Homelessness is Not NormalThis is a TEDx talk very worth twelve minutes of your time. Israel Bayer, Executive Director of Street Roots, walks us through an overarching history of homelessness, provides some personal stories, and boils it down to the specifics of what can be done. (It's not that hard. Really.)
Yours in the struggle - Carla
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Typography. One of the first courses I had to take for my graphic design certification (complete in just a couple weeks!) through the Parsons School of Design, of New York's The New School. I knew nothing about the subject, and certainly did not have the faintest idea that I was about to discover a completely new, great love that would blossom into embracing the art of book design. Not just the cover, but what lies between as well. Computers are great and necessary tools, and digital skills a must in my line of work. But I do fret about the devolution of hands-on, nuts-and-bolts, pen-and-paper ways of functioning. Imagine my surprise upon learning that the first assignment for this on-line course was to watch an hour long documentary on the Gutenberg printing press! Better yet, as the course went on and we began to create, the wonderfully old-school instructor required that we sketch our designs, letter forms, posters, logos, etc. by hand before moving to the computer, and required us to scan our sketches to submit along with the digital renditions. Combine this with delving into the social and historical contexts in which various typefaces arose or were suppressed, and I was hooked. In case you're dying of curiosity... My first book design was done as a final project for the InDesign course. I saw an opportunity: I needed to design a book, and my cousin had been sitting on a collection of poetry that she had been wanting to self publish for some time. Poetry, especially, weds form and function. The cover art has to be right, of course. But inside is where the details become paramount. You want the right typeface to reflect the mood of the collection overall. Perhaps a straightforward, in-your-face sans serif boosting the power of the words, versus a gentler, easy-on the eye serif type for denser novels. Line breaks and punctuation and white space work together to construct a visual experience that will enhance how the reader hears the words and rhythms, pauses, pacing and cadences in the mind's ear.  Honoring the Writer while Providing for the Reader Since then, I have had the pleasure of designing three books professionally, with more on the way. One of these was a second edition redo of the inner pages; the other two were cover-to-cover jobs. What I especially love is getting a sense not just of the contents of the book, but of the writer: his/her personality, where the particular piece of work "came from" (e.g., was the inspiration life experience, a person they met or piece of history, or is it purely a creative endeavor (as if anything ever is)?), what resonates for the author in the book. That reveals what kind of feeling or experience the writer wants to give the reader. Often, after some brainstorming and going back and forth, the cover art that causes the author to shout, "That's it!" will answer these questions without me having to ask them out loud. The power of visuals is not just about selling, as some book designers will tell you, primarily aiming to design a cover that will "make buyers snatch it off the shelf." A book cover is not just an ad. Does the writer want the potential reader to feel wonder, or to be intrigued to solve a mystery or puzzle, or to feel drawn to the peace evoked by the cover? It is nonverbal communication that begins the experience for the reader before they've even opened the book.
Have a manuscript sitting on a shelf? A stash of brilliant poetry or short stories sitting shyly in a folder waiting for attention? Don't be afraid to give me a shout. There's almost nothing as delicious as the old "curl up with a good book." Except, maybe, designing one.
Yours in the struggle - Carla Follow this blog by using the Facebook button or RSS Feed over there on the right. Like/share this post... I was recently contacted by a young woman dreaming of starting her own business, put in touch with me by someone who knew I had recently done so with a decent amount of success. We had a good chat on the phone, but I was left feeling that I did not adequately get to the meat of the thing. This is for her, and any other dreamers out there. Those of you who have created and run your own show would undoubtedly have much to add. Twenty months after deciding to become my own boss, these Three Ps are what success boils down to: the Purpose that drives the work (mine and others'), the People I get to work with, and the Progress that I now devote my skills to supporting. Of course, anyone who runs their own business could add many more - planning, patience, persistence, positivity, prayer... But that's another post. Being one of those to whom Doing The Same Thing Every Day is a horrifying soul death, I developed a variety of skills and interests over nearly three decades of my adult work life. Coupled with being a big picture person, the strong desire to fill a perceived need, and wanting to make the world a better place, over time these skills and interests coalesced around communications. The Venn of Self Employment: Aim for the middle!  After years in the government as a health communications person, and as a health care provider and counselor before that, the need to be filled was clear. What I wished many times, was for the creator of that fact sheet or brochure or awareness-building poster or website to be able to 1) write specifically to the intended audience, 2) have the understanding of the data that needed to be included and possess the skill to present it in an accessible way, and 3) render it all graphically in a straightforward, eye-catching, user-friendly manner for print or web. In other words, a science to plain language translator with graphic skills. Who was pleasant to work with. This became my mission, and, now that I am about to complete the Parson's New School of Design graphic design certification, it is thrilling to be fully stepping into my Purpose. It is the opposite of the mythic midlife crisis. Build your dream and grow into it. Those words of a wise friend and client sum up these first couple years of Serenity Communications. Having arrived at the Purpose, the "who" quickly fell into place - i.e., the People and organizations I want to serve. In short, those working to make the world a better place through health, education, social justice, and the arts. All human needs and achievements, the roots of quality of life and Progress. Not only "do no harm", but promote good. The variety of clients and nature of the work has been fun, rewarding, interesting, and has diversified even further the audiences I now reach and types of people and organizations I work with. There are many unknowns when you step onto a new path, and we typically don't realize what treasures lie in those secret places. Imagine not only developing a new skill (graphic design, in my case), but discovering a totally unexpected love. Who knew book design would thrill me so - and I get paid to do it?! Being self-employed is not for everyone. Perhaps we are somewhere between "normal" people and artists, with their wonderfully extra large right brains and dreamy souls. We are creators, but creating to meet a need versus "art for the sake of art"; risk-takers, but tending to be somewhat practical and strategic in our risk-taking. But above all, there is nothing - nothing - like being your own boss. Yours in the struggle - Carla
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I've been wanting to do a whole review of this outstanding 2015 documentary, "Stargate Theatre: A Defining Act", but a head cold has me too impaired for any kind of deep analysis. And, I realize, this piece needs no words, really, it just needs to be shared.
