Set Fire to Fear with Sean Ritch!

by Mary Dezember

Sean Ritch was born to perform.

I know this because I was there when he was born. I am Sean Ritch’s mom.

Sean was an active child—an extremely active child. As a toddler, he gave “speeches” in a mysterious baby language, then ran through the house.

And he enjoyed challenging the accepted norms, which at that time were called “Mom’s rules.”

Now a professional speaker, rapper, and high school teacher, Sean takes on the societal norms of fear and low self-esteem—often perpetuated by media and consumerism—and their detrimental effects by using activities and examples to encourage young adults to, as he states, “be themselves, be who they are, and go the whole way.”

Committed to helping young adults respect themselves and to love who they are, Sean helps young adults to challenge negativity with his positive, high-octane message of personal empowerment.

Unlocking Modern Mystery with Poet John Amen

By Mary Dezember

A man drags his secrets from dream to dream,

secrets that drag him through a hundred skins.

Anima says give them to me,

but she never takes them,

& I can’t just let them go.

—Amen, page 13

In John Amen’s fifth book of poetry, Illusion of an Overwhelm (NYQ Books, 2017), what comes across as a private mythology actually holds a host of community—that of the seeker holding onto the t-shirt hems of the lost.

Unlocking the symbols of John’s words is a venture into the modern mystery of our human resistance to climb over mental barriers, thus avoiding our larger and unrestrained selves.

Creativity with Edge, Intensity & Heart: The Poetry of Tim Staley

By Mary Dezember

Tim Staley creates poems that are edgy, intense and have heart.

In other words, his poems are like compassionate questioning humans…

…In particular, compassionate humans who are baffled by the mysteries of:

• How—with so many lives of those we love overlapping with our own life—can we maintain our individuality without sacrificing our humanity?

• If we have empathy, how do we protect our own vulnerabilities?

Writing poems with empathy is an edgy task that Tim takes on without inhibition. Tim’s poems are first an acceptance of the emotions of others as well as those of the persona, then a translation of those emotions into words, images and rhythm.

Commanding the Space of Inner Peace with Poet Deborah Turner

By Mary Dezember

In a slim book of poetry entitled Sweating It Out, author Deborah Turner spans establishing then commanding one’s own space in a world that closes in with demands for us to be other than we are.

Her images maneuver around the opponents of our court of life—those who want us to be what they want us to be. Her lyrics embrace the teammates and our personal hours of practice, determination and play that get us to the goal of being ourselves.

Upon opening the pages of Deborah’s just-released debut book Sweating It Out (Finishing Line Press, 2020), I expect to read poems filled with sports metaphors and stories.

While the sports metaphors are there, they are subtle. Instead, Deborah creates the unexpected—Sweating It Out is a book of meditative moments and epiphany.

Thus, while reading Sweating It Out, I find myself in a breath practice of meditation, self-empowerment, and inner peace.

Expressing Joy with Creativity & Jacques Dorier!

By Mary Dezember

When I am feeling blue, one thing I can count on to cheer me up is to visit the website of Jacques Dorier!

There you can see the beautiful sculptural art by Jacques. You can hear his jaunty music. And, you can see fun photos of exuberant Jacques.

Describing his creative life, he states that he is a “Jacques of all trades” in creativity.

He writes:

I alternate between different ways of expressing my creativity.

What These Tree Pods Hold—Gifts, Creativity and the Art of Erin Louise Gould at No Land

By Mary Dezember

In April 2017, Strangers Collective launched an art space on the Santa Fe Plaza called No Land. The space features solo and small group exhibitions by artists, writers and performers. Dedicated to those ready to take the next step in their careers, No Land gives artists the opportunity to develop and show full-fledged bodies of work. The space also houses a zine shop and library. It's located at 54 ½ E. San Francisco Street on the Santa Fe Plaza.

