A Leader's Call to Radical Hospitality Graduate Commencement Speech

What a treat to return to my alma mater, Lincoln Christian University, to speak at the 71st ceremony....  An extra special treat because I was the first woman in their history to speak at commencement!   The speech is entitled A Leader's Call to Radical Hospitality (subtitle:  Lessons Learned from a dog named Lovee).      Dr. Green's  Introduction begins at 10:09 and the speech begins at 21:10 through 38:39.

Excerpt:

It seems as though we are at a juncture in human history where we must intentionally consider Francis Schaffer’s question of how shall we than live.   Our human tendency to categorize, connect with those like us, and to declare difference as not right but wrong has profound implications in an increasingly pluralist society.  This is our leadership challenge.  Drath (2001), a leadership scholar questioned “How can people who make sense of. . . the world from differing worldviews” work together? (p. 125).  How indeed?   By demonstrating hospitality we might create more welcoming spaces and orientation towards others.  

Now What: Living a Called Life Undergraduate Commencement Speech

What a treat to return to my alma mater, Lincoln Christian University, to speak at the 71st ceremony....  An extra special treat because I was the first woman in their history to speak at commencement!   The speech is entitled Now What:  Living a Called Life.  Dr. Green's  Introduction begins at 15:42 and the speech begins at 18:19 through 35:38

An excerpt:  

Now What: Living a Called Now what?  Indeed, this is an important question filling some with certainty and others with perhaps more questions than answers.  Why is this so?  Part of the Now What question is associated with this idea of Commencement which has a two-fold meaning.  On the one hand – it is a graduation celebration filled with hugs, photos, tears, and high fives and on the other hand, there’s this notion of commencing, to start or to begin.  Commencement, then, represents a transitional moment where we each must determine what our next course of action is once the celebration is over. 

Where were you in 1975-1979? Beware A Leader's Capacity to Lead

Some places fill your pores with a sense of memory, foreboding and wariness. Cheong Ek Genocide Memorial, located approximately 15 KM from Phnom Penh is one of many killing fields within Cambodia.  Tuol Sleng - Site 21 was a site of imprisonment, torture, and murder located in Phnom Penh.  Both are reminders of man's capacity to espouse a hateful rhetoric and afflict horrendous acts upon fellow citizens in the name of ethnicity, religion, profession, and political affiliation.  Male, female, young, old - no one was immune from being deemed an enemy of Cambodia and the Khmer regime.  Pol Pot came to power as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea giving rise to the Khmer regime.  For the Cambodian people this rise to power represented an onset of fear, terror, and genocide within the country.  The horrors of surviving this time period where between 1.5 and 2.5 million people are tortured and murdered affects a people, affects us all, really.    

Both sites have signs posted to remain quiet but the signs were unneccessary - my experience while there was of silence except for birds in the trees and chickens roaming the property.  Walking both sites evoked a seriousness and a sober-ness.  Watching others process, observe, react, cry, leave a room, turn away - somehow observing even in hindsight affects us individually and collectively.  I didn't take a lot of pictures at either site - both felt like sacred ground, like places to be still.  

The Memorial Buddhist Shupa at Cheong Ek is multiple stories high acrylic sides with the lowest level including clothes at the site, next levels include over 5000 human skulls, and the upper levels including other bones - all found at this killing field.   

Signs of beauty and life around the Killing Fields.

Tuol Sleng site...

Reflections

1975-1979 - Where were you?  What were you doing during these years?  I finished 8th grade and went to high school - meanwhile, seemingly a world away Pol Pot arose to power.   One account indicated that within 3 hours of taking power, people were being excised from Phnom Penh.    The horrors of surviving a time period where between 1.5 and 2.5 million people are tortured and murdered affects a people, affects us all really.   Only 40 years ago! We're not talking ancient history - within our lifetime!  I found myself concerned at how powerful a leader's ideologies are in influencing a nation to ill effect.   Some thoughts on leadership:      

A leaders's actions and communicated ideologies are derived from his or her deeply held values and worldview.

Those with horrific ideologies believe they are 'right' and represent what's 'good' for a country and her people.  

A authoritarian leader may ~seem~ as though they have the common good at the root of their message and eloquently communicate this sense manipulating people to believe they have people's best interests at heart. 

People (some) will follow and enact an authoritarian ideology focused on difference and perceived categories (nationality, ethnic, race, gender, profession, religion...).  For those who inflicted torture and who murdered, I wonder if afterwards in their life there was remorse, a sense of oh my gosh what have I done...

A regime's first act is to categorize, divide, and exclude people (those for the Regime, those who are not) and to communicate that division, always accompanied by secrecy, fear methods (imprisonment, torture, death), and destruction of cultural artifacts, those things that connect a people one to another.  

Once a regime and its methods get established, the system of abuse, torture, and murder instill a fear and a systematization that can be maintained for a while.

Regimes meticulously document their actions through record keeping, logbooks, and photographs.  There were rooms at Site 21 filled with photographs of those who were housed there. 

Time reveals the truth and extent of a leader's actions, but while it's happening it may be unclear the extent of the horror.  However - words are precursors to action and/or provide clues that we should be wary of (exclusion, boundary setting, hateful rhetoric, gross generalizations or categorizations), etc.

Hope.  Despite a horrific history and collective memories around that history, people trust again, they live a hopeful life, and can go on.   

References

Cheong Ek Genocide Memorial http://www.cekillingfield.org/index.php/en/

Tuol Sleng http://www.tuolsleng.com/

Time Magazine The Legacy of PolPot:  A Photographic Record of Mass Murder.  http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1948150_20http://www.tuolsleng.com/13738,00.html

Unfathomable Grief: Saying Goodbye to Aunt Gin

The Ecclesiastes (3:1, 2) writer noted the  temporality of our life on earth:  "There is a time for everything,     and a season for every activity under the heavens:    a time to be born and a time to die."  Some sayings I've heard said in relation to death:  

  • We all have to die sometime
  • The only sure thing in life is death and taxes
  • She won't have to suffer any more
  • God must have wanted her in heaven
  • It must have been her time

In our trying to comfort we might resort to these or other phrases thought to help and provide an expression of our understanding.  But let's be really real, for those who love a person and are left behind - there is grief, pain, and a sense of loss.  The only expression that really empathizes with those who are grieving:  Death sucks....  

What a difference a year makes.  In the last 10 months, we lost Uncle Bob and Saturday night we lost our beloved Aunt Gin.   My mother lost her brother-in-law and her baby sister.  My cousins Janet and Debbie lost their father and mother.  My brothers and I lost our Uncle Bob and Aunt Gin.  Death sucks....

Every year we would load up the car to travel to North Dakota and then Colorado to see Uncle Bob, Aunt Gin, and my cousins.  For Mom, this was nonnegotiable - she wanted to spend time with her sister and wanted us kids to know each other.  I heard often about how we're a small family - this is all the family we have.    Things I loved about our time together:

  • Gift of gab, ready conversationalists - We can talk about anything and everything.  And, if we really don't know what we're talking about, we talk about it anyway having a knack for cussing and discussing and a love for hanging out together.  My husband affectionately dubs our family "The Hemingway of BS" for the way we can speak 'authoritatively' about a topic we know nothing or little about.  When together, awkward silences simply  aren't a factor.  
  • Curious with a sense of humor - We love to laugh, poke fun, use sarcasm - laughter is a ready part of our time together.  We aren't exactly demure laughers either - we're loud when we're all together, each with a laugh that comes from the gut.  
  • Obsessive about good food!  - We're the kind of family who over Thanksgiving lunch is planning what to do with leftovers.  Mashed potatoes can be translated into potato pancakes.  Turkey can be BBQ'd.    We love to cook and eat together, share our favorite recipes, would probably punch in the throat a picky eater, and saw the importance of family saying a prayer and eating together. 
  • Good people - I claim this for us.  We're just down to earth, good, solid people.  Hard working, fun, and caring for others and our community.  

Aunt Gin had such a great smile - I loved her curiosity and peacefulness.  We could talk about anything and share a good laugh or sit in silence and be okay.  Yesterday - I cried and cried.  For one thing, she loved the Broncos (grin) and for another this deep sense of loss like I don't quite know what to do, as though something has come unmoored.  Often times when I would call Daddy - about half way through he would say, I thought I was talking to Virginia, he thought our voices were similar.  So many trips to Rocky Mountain National Park with Uncle Bob and Aunt Gin, cooking out, eating watermelon, thinking about food and time together.  I can't quite  get a grip around the idea that they are both now gone...  Death sucks. ...

To my beautiful cousins - no words come.  I don't know what to think or say.  This year has been difficult - I cannot get my mind around this and have no words for my grief.  Surrounding you with prayers, virtual hugs, and all the love I have.    Death sucks...

Uncle Bob used to bring watermelon every time I saw him.  For some reason, I associate Aunt Gin with pimiento cheese spread.  I wonder how often we said something like, "I could eat this whole thing"!  So to celebrate, I am making pimiento cheese spread:

  • 1 4-oz jar pimientos drained and chopped
  • 1/4 pound grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/4 pound grated Monterey Jack cheese
  • 1 tsp dry mustard
  • 2 TBS mayonnaise
  • 1 TBS white vinegar
  • Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together, eat with crackers, make a sandwich, or just dip your finger in and get a big scoop.

Our ritual when parting was a hug and a kiss and me saying:  I love you Aunt Gin.  Her reply:  I love you too honey.

I love you Aunt Gin.  Silence.  Death sucks.  And with this silence we are filled with unfathomable grief.  