A program of The Manhattan Theatre Club, Stargate Theatre worked with court-involved youth to create and perform their own original Off-Broadway play, Deeper Than Skin. The full play can be watched here, and is certainly worth it. However, as a performer myself as well as having worked with numerous young people facing intensely difficult and heartbreaking circumstances, I wish to share the documentary here. In addition to clips from the play, this "behind-the-scenes" view brings us into the discussions, processes, relationships and internal work required of all involved.
Worth one short hour of your time. Watch with friends, family, coworkers!
Yours in the struggle - Carla
Follow this blog by using the Facebook button or RSS Feed over there on the right. Like/share this post... Roots IILet's make this a sequel to my April post on the root causes of health and happiness. One of the most maddening and ignorant criticisms of the warranted uproar over unwarranted assaults on and killings of African Americans by police officers is, "But what about 'black on black' violence? More blacks are killed by blacks than by whites. See." I will not discuss here the problems with flippant use of the phrase "black on black violence," which should be immediately obvious. Numerous others have articulated this very well. Here's a good one: I'm not going to discuss the absurdity or transparency of attempts to change the topic from what amounts to state-sponsored terrorism against specific communities, Here's an excellent piece reflecting a conversation on this issue, and which gets to what I will discuss: I'm also not going to discuss the fact that most violence is intraracial, and crime data by race are easy enough to dig up, with white men contributing the greatest number of offenses. Yet who among us has ever used or heard the phrase "white on white violence?" African Americans are fully aware of the level of violence in many of our communities. But violence in the U.S. goes beyond numbers, beyond race. Whether it's school shootings, clinic shootings, neighborhood drug wars, domestic assaults, church bombings, etc., numbers are a weak and often dangerous tool for shedding light on cause. They are woefully overused to build argument as they cannot elucidate the deep, complex social, political, economic, psychological and other forces that apparently conflate in the brains of too many men (I would comfortably argue that the sex of those perpetuating violence is way more important than race). Picking up where FDR left offIf we honestly want to end the violence that feels almost endemic and epidemic in distressed communities, let's pick up where FDR left off, with that "Second Bill of Rights" or "Economic Bill of Rights." It needs some tweaking, but it would certainly be a start. I know I have company in never having heard of FDR's 1944 proposal until Senator Bernie Sanders' speech at Georgetown University. In his State of the Union, FDR laid out eight rights to provide a foundation of security and prosperity for all Americans. The full statement can be read here. I summarize those rights below in my own words, to make them more appropriate to the present day, at least in my mind:
I dream of adding to this list, such as the right to public transportation (think of the jobs to be created and the environmental benefits reaped by building the infrastructure to get people to those decent paying jobs). Is it such a stretch to imagine establishing these as rights in the U.S.? In "Should Black Lives Matter..." referenced above, Glenn Loury (Brown University economist) states,
Some will say "research needs to be done" to determine whether the availability of decent jobs with livable wages, decent housing, good schools and the opportunity for all youth to go to college would reduce violence in distressed communities. But picture how much stress would be alleviated from those communities already, through the immediate improvements to where people live, work, grow, and learn. Think of how the psychological and economic demand for drugs would shrink. How possibilities would open up for youth. Aside from this being a matter of justice, bringing quality housing, education, and health care into everyone's daily life, not just those who can pay for them is the practical thing to do, and it is sustainable. What we have going on now is not. What we have now is insanely expensive by any measure and is only hurrying us down a path of real instability as a nation. But that racism problemA massive root cause left unaddressed by the Economic Bill of Rights, of course, is racism and other forms of prejudice. In this very interesting campaign year, various candidates keep talking about "addressing institutionalized racism." Being biracial and coming from a terrifically multi-ethnic family, and having seen from birth what a social construct "race" is, I honestly do not know what can be done about racism. It is utterly irrational, and I cannot consider it anything but one of the most severe and insidious mental disorders of the human mind.
