (myself included) aren't so good at throwing up that shiny veneer. But are the less-than-shiny ones less deserving of having a voice? Of course not! And what if the less-than-shiny have even more to say?
The great Brazilian author and educator Paulo Freire said:
"The multitudes are always wrong."
What does being shiny have to do with creativity anyway? Let's not be led astray by it. Let's affirm that being ourselves is more than enough. I think this conversation is WAY overdue.
It's a conversation that includes classism, racism, sexism, and the privilege of what our society calls being (classically) beautiful.
I will talk more about this in future blogs, and please feel free to add your own comments below.
Also in this podcast:
How vulnerability can be your strength.
How life is so much richer when you say yes to your creativity.
The loneliness that often comes with being an artist and not fitting in.
How you must keep going and give the world what only you have to give.
Meg's presence inspired me to reach deep and speak honestly about being an artist and entrepreneur.
Bonus: Most importantly, if you listen until the end you'll witness a visitation from a monarch butterfly.
It was a moment of amazing synchronicity.
When the natural world shows up like this, it's always a sign of magic.
Here's the link:
https://www.thathummingbirdlife.com/podcast-episode/nina-hart/
And a quote, just for you:
“If I could go back, I'd coach myself. I'd be the woman who taught me how to stand up, how to want things, how to ask for them. I'd be the woman who says, your mind, your imagination, they are everything. Look how beautiful. You deserve to sit at the table. The radiance falls on all of us.”
― Lidia Yuknavitch, The Chronology of Water