Adieu Amano Bistro: Loss of a Third Space in South Phoenix

We don't quite know what to do with ourselves on Friday nights.  Our favorite locally owned restaurant has closed - "lost their lease" to make room for a parking lot.  OMG, when I read the Facebook announcement, I felt as though I were punched in the gut.   How many places do you go where an expressed goal is to 'treat you like family?'  Amano Bistro was one - established in 2004 by Eric and Kathy Bower at 16th Street/Baseline in south Phoenix - their vision and philosophy:  

“Offer tasty, honest Italian food using the freshest and finest of ingredients. . . do whatever it takes to provide a comfortable and memorable dining experience. . . treat you like family.”
— http://amanobistro.com/index.php?p=1_1

Jonny and I found Amano's when we moved in 2008, we were eager to find a locally owned place with good food, you know, a non-chain place to hang out.  After a time we moved from sitting at tables to hanging out at the bar where it was even more relaxing and fun.  At the end of a long work week, physically tired, maybe tired of it (work, people, responsibility, an endless list) - we would often say, let's go to Amano's for pizza, salad, and vino.    Sitting at the bar, we would eavesdrop, observe, hang out, listen to music, talk about food, travel, work, life, cool stuff, stupid stuff....oh yea, and eat good food.  It really didn't matter what the food was.  Food was secondary to hanging out in a welcoming place, seeing people we liked, and sharing in one another's lives. Somehow a night at Amano's enabled us to transcend the week and fatigue associated with it.  Amano's departure and our sense of grief is about a loss of community and connection.  Oldenburg's concept of Third Places offers an explanation why.  

Third Places

Ray Oldenburg is an urban sociologist who contrasted home and work places with what he called “third places” which essentially serve the community, are inclusive, and local (2001, pp. ix, 21).  A popularized Third Place was the Cheers bar depicted in the show by the same name.  Third places are purposeful in the way they bring people from disparate backgrounds together.  “When the good citizens of a community find places to spend pleasurable hours with one another for no specific or obvious purpose. . . there is purpose” (Oldenburg, 2001, p. ix).  The social aspects of informal public gathering spaces are purposeful and meaningful in and of themselves.   Third places contribute a space for exploration and in doing so provide meaning, contribute to a sense of belonging, and provide a release from daily responsibilities.  Characteristics of third places include:

Hospitable, inclusive, and diverse.  Anyone can come, participate, and join in.  Third places offer a cross-section of diverse people with potentially differing backgrounds, ages, concerns, etc.  Oldenburg (2001) described this inclusivity in terms of being a “leveler” because people are able to transcend their social roles and are generally accepted for themselves (pp. 24, 25). 

Neutralilty.  The Third Space is the host, all other participants are guests (Oldenburg, 2001, p. 22).  This distinction is significant with regard to social norms, expectations, and a sense of welcome experienced by those who enter.  

Social Norms.  Regulars, those who seem to know everybody, help to assimilate newcomers to the place including expectations, behavioral rules, andetiquette.  Some of this may happen overtly - grab your menu there or through observation - watching how people move within a space to see what they do.  In this sense, third places serve to unite a diverse set of people and coordinate their actions within a  place. 

Friendship and Camaraderie.  People come to third places because they want to, a context where the “fundamental motivation is neither personal advantage or civic duty” (Oldenburg, 2001, p. 26).  Camaraderie is the goal and conversation is the main activity.

Perspective.  Third places provide a home away from home, a place of experienced connectedness thus contributing to a sense of rootedness and belonging (Oldenburg, 2001, pp. 39, 40, 50-52). 

Play and Laughter.  A lack of scheduling, freedom from responsibility, and independence from the daily routine are all found in a third place thereby providing a place to hang out and simply be (Oldenburg, 2001, pp. 37, 45-48). 

Spiritual Tonic.   Participation in a third place (not home or work) serves to raise one’s spirits, make a person’s day, provides a release from duty and responsibility, and a breaking of monotony (Oldenburg, 2001, p. 55-58).  

Oldenburg noted, “Nothing contributes to one’s sense of belonging to a community as much as ‘membership’ in a third place” (p. xxiii). 

Oldenburg, R. (1999). The great good place: Cafés, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community. New York: Marlowe.  

Reflection

Upon arrival at Amano Bistro, people said hello, gave hugs, asked how you were, and shared a laugh.  This place oozed welcome and hospitality.  It was a a place where you could slough off your many roles and just be.  It truly was a Third Place in the sense that Oldenburg described.  Within a space decorated with local artist's works:  ready banter, a steady stream of regulars, chocolate pot de creme, and Eric's caramels further characterized our experiences.   We celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, shared meals with visiting friends and family, and truly looked forward to being there.  

Now it is gone and there is a vacuum in South Phoenix where chain restaurants tend to be the norm.   I know, I know - our economic and land ownership sensibilities often indicate that profit and land ownership can (should?) dictate the terms related to our decision making related to land use.  So it is that the owner of this property elected to turn the lot into a parking lot choosing not to renew Amano's lease.  I guess on solely economic terms perhaps this was a more financially viable option.  However, this decision has high social, cultural, and human costs in terms of community, relationships, and connections.  See, Amano's wasn't solely about transactional or functional eating - there's plenty of that to be had at McDonalds, Applebees or a plethora of other chain restaurants at 24th/Baseline.  Amano's was about friendship, family, relationship and community.  No parking lot regardless of the revenue generated can even come close to the relational toll this decision has enacted on our community.

So it is that we are filled with glorious memories and sad, grieving and experiencing a sense of loss.   Thank you Eric and Kathy for your vision and commitment to neighborhood and community - sharing food together was a wonderful experience contributory to our collective sense of purpose, meaning, and sense of connection to place.  Bless you in your future and all you do!  

Prioritizing Strategic Initiatives

As an output of a strategic planning process, organizations often can readily identify a long list of opportunities to improve or new things to consider that are then translated into possible strategic initiatives.  A challenge, then, is how to rank or prioritize the list.  I sometimes suffer what I affectionately describe as a desire to 'eat the elephant.'  

 Source:  Felix Andrews (Floybix) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

 Source:  Felix Andrews (Floybix) (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

Rarely does trying to do it all at once work.  We need a way to eat the elephant in manageable bites at a time to maximize organizational benefit while modulating costs, level of effort, and risk.  

Assumptions 

Some assumptions about strategic initiatives and their prioritization:

  • Prioritization is an informed and methodical questioning and decision making process.
  • Some strategic initiatives offer more benefit and/or are more strategic than others.
  • An organization cannot do all things immediately given available resources including people, $$, time, and/or other materials.
  • An organization and her people may experience fatigue from too many new initiatives at once.
  • There is more than one way to prioritize – key is to question, think, assess, and then put a plan in place.  
  • This process is scalable for organizational, department, program, or process level planning and prioritization.  

Variables to Consider

Generally, the relative value of any proposed strategic initiative can be assessed using a multi-variable framework that includes strategic, financial, business, human, social, and environmental value potential.  For any proposed initiative, ask: If implemented, what would the potential impact be in terms of each value category. 

Strategic Value = how well this initiative and its benefits are aligned with organizational mission and values including extending the reach of the organization to include new service areas, access to potential customers, etc.  

Financial Value = revenue  or other $$ directly derived from this initiative or has a possibility of contributing to lower costs and/or cost avoidance, etc. 

Business Value = related to process efficiencies or optimization, customer service, or service delivery.  

Human value (Internal) = improvement in work culture, communication, leadership, or other factors related to personnel learning and growth.

Social Value (external) = contributive to efficiently, effectively, and sustainably addressing a social problem or opportunity pertinent to the organization or its context.  

Environmental Value = contributive to sustainable environmental practices related to operations, production, or other initiatives.

Once you've evaluated each initiative to determine its relative value and/or impact, then assess each with regard to potential risk, vulnerability, or impact to business continuity.  

Business Risk Factor = the overall relative complexity of this initiative based on a number of factors including such factors as:

  • Level of effort (# of people required + $$ + Duration) in relation to other initiatives
  • Potential impact to multiple business critical information or other technology systems
  • Multiple divisional or organizational interfaces
  • Extensive programmatic or operational change
  • Potential impact to business continuity or related emergency response function or capacity
  • Vulnerability related to external customer perception or other system impacts

Sample Matrices to Support Decision Making and Documentation

It's important to have a matrix to capture your value assignments and decisions.  I tend to like simple approaches and have found that a matrix or table similar to the sample Strategic Initiative Prioritization matrix presented provides a useful and simply way to document the results of estimated value, risk, and relative ranking.  

The Effort/Impact Matrix and Cost/Benefit Matrices are examples of visual ways to assess strategic initiatives.  Sometimes it's helpful to have a visual way to plot results.  In both examples,

  • Little to No Effort or Low Cost with some impact or benefit may represent those Quick wins, those initiatives that contribute immediate value and/or benefit that should be done now.
  • Low Effort or Cost and High Impact or Benefit = High Value and should be prioritized as such
  • Significant effort or cost and low impact or benefit = Low Value and should be prioritized as such
  • High Effort and High Cost with Significant Impact or Benefit can be a bit trickier.  I tend to assign a high value designation and a higher risk given the significant organizational effort, duration, or costs.  

The sample risk assessment matrix I've included is okay - it's not exactly my favorite way to consider risk because it assumes an analysis of risk in relation to scenarios (thus the probability axis).  If I'm assisting with vulnerability assessments, emergency response planning, or business continuity planning - I'm more likely to use this matrix.  When doing strategic planning, I tend to use a relative range of 1-4 where 1 = low and 4 = high risk, based on the business risk categories identified or a list of categories based on discussion with the client.  

Slide4.JPG

Sample Process

Assuming you have a list of possible strategic initiatives:

1.  Determine your value categories.  Are there other value categories that should be considered or are not applicable for your organization or program?    

2.  Discuss and define low/high values or or other criteria for assigning a low/high value for each category.    I often use a 1-4 ranking where 1 = low value and 4 = high or one of the matrices presented.  