Senator Hillary Clinton, speaking with Black Lives Matter members, stated vigorously, "I don't believe you change hearts." That level of cynicism in someone promoting herself as a leader horrified me. We have seen clear evidence to the contrary through how same-sex marriage evolved from being a major battle to nearly a shoo-in in many states once it reached the ballot. We elected our first African American President, we have a Latina on the Supreme Court, and the two major Democratic Presidential candidates for 2016 are a Jewish man and a woman. We have seen massive changes in American hearts and minds in recent years. In order to enact the changes we are overdue for, to bring equality and equity to all, we have to change hearts and minds. We have to see that we are all better off - even the top 1% - when we are all respected, healthy, contributing positively to our families and our society, and seeing our children dream, knowing there's the possibility of that dream being realized. Yours in the struggle - Carla Follow this blog by using the Facebook button or RSS Feed over there on the right. Like/share this post... A few years ago I found myself in a room with my colleagues who were working on teen pregnancy prevention. We were discussing strategies with leadership in the agency. Despite our attempts to get them to see that this is a highly complex issue requiring a spectrum of approaches, they kept pressing us for "the silver bullet" - the One Thing that would make the biggest difference. A certain type of birth control, or involve parents, or engage males in the issue, etc... After a brief silence (we were all out of words), I said, "Make college free for all young people." It pretty much ended the conversation.
So we can imagine my excitement over the news that a bill is about to be introduced to Congress to make four year public colleges and universities tuition free. Wow: college accessible to all young (and not-so-young) people in the U.S. We can also imagine the hurdles such a concept will need to clear before becoming reality. But just entering into a national discussion about the root issue - not just reducing student debt - is like a fresh spring breeze. Hope. The Illinois prison system gets it.
Illinois recently passed two bills that should go far in encouraging non-violent offenders to pursue formal education:
Brace yourself.
Yours in the struggle - Carla Follow this blog by using the Facebook button or RSS Feed over there on the right.
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"Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
Pearl S. Buck
About a year ago, when I decided to create my own professional reality, I envisioned whom I wanted to serve, what entities I wanted to support. The tag line evolved: "Serving organizations that promote health, education, social justice and the arts." "The arts" fell into place naturally at the end of the line -- coming last not because it was an afterthought, but because it was an obvious completion to a list of those elements that I see as key to the well-being of people, communities, and society overall. Health, education and social justice are basics that make us whole, the "food, shelter and clothing" of our stage of evolution. Creativity is integral to all of those, and in this time of Common Core thinking, we risk neglecting our Creative Core.
Creativity cannot be standardized. You cannot develop multiple choice test questions on creativity. There is no right or wrong to a person's poem, dance, musical composition, or painting. There is only the subjective reaction of the reader/listener/viewer. You cannot put rules around it, and there is nothing to memorize. Creativity can only be encouraged and grown, or it can be stifled.
Sure, we can judge whether a piece of music follows a certain chord progression, a poem follows prescribed rules of iambic pentameter, or a painting contains proper complementary colors. But creativity, by definition, exists to break such rules. Beethoven broke a long list of strictly adhered-to rules for classical music when he wrote his Third Symphony, received scathing criticism, and launched the Romantic period in Western classical music.
Imagine transferring these qualities to tackling our greatest challenges, bringing truly creative thinking to making health, education and social justice accessible to everyone, and to dealing with climate change. There is not much we can do about the greed and myopia of those in power. What we can do is change how we think, and open our minds to what we are told is impossible. What we are doing isn't working. Rather than sticking to the rules and continuing to do things because we've been led to believe nothing else is possible, we have to ask ourselves: What kind of society do we want? What kind of leadership to we want? Then reignite our creative core and build a new reality.
Reading Corner
The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies
An excellent report examines the academic and civic behavior outcomes of teenagers and young adults who have engaged deeply with the arts in or out of school. Arts Blog: Top 10 Reasons to Support the Arts Ammunition for arts advocates.
Rehabilitation Through The Arts
This is really worth the visit: a full-scale creative arts program operating in five men’s and women’s maximum- and medium-security correctional facilities in NY State, with theatre, dance, creative writing, voice and visual art. Using creative arts as a tool for social and cognitive transformation behind prison walls.
