The role of the artist
On making the revolution irresistible
Dear reader,
This last week the news of the world and the elements of my life brought me to my knees in hopelessness when I remembered the words of Toni Cade Bambara : The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.
I knew I had to make a detour toward hope, and I knew it had to be in actions. I knew it couldn't shift in my brain without making something, doing something, being a part of something or there would be no entry point for change. I could sit in despair, self pity, and fear or I could make art and shape it in a way that is of direct service to others.
My dear friend Hannah is here in the North helping her mom, local artist and hippy socialite extraordinaire Beth Bricker, through cancer treatments and the community put together a huge and successful fundraiser. I added a quilt to the mix, one my dearly departed friend Anne helped me vision at the Gee’s Bend Quilt Retreat.
It was so beautiful to see that much hope in the room and in the gallery and in our small town orbit. Over fifty artists adding their work to the show, The Center Gallery exhibit will be open Wednesday-Sunday from 11 am-5 pm until June 26 if you’re visiting the Leelanau Peninsula I highly recommend going (Plus you can buy my quilt and I have never had a quilt for sale before so get it now! Or respond to this email if you’re interested)
I picked up the book Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone this week per the rec of
and immediately devoured the first half and sprang into action, finishing my quilt for the fundraiser, hosting a raffle, and creating a free toolkit for ways to become more radical in your business.I am happy to report that all these things brought me off of my knees and back into the world. Collectively as a readership the raffle raised $3345.3 for The Sameer Project which provides tents for Palestinians in Rafah. The Weaving in Our Values free toolkit has been downloaded by over 875 people and I look forward to seeing the ways you all radicalize more in your private and public lives.
Raffle postcards will be sent out this week and our banner winner is Lauren Giambrone :)
This is the irresistibility. The feeling of bringing our art into the actions that these times demand of us. I think of all the protests and actions happening everywhere and how they are all sprinkled with art. Spray painted banners, art making at the student encampments, the hand written yard sign in my hometown of Cedar that says Gaza children are starving.
There are endless ways to knit together our values, our art, and our business. These things don’t have to be separate. As Bear Hebert reminds me - commerce is not the same as capitalism. I can and will sell my services and work so I may keep my job as well as use that job to be a beacon of light in times of darkness. As an artist I will protect my time and attention so that I am resourced enough to make work to donate, to raffle, to auction, and to give away.
I ask myself, what am I willing to lose? Income, subscribers, and friends are all on this list. And while that is painful, the revolution my comrades and friends have created is where I want to be headed. Not backwards, not stagnant, but forward arm in arm.
I will keep my classes as accessible as possible so that many hands may join in. I will make sure to pray on my knees, a place of despair and gratitude, so that I may rise again with fortitude for the long road of activism and mobilization.
I do this imperfectly, I do this with the waves of my cycle, the waves of my mood, the waves of my personal life. I look past the binary not just in my gender but in everything that I touch, everything that I do.
Speaking truth to form is one way to step up, but there are so many more ways to put actions together to make a change. The changes can be small, the tiniest move is still a move. As I wrote in October, May the option of freezing rapidly dissolve.
May the option of freezing rapidly dissolve
The Michigan state motto is If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you. Look about you today, look to what resources you already have. Remember that art making strengthens our creative attention and our energetic capacities. Resist psychic death. Bring everything together.
You are needed, we need you! Melding your work and life and practice together doesn’t mean that you have no separation between personal and public, it just means you have many places of entry into the process of adding your voice to the chorus that says : This is too much.
THE SHAPES OF OUR OFFERINGS
A three week class for building ecosystems for creativity and ease between projects
SAT JUNE 8, 15, AND 22 WITH BONUS CO-WORKING / QUESTION SESSIONS
We start THIS SATURDAY! Prepare to map out your own creative ecosystem and develop hope practices for a better world, a better business, and a better art practice.
MAPS! NOTION TEMPLATES! VERY FUN ZOOM! SERIOUS TALKS! SPACIOUS CONTAINERS! TALKING ABOUT MONEY! MARKETING AS A CREATIVE PRACTICE! PIVOTING WITHIN THE CONTAINERS WE CREATE!
In mapping out our ecosystems, our practices, our play, our systems, and our rituals - we will find ways to make money and to be of service at the same time. These do not have to be inextricable, in fact the more we weave them together the better our work is and the better off the world is.
The support of the group is undeniable, and I am so thrilled to facilitate and host this group for the second year in a row. Can’t make it live? No worries, all sessions are recorded with lifetime access.
Payment plans and scholarships available on the sales page
Sliding scale spots available : email info@codycookparrott.com
Tomorrow June 4 at the Leland Library in Northern Michigan at 10am I am giving a talk with
on the digital divide in publishing. Molly is an amazing novelist and we’ll both share our experiences with the publishing industry and writing books. It’s free come hang out with us!Sunday June 9 1-5pm I am hosting a free Open Studio at my studio in downtown Cedar with my amazing studio mate Meg Staley. We’ll have snacks and bubble water and it’s a little garage sale and I will have my books for sale and it will be a nice day. On the way to the beach 9027 S Kasson St Cedar, MI 49651
Looking for a perfect 90’s gay movie to watch? Look no further than The Living End : Luke is a restless and reckless drifter and Jon is a relatively timid and pessimistic film critic. Both are gay and HIV positive. After an unconventional meeting, and after Luke kills a homophobic police officer, they go on a road trip with the motto "Fuck everything."
Kehlani really brought us gay and Free Palestine in one hell of a music video
For any Station 19 heads out there - Maya and Carina are really TV’s greatest couple if I do say so myself and I am sad this TV show has ended
There is a new Bonny Doon song out today which basically means its a national holiday and everything is a little better
Reading : Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
I liked listening to this
I am enjoying writing prayers every single day over at
The words of my dear soulmate
⌇⋰ Website
⌇⋰ Email : info@codycookparrott.com
⌇⋰ P.O. Box 252 Cedar, MI 49621
Thank you again, Cody. It was serendipitous to read this right after watching Patti Smith's latest video; she's reading from Just Kids about the internal conflict she felt making art during the Vietnam War.
“What was the point of creating art? For whom? Are we animating God?”
One of your best