3.  Discuss and define business risk categories including what defines a low/high value for each category.  

4.  Analyze each strategic initiative for each Value Category and then for business risk.   It's not uncommon for the first few efforts to result in a refinement of analysis criteria.  One thing I like to do is have each person on the analysis team do this task independently, then come together to discuss.  This discussion is a great way to learn biases, assumptions, concerns, and values within the team.  Disparity in value or risk assignment provides an opportunity to discuss difference and to determine why or how the differences exist.   

5.  Document your analysis.  In a 3 to 5 year plan, remembering what the process was and why certain decisions were made can fade or be affected by a sort of revisionist history (grin).  A few bullet points here or there can be helpful when confronted with a What were we thinking moment. 

6.  Calculate the Total Value and then assign a ranking based on results.    Rarely do I recommend accepting the ranking at face value.  Instead, I do a sanity check with the team to see if it 'reads right' meaning - does the ranking seem correct based on the team's perception of organizational need.  Are there any surprises?  Is there anything about the ranking that seems out of sync or inconsistent with operational concerns?  

7.  Consider conducting a workshop with those responsible for implementation where the strategic initiatives are presented.  Then give each person 3 to 5 votes to vote for their top initiatives that they feel if implemented would have the largest impact on operations or organizational mission.  The # of votes varies depending on the number of initiatives.  I've used colored dots, #1-X to denote votes.  One good way to facilitate this is to have all the initiatives presented on posters, have each person vote, and then visually you have a pretty easy way to see priority.   Depending on the scope of participation, I've had work groups discuss and prioritize (when there are multiple work groups in the room).  If there are disparities in priority, this can be a great opportunity to discuss differences or if the implementors priorities are different than the original assessment (#6) - then it's important to understand the differences between the two groups.  

8.  Following this meeting, the analysis team should meet to discuss results of workshop and to revise (if appropriate) the table and finalize the ranking.  

This simplified discussion of strategic initiative prioritization hopefully provides some useful considerations for prioritizing strategic initiatives. This is one of my favorite parts of strategic planning because of the If This, Then what type questioning which I find so much FUN!   

  

Leadership Studies Academic Program Design Tips

Newsflash:  I am a faux academic.  Yep, my initial foray into academia was adjunct teaching followed by an investigation into the feasibility of offering a doctoral degree at Johnson University (then Johnson Bible College).  In 2008, JU asked me to explore the possibility of offering a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies.  Part of this analysis included a desktop review of 97 universities who offered a PhD or DMin in Leadership Studies or related degrees.  An outcome of this process include my understanding of a Leadership Studies Academic Program Design Framework depicted in Figure 1 followed by a discussion of each element. 

Figure 1:  Academic Program Design Framework

Figure 1:  Academic Program Design Framework

Leadership studies theoretical framework – Clearly define what you mean by leadership studies.  Few colleges or universities published their definition of leadership studies on their website.  Some underlying biases and assumptions were revealed when examining the program description, organizational placement and the required curriculum.  However, leadership studies as a field of study would benefit from more intentional defining of the term.  Practically, your definition of leadership studies and associated biases and assumptions about the topic influences every facet of your program design including purpose, curriculum, goals, and objectives.  Through conscious and deliberate definition and understanding you lay the baseline from which decisions are made throughout the design and implementation of your program.  Key questions include:  How do we define leadership?  What dimensions of leadership are we most interested in such as leader as self; leader within organizations; leader in society; other factors?  What are our underlying philosophies of teaching and learning and how do those philosophies influence (if they do) our theoretical framework?

Statement of purpose – Create a unified vision and statement of purpose, one that is reflective of your leadership studies theoretical framework.   The key remains a concisely worded statement of purpose:  “The purpose of this program is to XXX.”  Key questions:  What is the purpose of this program?  What are the desired outcomes?  What will a graduate of this program look like upon completion?  

Five programmatic elements are derived directly from the Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework and Statement of Purpose:  organizational placement, target audience, delivery methods, degree requirements, and curriculum.  Key questions:  What is the rationale for design decisions within each element?  How does each design decision align with your Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework and your Statement of Purpose? What criteria will be used to evaluate each element?

Organizational placement – I have no data to support this but I suspect that organizational placement sometimes occurs because a person with the idea is matrixed to a particular School, College, or Division.  This may be okay considering academia’s tendency toward associating with persons of similar interests (said tongue in cheek).   Theoretically, the person or people with the initial idea and who develop the theoretical framework are most likely to develop a theoretical framework in keeping with their particular School, College, or Division.   Warning:  my thoughts that follow, admittedly, are “ideal” rather than how I see things usually working.  Ideally, though, a decision to add a new program is a strategic decision, one undertaken with deliberation toward key questions such as:  Where is a leadership studies program of this type best placed given our theoretical framework and our statement of purpose?  Where in the college or university as a whole can we best meet our goals for this program?  Do we need to create a new school, college, or division? 

Target audience – Defining your target audience is closely coupled with your Statement of Purpose.   Inherent in defining your purpose,  whether overtly or covertly, is a to who question.  Consider two differing purposes such as: (a)  prepare students to teach and do research, or (b)  develop or equip professionals or practitioners to lead.  Two different purposes, two different target audiences, each with potentially differing delivery methods, degree requirements, and curriculum.  Key questions:  What kind of students do you want to participate?  What do you envision students doing with the degree?  Do multiple purposes exist with differing target audiences?  Who do you imagine them being post-degree?  

Delivery method – Devise delivery methods best suited to your Statement of Purpose and target audience.  Consider multiple delivery options (e.g., classroom, online, hybrid) and/or creative scheduling if your target audience includes working adults.  Key questions:  What are the best delivery options given our Statement of Purpose and Target Audience?  What creative alternatives exist for face to face instruction and scheduling?  How much face to face interaction is desired in addition to classroom (e.g., mentoring, residencies, regional meetings, etc.)? 

Degree requirements  - Outline degree requirements best suited to Statement of Purpose and Target Audience.   Consider each element (required core and elective coursework, candidacy or qualification process, dissertation or project) in relation to your Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework and Statement of Purpose.  Key questions:  What is the relationship of course requirements to Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework and Statement of Purpose?  What is the role of and best approach given the role of candidacy or qualification?  What is the role of and best approach for the dissertation or project?  What other requirements are necessary to meet purpose?

Curriculum – Align your curriculum requirements within your Leadership Studies Conceptual Framework and your Statement of Purpose.  A broad concept of leadership studies emerged around the topics or themes of:  (a)  leadership and leadership studies; (b)  organizational studies, (c)  interpersonal behaviors:  team and group dynamics; (d)  communication; (e)  culture, global society, and policy; (f)  ethics, (g)  research, (h)  dissertation; and (i) other special topics.  Within each topic or theme, there was much variation.   Clearly, leadership studies isinterdisciplinary and broadly defined.  This illustrates the importance of your Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework, a clear definition of what you believe becomes the roadmap for developing your curriculum.   Key questions:  What must a student know given our Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework and our statement of purpose for us to meet our goals and objectives?

Be intentional and deliberate in defining your terms and translating that definition throughout all elements of your leadership studies program.  Your clarity and rigor in decision making to always go back to your Leadership Studies Theoretical Framework (what we’re about) and Statement of Purpose (Why we exist)when defining the Organizational Placement, Target Audience, Delivery Methods, Degree Requirements, and Curriculum (how you participate) translate into clarity, coherency and alignment within communication.

Communication – Craft communication that is carefully considered, aligned, clear, and coherent.   I recall one website where a definition of leadership studies was not provided, statement of purpose was “develop professional leaders”, target audience was business professionals, and the core classes were Introduction to Business and Economics.   I experienced a disconnect wondering how I was going to be developed as a leader studying business and economics.  By aligned, I mean all the elements fit together because they have been rigorously designed through intentional validation against the Leadership Studies Conceptual Framework and Statement of Purpose.  Clear simply refers to the overt manner in which you describe each element of your leadership studies program and clarity with which a reader can review your purpose, requirements, delivery methods, etc.  For websites, in particular, pay attention to the ease with which people can find information in a logical manner.  A subject for another day is college or university website design.  It was maddening at times trying to find information on websites!  Finally, coherency is a goal worth striving for.  By coherency, I refer to the human response to reviewing information about your leadership studies program and seeing how the pieces fit together, how they relate, and the ability to visualize themselves within that program.  Key questions:  What might potential students want to know about this program?  What are the messages and methods for communicating our leadership studies program that contributes to alignment, clarity, and coherency?

Continuous improvement – Set goals, objectives, and target measures.  Obtain and assess feedback.  Take action to continually improve your leadership studies programs.  Continuous improvement serves to:  (a)  focuses attention on key issues, (b)  clarify expectations, (c)  facilitate decision making, and (d)  emphasize learning and improving.  A successful continuous improvement framework provides appropriate consideration for improving practices, strategies, and decision making.  Measuring performance provides the means for assessing change and growth in each areas.   Define goals , objectives, and target measures for your leadership studies program so you have key information to:  prioritize and allocate resources; make needed adjustments or changes in policy or program directions to meet goals; to frame actions toward success in meeting performance goals; and to improve quality.  Key questions:  To meet our Statement of Purpose, what do we need to know generally?  What do we need to know programmatically (within each element)?  What do we need to know about our students?  About our alumni?  For each, what are potential goals, objectives, and desired outcomes?  How will we gather information and assess?

Reimagining Faith: A Leader's Orientation Towards Responsibility

Beyond technical competency and business acumen, leadership increasingly faces questions of responsibility.  One of the many things I am curious about is why people are responsible, where responsibility leads to decisions and action beyond a profit motive to consider people, planet and consequence of actions.  This curiosity led to an exploration of faith - where faith is not a synonym for religious belief, but as one’s definition of and orientation towards reality guiding one’s sense of purpose, responsibility, and action.