Yours in the struggle - Carla
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Those working at the community level know this. But for small nonprofits, health care providers, and others, the challenge remains in how to take on the root causes of problems in the communities and individuals they serve. The effects are obvious, every day, of inadequate housing, poor quality schools, distressed neighborhood environments, under- and unemployment, low wages, institutionalized and interpersonal racism, and more. My nonprofit colleagues frequently and loudly express their frustration at the lack of funding to do much more than what they may rightly feel is a bandaid approach to a problem, and with daunting requirements to show results, prove it was your one little program in this vast sea of influences that made the difference, bow to the almighty P value, measure the unmeasurable. This past week a number of stories caught my eye for their creative thinking, courage to take a sharp detour from the usual approaches, and incisiveness in getting at the root of the matter. Here are three of my favorites, shared in the hope that they will give inspiration and hope to anyone feeling that their work is hopeless and capabilities inadequate. Believe me, I've been there. 1. This one's personal. My husband and I are currently assisting a local organization here in Rockland, Maine, that is preparing to launch a Weekend Backpack Program to reduce food insecurity. About half our county's schoolchildren qualify for free or reduced-price school lunch - in one school it's over 70%. During the week they get fed at school. However, the kids often show up dragging on Monday, have trouble staying alert in class, sometimes get disruptive, etc. Grades can suffer. The Weekend Backpack Program - already operating in other Maine communities - entails a food pantry working directly with the school to provide each eligible child with a backpack of food for them and their family, to take home on Friday. (I will reserve more detail on this until the big launch.) This is a perfect example of a social determinant of health (actually two) being addressed: Are a child's grades slipping? Let's address her family's hunger/food insecurity. Participating children, families and teachers have been thrilled with the program, and we're very excited to be helping get it going in our home town. Results have been tremendous -- ah, but how does something like this get measured? The program can count how many children and families are served, they can measure iron levels, or even track school performance, using control children (e.g., well-fed and unfed ones not in the program) checking the almighty P value to make sure it wasn't just by chance that a fed child did better than an undernourished one... How do you measure the unmeasurable? How do you demonstrate those qualitative, positive ripple effects -- the pride a child feels in helping his family eat, the awareness that others care, the reduced worry over when her next meal or snack will be, or - and I suspect this is a big one - the relief for parents? Not being able to feed your children is a primal horror, and the effects of chronic stress on children's cognitive and social development are well known. For this reason, gathering those statements, testimonies from the people benefitting directly from and those witnessing the program (e.g., volunteers and teachers stuffing backpacks with food) are key. If possible, in-depth interviews can further get at the more subtle, though no less powerful, aspects of the impact a program might have. Package the statements, deliver them to the public and potential donors and funders in a powerful way. My other two favorites of the week - and I will just provide the links, as they speak for themselves. Both of these intrigue me, because they likely go a long way in addressing inner social determinants - the need for the opportunity to learn, for others to believe in you, and for companionship. Powerful stuff, and whether it passes that P value test or not, it makes common sense and is simply the right thing to do. Do read on... 2. A different approach to juvenile detention in New Mexico 3. Elders and college students - fellow nursing home residents Next time: the arts. Yours in the struggle - Carla Follow this blog by using the Facebook button or RSS Feed over there on the right.
Like/share this post... "Buy ice and fry it." A Bajan saying, meaning to waste money. A beautiful example of the delightful perspicuity of West Indian vernacular, the richness of which is perhaps unparalleled in the English-speaking world. Too much ice is fried in the worlds of public health, education, and social services. "Fried ice" also represents a phase shift, as ice becomes liquid becomes steam, as more energy is absorbed. As new energy - new funding, new staff, partners, information, or new thinking - become available to social justice-oriented organizations, or to an artist, a phase shift can occur, resulting in expansion, greater potential energy, greater force. Two sides of a coin. An irresistible title for this blog, which I intend to be a discussion forum on what works in communications, and in addressing or at least mitigating the root causes of those many areas my clients, other nonprofits, educators and similar entities and individuals work daily to address. By "what works" I mean expanding our thinking and opening our eyes to what lies beyond the usual lists of "best practices" and "evidence-based" approaches. Those approaches we know in our hearts are right, that we see have the desired effect with the people and communities we serve, that are holistic, that make common sense, and that can be very difficult to measure and "prove." Watch here for
I hope you will follow on Facebook, or by using the RSS Feed over there on the right (note: Google Chrome is apparently a disaster with RSS feeds, but other browsers seem to work fine). Or just bookmark it and check back! I am looking forward to your comments (of course trolls will be noticed and removed), and if you have a request for a topic or wish to write a piece, just let me know! Do spread the word! Yours in the Struggle - Carla Like/share this post...
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AuthorCarla is a dancer, writer, observer, spouse, sister, daughter, aunt, friend, expatriated New Yorker turned Maine-iac, and warrior for a saner world. For less interesting details, check her out on LinkedIn. Archives
May 2016
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