As the final author in Creative Generation’s “Holding Tensions” series as part of our Campaign 2022: Building Creative Futures, I have the distinct pleasure of summarizing an incredible amount of ideas.
Read moreHOLDING TENSIONS Blog: Embracing the FAIL
A failure may be deemed as something that didn’t go as planned, have a non-desired outcome, or be something tried that simply didn’t work. Some failures may even result in negative repercussions. They may cause us surprise, embarrassment, frustration and all kinds of unwanted feelings. They should be avoided at all costs- right?
Read moreHOLDING TENSIONS: Consultant-Ethnographer, A Nuanced Approach to Working with Organizations and Beyond
As a former educator-turned-project manager at Creative Generation, I hold the tension of currently working in a professional role that my former teacher colleagues (and myself) were often so skeptical of. In this post, I explore how Jill Schinberg’s consultant-ethnographer (CE) framework helps me balance this divergent experience, wherein Creative Generation’s objective to be in co-creation with our collaborators is actualized as we “understand, document, and interpret” important contextual information to successfully see projects through with integrity and care.
Read moreHOLDING TENSIONS: On Being a Creative and an Academic
I have always been a scholar and a poet. I won my first award for poetry in the 4th grade. I remember my algebra teacher in high school scolding me for writing poetry in the margin of my math notes. It made perfect sense to me. I wrote poems about mathematical concepts to draw connections and define terms. She reprimanded me. Freshman year of college I left the private art school where I was enrolled because I felt my scholarly appetite was not being fed. I remember writing poems to explain my emerging epistemological stances during my doctoral program. Yet, when I went to my community open mic where I was born and raised as a young poet, the language of academe felt ill placed peeking through my stanzas. I remember wondering what was happening to my voice as a poet.
Read moreHOLDING TENSIONS: Let's Be Normal
When I moved to Seattle, from Brooklyn, NY, I knew that I would face some significant differences, but I thought I was ready for it. I was hired as the Executive Director of a beloved arts education organization, serving mostly low income, BIPOC youth in south Seattle and on the southern border of Seattle. Leaving NYC, under the leadership of multiple individuals that didn’t connect with their staff, I vowed to do the exact opposite of them. I wanted to make communal decisions, understand differing perspectives, bring joy into the workday, and, most importantly, trust the staff. This worked well…until it didn’t.
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