Photo Creative Commons Zero https://unsplash.com/license 

Photo Creative Commons Zero https://unsplash.com/license 

Faith Described in Literature

When we move beyond associating faith solely as a synonym for specific religious beliefs - we see this wonderful vibrant, complex and animating principle motivating people to action.  Specific qualities of faith as described in the literature included:  

  • An essential, unique personal, human quality – everyone has faith in the sense of having an orientation towards being and reality    (Cox, 2009, p. 37; Fowler, 1981, p. xiii; Smith, 1979, pp. 8, 129; Tillich, 1957, p. 7)
  • A verb – engagement and full participation in life and the universe    (Fowler, 1981, p. 14; Smith, 1979, p. 5; Tillich, 2000, p. 23)
  • Response to something beyond and bigger than oneself - e.g., God, Being, connectedness, etc. (Dubay, 1985, p. 35; Fowler, 1981, p. 4; Pratt & Ashforth, 2003, pp. 322, 323; Smith, 1979, p. 12; Tillich, 1957, p. 10)
  • A way of knowing – not rationally or objectively.  Words used to describe faith include:  flow, awe, mystery, ‘the way things are’; a way of seeing   (Cox, 2009, p. 35; Fowler, 1981, pp. 11, 25; Niebuhr, 1989, p. 15; Smith, 1979, p. 12; Tillich, 1957, p. 7; Tillich, 2000, p. 25)
  • Purpose – what is to be done and how?    (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003, p. 323)
  • Meaning – a way of making sense of reality and one’s existence. (Fowler, 1981, p. 4; Smith, 1979, pp. 3,12)
  • Coherence – faith provides a sense of order, how and why things hang together to constitute reality and truth (ideology).   (Dubay, 1985; Fowler,  1981, p. 4; Pratt & Ashforth, 2003, p. 323)

Faith, then, can be seen as an essence of each human where this essence is experienced as reality, a sense of the way things are.  Used as a verb, faith moves us beyond belief to action.  Faith is related to spirituality, where:      

Spirituality is an experience and awareness of a Higher Power, a sense of inter-connectedness between and responsibility to self, other, the planet, and the Higher Power.  These fundamental beliefs about reality constitute an integrated foundation upon which individuals or groups view the world, derive purpose and meaning, and experience certitude.  Our values, qualities, motivations, and actions derive from our spirituality. . . . A sense of responsibility to self, others, and the planet are more akin to moral obligations so integral they are to one’s beliefs about inter-connectedness of all things.. .. Spiritual people have a multi-layered understanding of the relationship between the physical and meta-physical worlds.  (Crumpton, 2011)

 [I realize citations are a bit nerdy...my training demands I give credit where credit is due (big grin).]

Photo Creative Commons Zero https://unsplash.com/license

Photo Creative Commons Zero https://unsplash.com/license

Three examples

The excerpts below arose out of casual conversations with some friends on separate occasions over coffee.  In part I wanted to understand more fully what made them tick - all people I observed leading beyond a profit motivation to something more.  As I listened to their stories, I realized that each had a personal spirituality with a faith that translated into a unique outlook, values, and actions.  Allow me to introduce you to three friends (names changed):

Susie - a former lawyer with a prestigious firm stopped practicing law to open an art gallery.    Her rationale:  Art is a means by which we connect with our deeper selves.  By providing a space for artists to present their art, we (used collectively) have an opportunity to enhance our community and each other.  We are all interconnected, I have a choice and a responsibility to focus my energies towards those activities that connect and make a contribution to our community and to the lives of those whom I encounter.    I want to positively contribute to community and I just realized that I could do so by merely stopping doing one thing and doing another.    I’m not religious, it’s just not my thing.  My focus is art and artists.  I just believe that by focusing on enhancing community the human home is improved, people are respected, and we weave a life together.   

Jake – owner of an architecture firm committed to using earth friendly materials, affordable housing, having a positive work place, and community service.  His rationale:  We’re all in this together.  It’s the butterfly thing, small things I/we do matter and contribute either positively or negatively to the environment, our community, and each other.  I feel a sense of responsibility to be intentional and to do the best I can and believe that my firm and my contributions are part of a bigger picture with a lasting impact.  I was raised in a Christian home but do not consider myself religious – I tend to be more spiritual with an unshakeable belief that we all contribute to a greater aspect of life…something perhaps un-seeable yet palpable.   I stay focused through my Bikram yoga practice – I look in the mirror, see my face, and know myself.

Bob – president and founder of an IT consulting firm. His rationale:  As a Christian, I believe the planet and humans share a common creator.  We are all connected and this connection requires that I be responsible, a good steward.    My firm is about providing service, by creating a positive work place and by responsively providing client value.  As a workplace we are committed to community service, being green, buying local where we can, and creating client relationships.    People and the planet deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.  God directs my life and I seek His guidance through prayer, but I have free will to act.  

Reflections on Faith

The three stories are but three - I suspect as you're reading this you can identify other stories of people in business with commitments and actions that transcend profit.  Places where a person’s faith creates a deep awareness and sense of connectedness and relationship to something bigger.  In some, this sense of Being is related to God as creator, with others, this sense is related to a big picture ordering and coherency.  One’s identification with and experience of connectedness provides coherency and serves as an anchoring or orientation towards a much bigger picture.  Values associated with faith included things such as:  

  • Our purpose is to serve others and the planet.
  • People should be treated with dignity and respect.  
  • People should be valued for who they are.  
  • We are all interconnected.  
  • Our responsibility is to promote the common good (defined in various ways).

Further, a person's actions matter and contribute in some way to the larger experience of life on the planet.  A person’s sense of agency is undergirded with a sense of responsibility, an ethic of care, and reciprocity (e.g., the Golden Rule).  Responsibility, then, is a recognition of the relationship of ones' actions and impact on people and planet.  To not act responsibly would be inauthentic and violate a person’s sense of right and wrong. Leaders guided by faith are driven by a perceived reality and deep sense of interconnectedness, an imperative if you will, to act responsibly.  This imperative translates into a strong sense of agency to act dissidently (against prevailing views) guided by a sense that actions matter.    

References

Click on the book or article title to discover more about a specific reference.  

Berger, P. L., & Zijderveld, A. C. (2009). In praise of doubt: How to have convictions without becoming a fanatic. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Cox, H. G. (2009). The future of faith (1st ed.). New York: HarperOne.

Crumpton, A. (2011).  An exploration of spirituality within leadership studies literature.  Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary.net 1st Global Conference on Spirituality in the 21st Century:  At the Interface of Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy.  March 20-22, 2011  Prague, Czech Republic, 2011.

Crumpton, A. (2011). An exploration of spirituality within leadership studies literature. In J. L. Hochheimer & J. Fernandez-Goldborough (Eds.), Spirituality conversations for the 21st century: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Dubay, T. (1985). Faith and certitude. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

Fowler, J. W. (1981). Stages of faith: The psychology of human development and the quest for meaning. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Gunther, M. (2004). Faith and fortune: The quiet revolution to reform American business.  New York: Crown Business.

Maak, T., & Pless, N. M. (2006). Responsible leadership. New York: Routledge.

Maak, T., & Pless, N. M. (2006). Responsible leadership:  A relational approach. In T. Maak & N. Pless (Eds.), Responsible leadership (pp. 33-53). New York: Routledge.

Niebuhr, H. R., & Niebuhr, R. R. (1989). Faith on earth: An inquiry into the structure of human faith. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Pratt, M., G., & Ashforth, B. E. (2003). Fostering meaningfulness in working and at work. In K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton & R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp. 309-327). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

Pruzan, P., & Miller, W. C. (2006). Spirituality as the basis of responsible leaders and responsible companies. In T. Maak & N. Pless (Eds.), Responsible leadership (pp. 68-92). New York: Routledge.

Smith, W. C. (1979).  Faith and belief:  The difference between them.   Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Tillich, P. (1957). Dynamics of faith. New York: Harper.

Tillich, P., & Gomes, P. J. (2000). The courage to be (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press.

Webb, E. (2009). Worldview and mind: Religious thought and psychological development. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

#StreetArt & #Graffiti The Berlin Wall and the East Side Gallery Berlin

Visiting the East Side Gallery in Berlin was a highlight of our trip. The East Side Gallery is located at the Muhlenstrasse in Frederickshain - many of the photos included in my blog post #StreetArt & #Graffiti #Berlin were taken in this area.  The East Side Gallery is free and public open at all times.  From August 1961 to November 09, 1989 - the Berlin Wall enclosed West Berlin cutting through the city.  Throughout the city, there are markers indicating where the wall stood.

Wall remnants remain throughout the city - at Potsdamer Platz for example.

Other wall remnants on display:

“The East Side Gallery is understood as a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful resolution of boundaries and conventions between companies and people”
— http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.de/data/eng/index-eng.htm

Thoughts following my visit to the East Side Gallery

Walls are barriers serving to keep people in or to keep the unwanted out.  Barriers long thought as protective also create a numbing sense of isolation from ideas, life, and culture.   Why does it seem that when a regime comes in the first thing they do is attack the cultural centers - museums, libraries, public art displays, street art, graffiti, theater, dance, or music.  Artifacts are destroyed, laws are enacted to prohibit certain creative acts, censorship rises, and the tolerance for those who create decreases.  Call me a mush brain but the symbolism of art placement on the Wall brought tears to my eyes.  So much creativity alongside a historical remnant of barrier and isolation.  

The shear volume of street art and graffiti in Berlin optimistically communicated to me that humans desire to create, they desire a vibrancy and the capacity to voice their inner thoughts.  We will not be silenced - whether through street art, graffiti, poetry, music - whatever form it takes, we will not, cannot, and should not be silenced.