—Kyle Farrell, Alex Gill & Jordan Eddy
from the Strangers Collective website

When all that is received is a gift, all that you do is a gift, all that you make is a gift: every interaction becomes a gift. You become bonded with the world, committed to every being in a living, breathing, fluid reciprocal exchange.

Doesn’t that sound magnificent?

—Erin Louise Gould
from all that i have essay & poetry zine

No Land’s current exhibition—Erin Louise Gould’s art “All That I Have”—is a walk into the mysterious and abundant world of the Kentucky Coffeetree and the pods it creates. The exploration is simultaneously literal and symbolic—as viewers learn about this fascinating tree of steadfast resilience, we also connect with how Erin relates to the tree and its pods and discover that here is an invitation for us to view anew.

Seeing Nature for Its Purposeless Individuality

Erin’s is a look at another of Earth’s beings without definition: the tree with its creation of pods is beyond being a “resource” for human use and beyond serving us as metaphors for awareness about ourselves. The Kentucky Coffeetree, as Erin’s art shows us, defies both of those definitions.

Poetry & Risk—Margaret Randall & the Journey of a Creative Life

By Mary Dezember

Margaret Randall is the author of more than 150 books of poetry and prose.

Her memoir released this year, I Never Left Home: Poet, Feminist, Revolutionary, a memoir of time & place (Duke University Press) combines many of her artistic talents: her creative non-fiction story punctuated by a selection of her poems and photography.

A page-turner, it details her life-long social and revolutionary activism. Her “first overtly political mission”—smuggling diaphragms from Tangiers to Spain—was to aid poverty-stricken women, many of whom birthed a baby annually. She states:

Franco was in power, birth control was outlawed, and the sale or use of any device limiting procreation was punishable by death (66).

As I read her story, I follow a remarkable, exciting yet rugged trek of her personal life, social activism and abounding creativity, from New York City, to New Mexico, to Spain, back to New Mexico, back to New York City, then to Mexico, to Cuba, to Nicaragua, and back to New Mexico—and with visits to many additional countries.

I will highlight just a few of the markers of Margaret’s journey of creativity, interspersed with my related observations, as subheads, about the creative life:

Wander INTO Art with Elaine Ritchel—What a Trip!

By Mary Dezember

Visual art is much more than decoration. Art doesn’t have to be merely viewed. Art provides an experience. Elaine Ritchel knows how to engage us with that experience.

Unlike tours that place you as audience for show-and-tell about the collection, Elaine Ritchel of Santa Fe Art Tours guides you into an image for a true art trip.

By Mary Dezember

Conflict and Non-Violent Resolution

Creative writers know conflict is an essential ingredient for compelling stories. The conflict can be internal or external, and often, it is both. Internal conflict that leads to character development makes captivating stories.

The steps taken by the protagonist to resolve the conflict hones the story for audience engagement.

Typically, with strong stories, protagonists (the stars of their own show) struggle and grapple with the conflict. An example is protagonist “rabbinical student” Leo Finkle of the wonderful and wonder-filled story “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malumud.

Leo doesn’t want to see the truth about himself (that he doesn’t know how to love), and yet, because he wants to be authentic and effective as a rabbi and husband, he:

• faces himself with honesty and introspection;

• experiences an epiphany about himself;

• changes for the better;

• acts on a resolution.

Specifically, Leo decides he must let go his set ideas about love, risk the uncertainty, and practice loving others.

By Mary Dezember

Come, she says. Let’s look at the New Mexico night sky.

Outside, in the stillness, above us, breaking through the veil of the universe, shining dots of light—pinpricks in the luminous darkness, revealing the Creator’s existence behind it all, behind what we see, pushing through to reach us.

These are your memories, she says.

“They are stars,” I say.

Let’s use our imagination, she says, continuing:

What you see is the light that lasts, for the act in each moment of your abundant life is far behind what is left. What is left is what you remember.

The act, as is true with many of these stars, no longer exists. What we have is the brightness of that moment, of what was. The star might be gone, but its light reaches us, shining as if it were still there.