Tag: Terry Gross

HEART YOU: Inspired by Jason Reynolds

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adore this heart, formerly known as a shell, created at daughter’s awesome daycare

Super excited to learn that Jason Reynolds has been named Library of Congress’ current ambassador for young people. Inspired by an interview that I overheard, featuring him, this morning on NPR – I’m gonna share some how-to-be-YOU basics. Reynolds reignited my sense of purpose, describing that his mother nurtured his love of writing and that he hopes to do the same for other young people. His mother, he noted something like,

 

“she told me that my stories mattered because they were mine.”

 

HOW TO BE YOU, WITHOUT TRYING (TOO) HARD: 

(Excerpt from Reframe Your Artistry, by Jessica Honig, Prodigy Gold Books, 2020)

Look outside of yourself. Notice the natural plus not-so-natural state of the things. Gather what you notice from your unique angles on life and the world. There is no wrong way to find inspiration in this way. Jot down notes for future inspiration:

 

The Natural World Around Me –

 

The Not-So-Natural World Around Me –

 

My Imagination –

 

True artists construct from whatever angles exist, with whatever materials spread out within and before them. In true artistry, the true part involves recognizing then piecing together the artistic angles. Angles spring from personal experiences (thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations), the world around us, and our imaginary universe.

Some artists prefer one of these angles more than others. Their work reflects this. Some vary between the angles and some flow seamlessly between all three. Take Wendy Whelan’s flow, for example. This longstanding principal dancer with New York City Ballet is also the subject of the documentary Restless Creature. In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, from 2017, Whelan was asked how she felt about embodying the “ballerina” and if for her, like the stereotype, fulfilling this role resembled ultimate femininity.

Whelan responded to Gross’s (brilliant, piercing) probe by saying her own traits as tall, thin, and athletic filtered into the work she produced. Her personal traits brought an angular influence to the art. Therefore, she concluded to hardly relate to feminine stereotypes. This stance evolved based on self-knowledge and the art world in which she practiced. This gifted artist has maintained an awareness of mind, body, and imaginary worlds to deliver art for over thirty years. At 51, Whelan continues to make art – after retirement from ballet, a major hip surgery, and with no less tenacity than her 17 year-old self. The art just looks different and has different intentions. Her roles demanded and continue to demand a high caliber of physical and mental awareness.

Without calling it that, mindfulness integrated her personal being alongside what choreographers, culture, and the rest of the universe asked of her. Even if you’re not a former ballerina type (and for the sake of biodiversity, I hope not), I want you to get clear about what personal and worldly and imaginary traits define your true artistry.

Do you tend to get inspired by your emotional states? Your physical structure? Your age? Your neighborhood? Your memory of childhood? Or, the invented kingdom sensed in your belly that, as you told your shrink, you figured everybody else probably had that too (um, yeah – that’s a personal reveal)?

I prefer the imaginary places. Maybe that is apparent to you after reading my philosophical blah blah blahs. My mind longs to go to places to which neither plane nor train can transport. I imagine kindness as a core currency and what makes us different makes us beautiful. Thoughts of global compassion fire me up. Imperfection is sexy. And I hope these angles come through as distinct elements of my art making.

Those elements are true to me and therefore belong to my true art making. Every artist will be different, as will every artistic moment or decade in a true artist’s life. But what makes mindful art original is the awareness of the creator to be able to identify their personal, community, worldly, and imaginary sources. With such awareness, narrow aesthetic values inherently erode. They are replaced by broader options, because no two people, no two places, no two moments in time could ever be the same.

 

GO ON, HEART YOURSELF…REFLECT IN SOLITUDE, OR I DOUBLE-DOG-DARE YOU TO SHARE YOUR ARTISTIC SOURCES WITH US IN THE COMMENTS SECTION.

by honigjq

Terry Gross is my Copilot

As a kid, I operated a radio talk show out of my bathroom. It was the best place for privacy and moments all about me. With my pants down to my ankles, I entered this imaginary world of interviewing. I was the subject and I was also the host.

How did that bike ride go?

Tremendous, freeing, fa la la la la, and then a kid went by me on a yellow bike a little faster. So, I went faster. Oops-a-daisy, I fell.

Did you get back up?

Yes

Wow, I’m so impressed. How did you do that?

I’m super strong and smart.

Anyhow, you get the point. I had a side project on the toilet. Isn’t that normal? Don’t answer. Regardless, I credit those moments with the beginnings of my career as a therapist. I love what I do, mostly because I am so curious about what motivates us as humans and what keeps us going. I especially love this way of thinking when applied to the artistic process.

Yesterday, I had a banner of a day because I happened to drive into the office listening to Terry Gross hosting Fresh Air, and I managed to drive home listening to the same episode during its evening re-air. NPR is an acquired taste, so I don’t expect everyone to know what I’m talking about. In short, Fresh Air is a radio talk show that features the best and newest subjects, showcasing whatever it is these fascinating humans do. Similar to an ideal memoir, Gross finds a way to angle in so that the audience receives the essence of the subject, and I think sometimes, in such an unassuming way that we learn more than maybe Gross (or maybe I) had anticipated.

And, while I pretend that she reminds me of my kid self on the toilet – getting to the heart of the matter to inspire – now, I listen to be both entertained and schooled in a master class on conversing throughout the onion layers.

As I listen to the timbre of Gross’s voice, my body lights up. She’s steady, wonderfully present, and capable of timing that question for Stephen Colbert or Jake Tapper, just as she asks a question about their own sense of timing.

She’s a mindful wizard. And I think I admire her most because she appears so comfortable with who she is that we are blessed to bear witness to authentic energy bringing out authenticity in others.

I believe that the brightest among us allow the rest of humanity to shine more brightly.

Driving home last night, I turned the dial back to my local NPR. Good, I thought, this is the interview I wanted to hear again. W. Kamau Bell was talking about a latest project he’s glistening the world with. It’s on geneology. He said something like he was told growing up he wasn’t as black as others and when his 73% to the average 75% African came back to him in a report, he thought that explained it all. Gross warmly chimed in with something like, that’s just margin of error. And Bell bantered back with a delicious response on how, rather, that two percent validates his whole developmental narrative.

I laughed as I listened. Somehow, the show took me to a higher consciousness, once again. What I gathered then, most importantly, is something beyond a skill: I learned about the humanity of others, and because I remain the center of my own universe too often, I learned about my own.

Part of me could reach out and hug Bell, thanks to Gross. His blackness, maybe like my jewishness, has its overlaps. Blond haired, small nosed, parents interfaith with the occasional Christmas tree, I was often told I wasn’t jewish enough. But, in the United Shades we live in, those things that make us feel different – a little darker, a little less christian, a little off trend, make us stand out. In that moment, Fresh Air did what I revere art may sometimes do best, it connected fragmented parts into a new beautiful whole. Someone’s life, quite different from my own, reached out and touched me, hugged me really.

It’s a gift of shared humanity that Gross gives us, and I am lucky to have her company – her guidance, really – as I drive to and from work.

Beyond boxes and percentages, I think of the only word I know to be true of me: relativist. Despite that point of view, I cannot help thinking I better understood a truth last evening: it is certain that Terry Gross has a talent for opening up both subject and audience, and the broader world.

As a kid, bathroom time was my sacred space where I could close a door, get away from broader stimulation, and have a heart to heart. Now I close my car door, drive, and trust someone else will ask the important questions.

by honigjq