Other Resources

Berlin East Side Gallery Retrieved from http://www.eastsidegallery-berlin.de/data/eng/index-eng.htm

Berlin's East Side Gallery on film.  Retrieved from http://www.dw.com/en/berlins-east-side-gallery-on-film/a-18175320

Berlin Wall Memorial.  Retrieved from http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/en/

#StreetArt & #Graffiti #Berlin

Berlin is a city that holds a great deal of fascination.  I remember the rhetoric of East/West, cold war, and communism.  Our school held drills to gauge our readiness to respond to a cold war initiated attack.  Movies often depicted Berlin as as dark, grey place and the Wall as a symbol of division, deprivation, and oppression.  Berlin - post fall of the wall has an international reputation for street art and graffiti.  The photos included here were taken in May 2014...  the temporality of Street Art and Graffiti suggests that some of these may no longer exist.  For example, the Blu and JR paintings depicted below were painted over in protest to gentrification (December 2014) - See   Why We painted over Berlin's Most Famous Graffiti

So it is that to select a sampling of street art and graffiti representative of Berlin is an impossible task - but here goes.  I encourage you to peruse the complete suite of pictures taken...presented at the end of this post.  

Faces

Graffiti

Stencils and Pasteups

See all the Berlin Street Art and Graffiti pictures taken in May 2014:

#StreetArt Barcelona Spain

Barcelona is an incredible city for street art where practically every metal gate covering a storefront has characters, lettering, stencils, or pasteups.  It was visually one of the coolest places to explore because you had to constantly be looking - up, down, side to side.  I've posted pictures and some notes about a street art tour done with Barcelona Street Style Tour.  These are but a sampling of images I saw in the day and half I had to explore.  

Objects

Pasteups, Stencils

Characters

Images

Complete set of Barcelona Street Art photos:  

002


Some final thoughts - Street art and graffiti are illegal in Barcelona.  These artists risk arrest and a fine of...I heard... 3000 euro.  On some deep level I admire artists who must create and take risks to do so.  I realize that naysayers talk about legality, vandalism, blah blah blah.  I understand all this BUT - at the end of the day, the mosaic of colors, textures, and images ornament the city in a way that contributes to Barcelona being Barcelona.  Barcelona is a rich, colorful, and vibrant city - in part - because street and graffiti artists contribute to the built environment, augmenting, coloring, and creating a language and aesthetic.  It's really quite beautiful and inspiring.  


#StreetArt Avondale Arizona

Historic Avondale Arizona is a city of approximately 76,000 people west of Phoenix.  It is also a city daring to imagine itself as an arts district.  I was pleasantly intrigued when I heard about Avondale's intentionality with regard to public art specifically street art and murals.  As a city, Avondale defines public art as:

“Any work of art or element of design, created by visual or public context artists, that is sited in a public place for people to experience. This can include installations, murals, outdoor sculptures, or infrastructure such as public fixtures or furniture and other function elements that are designed and/or built by artists.”
— http://www.avondale.org/index.aspx?NID=1151

My favorites along Western Avenue between Dysart and Litchfield Roads:

"Road to Rebirth," painted by Edward Buonvecchio and 10 apprentices,707 E. Western Ave.

"Road to Rebirth," painted by Edward Buonvecchio and 10 apprentices,707 E. Western Ave.

Ky Thorton and Mel Gee painted this mural, "Angelic Energy," on a wall near the corner of 6th Street and Belmont Avenue. 

Ky Thorton and Mel Gee painted this mural, "Angelic Energy," on a wall near the corner of 6th Street and Belmont Avenue. 

Angel Diaz

Angel Diaz

DJ & Music by Marsh Sale and Miles Davis tribute mural by Hugo Medina at 701 E. Western.

1.  Servous Nystem "Collaboration of Styles," painted by Carols Rivas and Edgar Fernandez, 701 E. Western. 2.  Project directed by Martin Morena on the corner of Central and Western.  3.  unknown artist.  4.  Cesar Chavez by El Podrido on the side of Taqueria La Jacky, 532 E. Western Ave.  5.  Mariachi Gold painted by Veronica Verdugo-Lomeli at Zamoras Cafe & Restaurant, 606 E. Western Ave and 6.  JB Snyder.

Artists:  Bryan Kilgore and Margaret Lieu - In an alley just north of the Estrella High School, west of Central Ave.

Car murals

Avondale has designated The Creative Arts District as those properties adjacent to Western Avenue, primarily west of Dysart Road, extending to Avondale’s border with the City of Goodyear.   This is a very walkable area filled with shops, murals, and other public art.  

 

 

 

Momma Bear: What I learned from a year with this incredible girl!

A year ago today Momma Bear gave birth to 8 puppies - this was a crazy event in our world, I have learned so much from my sweet Momma Bear.   Where to begin....  We live on a remote road across the street from South Mountain.  It's our little bit of heaven, a place near downtown Phoenix remote enough that we experience nature and have room to breathe deep.  

Routinely we have what we affectionately call 'dump dogs' visit for water and food.  Dump dogs because people dump pets they no longer want at South Mountain.  I assume people think that dogs will hunt for food; however, the desert is challenging and water scarce.  We had one beautiful dog show up who's feet pads were so pristine...she obviously was an inside dog ill prepared for desert walking.    Typically when dogs show up - we call Maricopa Animal Shelter, although we had two dump dogs we adopted  Lovee Boy and Little Bit.  Lovee took >3 months to even pet him, he was traumatized and Little Bit was simply a girl we fell in love with instantly.  

Momma Bear and another puppy showed up in October or so in 2014.  I was standing at the kitchen window, Lovee and Little Bit were laying on their bed inside when I saw Momma Bear and Puppy drink from the water pans we keep out front.  Both dogs' ribs were showing and I thought oh crap.  Dog laws in Maricopa County are a bit screwy - if you call the MAC, then the dogs you want picked up are supposed to be 'contained' so they can pick up the animal for transport.  However, often times dogs that visit our property are traumatized either due to abuse or because they've been roaming around awhile - there's no way to contain them for pickup unless you feed them for sufficient time that the dogs trust you.  The law also says that if you feed a dog more than 3 days, technically the dog is yours and the pickup is no longer a rescue but a surrender in which case you're supposed to pay a surrender fee.  From our perspective, this is a no win because bottom line:  when we see an animal that is hungry and needs water, we're going to provide.  The idea that we would deny food/water to these dogs who were obviously hungry and thirsty is just dumb, isn't going to happen.  

Across the road we placed a food and water pan and began the process of feeding, watering, and socializing Momma Bear and Puppy.  Mommy very quickly began to come to a whistle and would let me pet her...Puppy was much more reticent.  The plan was to get them somewhat socialized and then call MAC.  However, it became apparent that Momma was pregnant. Yikes - now what are we going to do?!  We decided that the most humane thing would be to keep the dogs together and around until after she had the babies.  When we decided this...honestly, I don't think we thought too hard about the logistical challenges and changes having puppies around would present.  In hindsight we recognize this was INSANE! But at the time all we thought was that Puppy was still not very social and Momma was pregnant, their chances in a shelter might not be great.

We got home later on Sunday, December 14 to discover no Momma or Puppy.  Hmmm, I went searching and found that Momma had dug herself a trench and was laying there.  My initial thought was okay - I'll get some supper going and then tend to her, our biggest concern was the cold, it was supposed to get down to upper 30s and she was laying outside on the dirt in an unprotected place.  So I went in to supper and when I came out - Momma and Puppy were gone.  I looked and looked and finally thought that she probably went off into the desert to have her puppies.  But then I saw Puppy laying near the front door so I went to check and sure enough Momma was laying inside the dog house.  I breathed a sigh of relief because there was a heat lamp there for the dogs, warm bedding, and shelter to protect the puppies.  I didn't know what the other dogs might do with puppies.  At about 2:30 Monday morning (12/15) - I awoke and went to check on her - at that time she had just had a puppy and was cleaning it. By the time it was all done, Momma had 8 puppies, one later passed.   

Within 24 hours, we noticed Momma was rattled and dazed - I put out a question on Facebook and was advised to feed her eggs and milk supplement.  Given she was malnourished when she arrived and hadn't quite recovered from that, I assumed pregnancy depleted her.  Once I began feeding her the eggs and milk booster with extra food - she seemed less rattled and capable of caring for her puppies.  She was a good Momma, attentive, and very clean.  It wasn't long before puppy mania ensued!!!

On SuperBowl Sunday 2015, all the puppies were taken to a shelter where they were adopted within a week.  Puppy was taken to MAC and we decided to keep Momma Bear.  The day the puppies left we let Momma Bear in the house where she went straight to the couch and made herself at home where she proceeded to 'sleep it off.'   The next few months were quite tumultuous - she was fixed and then started losing weight.  We discovered she had Valley Fever and Tick Fever - treatment for both took months.  After a while though her energy returned, she started putting on weight and she went from a somewhat listless girl to one who leapt, jumped, and generally got in your face.  

Lessons Learned from a year with Momma...

  • Hospitality and relationship often begin with available food and water.
  • Providing food and water do not guarantee relationship...hunger and thirst are primary needs secondary to relationship.
  • One has to earn the right to be heard and earning this right is dependent on trust.
  • Trust comes from consistent presence.  Being there, caring on her terms, and availability.
  • Having been 'dumped' and then roaming for food fosters trust issues and insecurity.
  • Relationship and touch cannot be forced - these things have to be earned.   While Momma more readily received some physical attention early on it was always on her terms.  I remember a time after she had puppies where she crawled into my lap and leaned real hard into my body.  When trust is given it's complete and demonstrated physically.
  • Eyes reveal the soul - Momma has old soul eyes - sometimes loving and sometimes wary.
  • Rebuilding a life takes time - it is an inner journey that she must take in our presence.  
  • Play is a daily group activity.
  • Best thing of all is time together.
  • Hello kisses are always in vogue!  

We did not need a 3rd dog especially a somewhat neurotic insecure girl.  She can be jealous, insecure, wary, too aggressively in your face - all of these things and more.  And yet.  She's part of our crazy family - sweet, tender, always loving.  She still gives full body hugs, loves to cuddle, and cannot wait to say hello when we come home.  I'm so happy this beautiful girl, our Momma Bear, adopted us!



Stone Campbell Dialogues: Addressing Race and Racism Within the Church and Society

From the outset I sensed that a conversation about race and racism would be a tough conversation.  These sorts of topics are maddening in their personal and systemic reach and difficulty.  Replete with images and messages depicting Black and White Americans, our media highlights challenges on a regular basis.  So it was that a group of Christians committed to dialogue, conversation, and frankness convened to explore Black and White within the church in the United States.

Mural by Ernest Shaw, Baltimore 401 East Lafayette Street  http://www.examiner.com/article/baltimore-artist-creates-images-to-uplift-communities  

Mural by Ernest Shaw, Baltimore 401 East Lafayette Street  http://www.examiner.com/article/baltimore-artist-creates-images-to-uplift-communities  

Logistics

Held November 13 and 14 - Our dialogue was sponsored by the Stone Campbell Dialogues, facilitated in partnership with the Racial Unity Leadership Summit, and hosted by Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland and West Side Church of Christ, Baltimore, Maryland.  

Affectionately called the Stone Campbell Dialogues, this annual gathering brings together representatives from the Christian Church, Churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ  historically rooted in the Stone Campbell or Restoration Movement.  These conversations exist to develop relationship and trust. . . through worship and through charitable and frank dialogue."  I joined the National dialogue team in 2012 representing the Christian Church tradition - this is truly a highlight of my year.  I hold my co-dialogue partners in the highest regard!  

The Racial Unity Leadership Summit (RULS), founded by Dr. Jerry Taylor, Abilene Christian University, is a a national program of the Churches of Christ, focused upon inspiring unity among people of different races and cultures.  RULS emphasis on contemplation and transformation speaks to my commitment to creating transformative learning spaces:   

“When blacks and whites become partners in a contemplative community, they can experience together the transformation of their conscious and subconscious minds. It is when people sit together in silence that they give their souls the opportunity to communicate with one another in a spiritual language that is not of this world. Authentic racial unity grows out of an authentic spiritual union between human souls that are jointly connected to the divine life of God. It is only when their attachment to the life of God has complete supremacy in their hearts that people find the strength to release their attachment to the color of skin.”

Dr. Jerry Taylor of Abilene Christian University serves as the RULS director.    What follows are highlights from each presenter.  I should say a word about target audience for this dialogue is primarily Christians; therefore, I have intentionally used the vernacular of each presenter.  I realize that a downside of this may be a sort of "Christian-ese" language and vocabulary. 

Speakers and Notes

Newell Williams (President, Brite Divinity School) opened our time together highlighting our Stone Campbell Movement history saying that racism has been a part of the Stone Campbell tradition....."Since the beginning..."

Don McLaughlin, preaching minister of the North Atlanta Church of Christ in Atlanta, Georgia will serve as the program director for the Baltimore Stone-Campbell Dialogue/RULS.

“We don’t have the vocabulary” to discuss race relations currently or presently.  He then noted that while our conversation specifically focused on African American and White relations, this focus required attention to three parameters:  1)  To the females in the room, we are behind the game in addressing gender roles and issues; 2)  This conversation does not address other minorities and peoples for whom racial injustice occurs; and 3)  We must have an open hear to be educated.

Daryl Reed, Lead Pastor of DC Regional Christian Church - That the World May Believe

In referring to John 17, Daryl reminded of the focus:  “so that the world may believe.”  He noted relative to apologetics that love is the strongest defense, experiencing the love of Christ as embodied and enacted in His people.  He asked:  How did we get so much right and miss the big stuff?  “When we are completely connected to Jesus, we will do what it takes.  Citing Joshua 1:9, Daryl exhorted that it will take courage and leadership to begin to address race issues. 

~ Transition ~

After Daryl’s talk, Don questioned whether ‘color blindness’ is really what we’re after given that color blindness:

·        Requires that I see less of you

·        Possible creates less to deal with

·        Denies the fullness of a person’s being

“Do you have to know me less to love me more?"  Unity [in the John 17 sense] is the expression of how we live with difference.  

Doug Foster, Professor of Church History, Abilene Christian University - The Great Deception: How Satan Created Our Perceptions of Race and Deprived Us of Christian Unity

Doug started with a reading of 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 – specifically:  6 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. . . . .  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.” 

The United States story is perpetually filled with conflict and oppression of peoples.  If we look historically within the United States, race is seared into the US DNA (e.g., slavery, US Civil War, Jim Crow Laws, Civil Rights, incarceration, Black Lives Matter, etc.).  Using excerpts from the film:    Race – The Power of An Illusion  While we are founded on the ideal of All Men Are Created Equal, the US created a story around the idea of race, an idea that led to notions of that black and slave were synonymous.  In an 1846 debate of ‘species’ Samuel Morton put for a notion that blacks were inferior based on skull size.  Josiah Nott further argued that blacks are a different species.  These ideas served to naturalize a social structure where blacks were subhuman, inferior to whites.  Doug emphasized that this creation of a perception of blacks’ inferiority does not go away when Morton and Nott’s flawed science is debunked, does not go away when slavery is gone, and does not go away with civil rights.  The rationale does not disappear even if it is flawed once it becomes enculturated.   The film Ethnic Notions explored anti-black stereotypes highlighting how popular culture reinforces stereotypes:

·        Black is ugly – standards of beauty, comparatives, distortions of black images

·        Blacks are savage – African = primitivism, reversion to savagery

·        Blacks are happy servants – sambo, Uncle, etc.; dancing, singing, big smile

Project Implicit is a test that explores a person’s thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control.  https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/  

Mural by Ernest Shaw, Baltimore 401 East Lafayette Street

Mural by Ernest Shaw, Baltimore 401 East Lafayette Street

~ Transition ~

Don discussed the challenge of systemic racism noting the difficulties of moving forward because trust is simply not present.  “It’s hard to face [that as a white male] I am complicit.”

Travis Stanley, Pastor of Norwalk Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Norwalk, Iowa - Disrupting White Supremacy from Within

Whiteness is often portrayed as the antithesis of blackness.  Whites created race as a construct.  Cone (2014) in the Cross and the Lynching Tree asserted that white theologians ignore race.  Racism is a white problem.  Disrupting White Supremacy notes the following:

  • ·Locating ourself in this life sucking system malforms us as white people. 
  • ·Acknowledge the oppressive system.  Name it.
  • · Uncouple white ‘maleness’ from the discussion.  This is not about feelings, it’s about systemized superiority.  Need to dismantle the system. 

The reconciliation paradigm has failed us – it is inadequate.  Travis referenced The Black Manifesto of 1969 which was written to white churches.  Relationship is not the problem.  Power is the problem.  He called for reparations. 

~Transition~

Don asked:  Why do some white people get offended by the notion of white supremacy?  White privilege is not solely about resources, it’s about access.  

Travis Hurley, Vice President of Development, Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri - The Next Generation Must Be Better

How did we get so far from the truth?  

"Diversity's Symphony" Poem by David Bowden davidbowdenpoetry.com @davidbpoetry Video Directed and Edited by Samson Varughese (EMANATE MEDIA) emanatemedia.com @samsonvarughese Based on the Book, "Church Diversity," by Scott Williams churchdiversity.com @ScottWilliams

David Fleer,  Professor of Bible and Communication, Lipscomb University -  How to Talk About Racism: The Art of Scapegoating

Truth telling is a prerequisite to reconciliation.  Scapegoating prohibits my seeing.    

Reflections

This was a day where childhood memories came flooding in from a life lived in a small town in the 1960s and 1970s.  'Diversity' where I was raised was often described in terms of Catholics and Protestants.   So many stories though... I don't recall any African Americans in our town or school.  Life revolved around work, school, church, and family - sporting events were popular.  It was told that African Americans could not be in town after sundown although an exception was made for athletic teams.  So many memories... As a young child in the mid-60s returning from family vacation we were driving through East Saint Louis when one of my brothers said the N-word.  Daddy pulled the car over and yelled at us to never ever say that word. Momma reflecting on working at an ammunition plan in Texas in the late 1940s/early 1950s where she supervised a crew of black men saying that when her boss asked if she was afraid of the blacks she said No! - she was a whole lot more afraid of the white male truckers - they weren't afraid of repercussion...hearing Mom describe the time when the Ku Klux Klan came down the center aisle of the church with a gift.  I recall a time in Sunday School when we were asked to describe what it meant to be unequally yoked in 2 Corinthians 6:14 - I said it was a discussion about belief and nonbelief but was informed that this was about interracial marriage - don't yoke yourself to someone who's not your kind.  ...so many images and stories.  I wonder about my unquestioned or unrecognized biases and assumptions.

December 12

For a million reasons I didn't publish this blog post.  I guess I felt as though it were way too summative with little substance....I found myself fearful that it would seem to light brush a topic that is so vital and important.   This week, however, I am reeling in response to persistent hateful rhetoric stemming from what I perceive to be feelings of national boundary setting, fear of decreased security, and X-phobia (black, Hispanic, Muslim, homosexual, non-US citizen OR any other category).  The news and social media included a litany of calls to:  deny all Muslims access; prohibit refugee entry, monitor mosques, kick everyone out, build a wall, see entire groups as this or that (gross negative assertions about entire groups of people), blow 'em all to hell, arm yourself with guns and protect yourself from terrorists.. ....on and on it went.  Hateful.  Bigoted. Isolationist. Dangerous. Murderous language.  Rhetoric justified by its communicants as okay due to concerns about national boundaries, security, fear, otherness, and judgment.  

Clearly, I understand the fear that one could be in a movie theater and there be an attack - a fear of dire consequences related to being in the wrong place at the wrong time; a sense of shaken reality stemming from monitoring one's surroundings looking for things out of whack.  It's odd for my husband and I who both travel for work to talk about a contingency communication plan should there be a terrorist attack somewhere where we are or that prohibits our travel.  I understand that we are thinking differently, we are more cautious. Yet - in the face of possible horrors the call to love and be hospitable is ever present.  God's grace is never ending and in response we must strive to extend grace.  I don't know how we do this but I know we are called to do so - no exceptions.  I find myself praying for a time of silence and meditation - it feels like we are at a time in history of amped and intensifying communication, hatred, bigotry with accompanying negative actions.      Some Scriptures important to my understanding include:  John 17, Mark 12, and Hebrews 2. Jesus said his followers are in the world but not of the world.  Our national citizenry lessens in comparison to our identification with Jesus and his kingdom.  In Mark 12 and Hebrews 2 - Christians are called to love your neighbor and be hospitable to strangers.  These passages are swirling through my mind as I try to process this dialogue and discussion around race evoking the following thoughts:

  • Orientation - We are called to orient ourselves to others with love, hospitality, and with a focus on unity.  
  • Unity is NOT about agreement, e.g., agreeing to a specific interpretation or doctrine but again one of orientation one toward another. 
  • Citizenship - Believers' citizenship (God's Kingdom) ultimately transcends locational citizenry.
  • Love and hospitality are required...even to strangers...those not like us, we don't know.  There are no expressed boundaries to our call to love and be hospitable.  
  • Grace - this is a challenging concept to understand (God's grace, by God's grace) but also as in extending grace to others AS it has been extended to us.
  • Political correctness leaves little room for conversational grace where people seek understanding and revelation of thoughts and assumptions.  In digging deep, we likely are to say things that can be perceived as 'racist' - yet in the spirit of dialogue and grace we must talk with one another.  
  • 2D thinking and rhetoric (right/wrong; black/white, etc.) minimize the complexity of this conversation and are not that useful in their opposition and hierarchy.
  • Bridge building - there must be leaders committed to creating opportunities for dialogue and opportunities to discuss these issues, raise awareness, and seek restoration.

At the outset of this post, I said that the Dialogue I attended was a dialogue of fellow Christians trying to highlight issues of race as a way of fostering understanding and conversation. This week I have seen far too many instances of Christians joining in with the negative assertions and hateful language.  Sigh.  I'm reminded of my grad school ethics professor who said that the call to be a follower of Jesus is the most demanding call - one where a person transcends the tyranny of the day in response to grace through expressions of love and hospitality for others...even when those expressions are difficult and seemingly non-nonsensical.    

Resources

Foster, D. (2015).  Raising Consciousness—White Privilege & Creation of Race, Annotated Bibliography.  Download PDF  (Shared with permission from D. Foster, 11/2015).  

Taylor, M. (2015).  Moving Beyond Color Blind.  Retrieved from  http://christianstandard.com/2015/12/moving-beyond-color-blind/

Press Release. (2015).  http://christianstandard.com/2015/11/race-unity-topics-at-stone-campbell-dialogue/

Book: Concerning the #Spiritual in #Art by Wassily Kandinsky

There's something about art...I can spend hours in museums, streets, books  exploring and reading about artists, art, and the varying explanations and philosophies.   I like the way Helen Mirren described her love of art:  "Just a note of a song can make you feel something and likewise a painting can make you feel the same thing."   Ahhh, yes...an experience beyond words.  

Filmed by Lost & Found Films. Produced by MoMA Vasily Kandinsky. Panel for Edwin R. Campbell No. 1. 1914. Oil on canvas. Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund. Vasily Kandinsky. Panel for Edwin R. Campbell No. 2. 1914. Oil on canvas. Nelson A. Rockefeller Fund (by exchange). Vasily Kandinsky. Panel for Edwin R.

About Kandinsky's art, Mirren noted the seeming "chaos and randomness but organized. . . [an] incredible contradiction."  When I see a Kandinsky I experience fascination, beauty, and geometry - I wanted to read more about his ideas, then I found his book:  Concerning the Spiritual in Art.  I should state from the outset that I have no formal training in art or art history -  thus, I am just a girl trying to make sense of this book.  [Source:  All images of Kandinsky's art retrieved from WassilyKandinsky.net and are for noncommercial use.]

Background

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was born in Moscow, studied law and economics, and then turned at the age of 30 to a life of art and art theory.  Early examples of his works include Kochel Lake with Boat (1902), Blue Mountain (1908/1909), Murnau Street with Women (1908), and 304 (1910).  

Per WassilyKandinsky.net, Kandinsky experienced four movements throughout his work:  1911-1914  Blue Rider Period; 1914-1921 Returning to Russia; 1922-1933 Bauhaus, and 1934-1944 Biomorphic Abstraction.

1911-1914  Blue Rider Period

Untitled (1910) is considered Kandinsky's first abstract painting and by some as the first abstract painting in general.    He wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art in 1912. 

1910 Untitled first abstract water color.jpg

One of my favorite pieces from this period.  

1913  Color Study Squares With Concentric Circles

1913  Color Study Squares With Concentric Circles

1914-1921  Returning to Russia

Some favorites from this period:  Blue Crest (1917); Overcast (1917); and White Line (1920).  

1922-1933 Bauhaus

This is my favorite period!  Circles in a Circle (1923); Two Movements (1924); In Blue (1925); and Dark Freshness (1927).

1934 - 1944 Biomorphic Abstraction

Gentle Ascent (1934); Gravitation (1935); Orange Violet (1935)

Thoughts on Concerning the Spiritual in Art

I’ll have to say I feel like I have only gleaned the surface of Kandinsky’s meaning relative to the spiritual in art.  What follows are some key themes that spoke to me:

Art offers revolutionary possibility and is the sphere turned to in time of societal stress, breakdown, and chaos. “When religion, science and morality are shaken. . . . when the outer supports threaten to fall, man turns his gaze from externals in on to himself.  Literature, music and art are the first and most sensitive spheres in which this spiritual revolution makes itself felt” (p. 25). 

Artists and their art connects humans to a deeper or transcendent meaning.    “To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts – such is the duty of the artist” (citing Schumann, p. 16).  “No other power can take the place of art. . . at times when the human soul is gaining greater strength, art will grow in power, the two are inextricably connected” (p. 63). 

Art communicates – without the use of words.  I’m increasingly tired of the primacy of words and speech acts as the preferred communication method – particularly when the rhetoric is 2D, hateful, and divisive.  “At different points along the road are the different arts, saying what they are best able to say, and in the language (emphasis mine) which is peculiarly their own” (p. 31). 

One’s hermeneutic must move beyond impression or observation (what the art is, what it depicts, or its specific configuration or construction) to an allowance for the art to communicate its meaning.  “Our materialistic age has produced a type of spectator or ‘connoisseur,’ who is not content to put himself opposite a picture and let it say its own message.  Instead of allowing the inner value of the picture to work. . . . his eye does not probe the outer expression to arrive at the inner meaning” (p. 58).  

Kandinsky's Spiritual Triangle represents a societal and personal progression from solely material to spiritual concerns where the primary movement is influenced by artists and their work.   “Painting is an art, and art is not vague production, transitory and isolated, but a power which be directed to the improvement and refinement of the human soul – to, in fact, the raising of the spiritual triangle” (p. 62).  

Kandinsky triangle.png

In describing the triangle, Kandinsky spoke of an artist's Inner Need where :  “(1)  Every artist, as a creator, has something in him which calls for expression (this is the element of personality).  (2)  Every artist, as a child of his age, is compelled to express the spirit of his age (this is the element of style).  (3)  Every artist, as a servant of art, has to help the cause of art (this is the element of pure artistry [the top of the pyramid]” (p. 43).  Prophets are those artists who move from art for art's sake extending the expression of the age's spirit or accepted forms of expression.  Kandinsky noted that the spiritual prophets [artists], whom he also described as eccentric and solitary visionaries,  are capable of “seeing beyond [each] segment” (pp. 18, 19).  This seeing beyond creates a spiritual movement of transcendence beyond our physical and material condition, a movement with influential power relative to our collective meaning and experiences.  Kandinsky used particularly derisive tones relative to Art for art’s sake, a retrogression from the spiritual:  “The vulgar herd stroll through the rooms and pronounce the pictures ‘nice’ or ‘splendid’. . . . this neglect of inner meanings. . . . this vain squandering of artistic power is called ‘art for art’s sake’” (p. 16).  Perhaps his tone is related to what his belief that humans “hunger consciously or, much more often, unconsciously for their corresponding spiritual food” (p. 18).  

So What?

My curiosity about this notion of 'spiritual in art' arises from a bias that there's something about aesthetic experience that facilitates a moment where humans transcend individual interest solely captivated by the awe or beauty of the experience of art, music, theater, dance, etc.  I've stood before works where people were like wow! and felt this sense that undivided attention was toward the wowness such that individual concerns were suspended but for a moment.   Additionally, a few years ago I researched the worldview and leadership of Vaclav Havel a playwright who later became president of Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic).  Since I studied his life and learned about his 'spirituality' grounded in a sense of connectedness and responsibility - I am fascinated by the special role, power, and influence artists have in society.  In Havel's case, a playwright and his cadre inspired the Velvet Revolution.  Kandinsky's work provides a framework via the triangle to understand art and artist's importance beyond the material toward meaning, purpose and transcendence.  I realize in using the word transcendence I'm not defining it - this too is a term I want to learn more about.  Reading Kandinsky is but a starting point in this exploration - finally, this work was written early in Kandinsky's career - it would be good to read more of his ideas to further clarify definition and meaning of key constructs:  spiritual, sacred, inner meaning, and inner need, for examples.  

Sources

WassilyKandinsky.net Retrieved from http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/

Kandinsky, W., & Sadler, M.T.H. (2010). Concerning the spiritual in art.  Readaclassic.com   You can also download this book in PDF format.  

 

Source:  All images of Kandinsky's art retrieved from http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/  and are for noncommercial use.  

Exhibit: Sonoran Light by Bruce Munro at the #DBG #Phoenix #Art

If you live in Phoenix or are traveling to Phoenix over the holidays - buy your tickets now to the Bruce Munro Sonoran Light exhibit held at the Desert Botanical Garden.  Heralded in by a gorgeous cool Phoenix night, the preview event was spectacular.

Desert Botanical Garden - View

Desert Botanical Garden - View

It's difficult to describe Bruce Munro's work.  Oh, yea, I can say optic fiber and lights covering the hill and the landscape.  But I suspect in saying this you're like - why is this special.  I think the difficulty is that Munro's work is partly visible with a whole lot of experiential.  Imagine night time - seeing familiar territory now 'breathing' light, like the night sky with pulses, changing colors, and a feeling of life.  I'm realizing as I write this that I do not have words; perhaps seeing some examples in the video might help communicate how powerful Munro's work is.  

An exclusive tour of Bruce Munro's "Light" on display at Cheekwood Gardens in Nashville. Using an inventive array of materials and hundreds of miles of glowing optic fiber, this is one of the biggest visual artworks of the year.

This was my first sight - these incredible pillars of changing light with the mountain as a backdrop, a mountain covered in light.  Sun was mostly set, the air was cool, planes in the night sky heading to Sky Harbor, and here I stood seeing this beautiful array of colors in the midst of cactus and coolness.  

At times I felt as though I were in a science fiction movie - complete with neural pathways, networks, and pulsing communication bandwidth...

Other photos of incredible shapes and experiences...

What I love about this sort of exhibit is how lovely the desert is for light, the shapes, textures, and coolness creating a special place and experience.  There were many families exploring the DBG, I was moved by children's responses and association with 'being in another world"  I heard one child say - wouldn't it be cool if the desert always had colors like this.  Another child launched into a story about another planet including a description of life there.   I heard many adults say "Wow, this is incredible" This, to me, is the power of art and beauty - activating the imagination, igniting a sense of awe, wonder, and appreciation for beauty.

To learn more about Bruce Munro:

Bruce Munro is noted for his immersive site-specific installations that employ light to evoke emotional response, often in an outdoor context and on a monumental scale. His practice is a mediation of memory, moments of shared human connection, and incorporates a fascination for components and an inventive urge for reuse.




Book: The Artisan Soul by Erwin McManus

Crafting Your Life Into a Work of Art presents the byline and focus of Erwin McManus' book addressing humans as created beings.  His starting point, a theological commitment to God as creator, resonates with my fascination with creativity specifically that people create, are creative, and must express themselves.  Our creativity contributes to wildly various forms and genres.  And yet - somehow along the way some lose a sense of their creativity.  This loss manifests itself through expressions like "I'm not creative" or "I wish I were creative like that" or "I don't have a creative bone in my body."   In McManus' words, creativity is that which makes us uniquely human.  

“To deny our creative nature is to choose a life where we are less and thus responsible for less. We see ourselves as created beings, so we choose to survive. When we see ourselves as creative beings, we must instead create.”
— McManus, 2014, p. 7

The question asked:  "What if the creative act is not an act against nature but an expression of our nature?" (p. 9) moves us toward a reframing of notions around our creative capacity.  Too often, creativity is assigned to a nebulously identified 'creative class.' My question:  who are those people?   Admittedly, I'm guilty - I'm not an artist, I'm not creative, I'm not gifted....like that.  Notice the vagueness of 'that.'  Where does this negative inner voice come from?  Do you hear it in your head?  

McManus reminds us of the nature of art, creativity, and imagination (direct ""): 

  • Art exists to remind us that we have a soul, the essence of being human, transcendent (p. 14). 
  • Creativity is the natural result of spirituality (p. 17).     
  • The only art we can create is that which authentically reflects who we are. . . . every true artist fights for their creativity (pp. 18, 33).  
  • The role of the artist is partly to interpret the human story. . . . to be an interpreter of human possibility (p. 76).  
  • The soul feeds on the imagination. . . . imagination always precedes creativity (p. 101).
  • All art has an underlying narrative for which it advocates; all art is a declaration of meaning or the lack of it; all art is created both for self expression and for the extension of self (p. 106).   
  • Design thinking:  the process is informed less by the product than by the people it serves. . . . what matters is how what we create affects and serves humanity (p. 111).  
  • Art has in its universe words like creativity, inspiration, beauty, and imagination, but in that same universe are words like perseverance, resilience, tenacity, and discipline (p. 140).  

At the end of McManus' book, he provided a series of practices to foster soul work; find our voice; change our perspective, materialize dreams, become 'great' at our work; be human and reclaim our humanity; and live fully.    

This is one of many books on my reading list for a research project exploring creativity - McManus' contributes to my understanding of God as creator and how that creativity or capacity to create manifests itself in us.  Our need to create is essential, a way to create meaning and stories illustrative of who we are, our deepest beliefs, questions, fears, and messages.  Creativity is about voice - what needs to be said, what messages are vital.  Finally, creativity and the many forms it takes are revelatory of God's essence.  In other words, we learn something about Him when we witness, observe, and experience others' creation.  

Questions

How does our 'work' regardless of what it is contribute to our sense of creativity towards fostering imagination?  

How might the prevailing leadership style within an organization influence individual and collective capacities, imagination, courage, risk taking, and innovative possibilities?

What types of spaces contribute to one's sense of possibility, wonder, and imagination?

Once we experience a sense that "I'm not creative" how do we reclaim our essential nature as creative beings?

How do our educational approaches foster creativity, one's sense of and capacity to imagine, design, and create?

#Baltimore #StreetArt Sampling

Roughly three hours - this is the time I had to explore Baltimore - not nearly enough time in a city with such a rich heritage and many things to do.   Maddeningly insufficient when I realized Baltimore's focus on street art murals via the Baltimore Mural Project which has added over 250 murals in the city since 1975 and the Baltimore Open Walls project organized by Gaia, a Baltimore based street artist.  

Gaia

Gaia

To focus my efforts (and feel a sense of do-ability), I decided to spend my time in the Station North Arts & Entertainment district using the map published on the Open Walls Project site.  Tip for a novice Baltimore driver - pay attention to one way street signs - let's just say perhaps there were times I missed the sign and ended up going the wrong way which I only noticed when I realized cars were parked facing the other direction...thank heavens there wasn't a lot of traffic!

On my way there, I found these two cuties by Pixel Pancho (a FAV street artist) and a new fav Nether 410, a Baltimore street artist.  

Really cool pieces by Jaz. 

A stunning piece by Ernest Shaw

Overunder tribute to Dennis Livingston, a Baltimore activist - the detail on this was incredible!  

Vhils is always easy on the eye!  Love the context of this...

For all my love of murals, I also love graffiti!  There's something very cool about lettering and the creative way graffiti artists work - it's a different genre equally visually interesting and communicative.

A highlight of my walk was a visit to Graffiti Alley, an L-shaped alley off Howard, between Howard and Maryland.  A legal place in the city for Graffiti.

For all the pictures - view slide show:

I finished my walk at Red Emma's, a radical bookstore, coffee shop, and learning space - The Baltimore Free School.  According to Red Emma's mission:

“It’s possible to build institutions that directly put values like sustainability and democracy to work. . . to build a resource for movements for social justice. . . . to be “radical” is to go to the root of the problem, to not be afraid to attack root causes rather than be distracted by the symptoms on the surface. ”
— Red Emma's Mission https://redemmas.org/about

The purpose of the Baltimore Free School is stated as "collective learning and participatory education. . . . the empowerment of the people of all ages and backgrounds to share and learn is vital to the health of any community. . . . we work toward creating a space where the exchange of ideas can occur. . .a space where we can learn to relate to other in new and meaningful ways."  Wow!  This truly speaks to my heart about what I believe the focus of education should be.  Approaches grounded solely in Information transmission type methods and purposes are inadequate to inspire, empower, and foster learning and the raising of individual and collective consciousness beyond material conditions and historical situatedness.  Education is not value free - it's rooted in a philosophy and assumptions about the human persons and our shared being.   We must create those spaces where people identify and name biases and assumptions influencing thinking, decision making, and interactions....education should be about this...MUST be about this.  Our human home and sense of interconnectedness demands this persistent attention to consciousness raising and transformation.  Okay - I'm on a soap box (smile).  I had not heard of the Baltimore Free School before this trip - I'm so happy I ended my walk here - the mixture of things I love - street art, graffiti, coffee, books, and education.  Really looking forward to a return trip to Baltimore!  Lots more to explore, murals to see!

Sources

Baltimore Free School.  Retrieved from http://freeschool.redemmas.org/

Baltimore Mural Project.  Retrieved from http://www.promotionandarts.org/arts-council/baltimore-mural-program

Baltimore Open Walls Project.  Retrieved from http://openwallsbaltimore.com

Ernest Shaw article.  Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/baltimore-artist-creates-images-to-uplift-communities

Gaia website.  Retrieved from http://www.gaiastreetart.com

Graffiti Alley Article Retrieved from https://hiddenbaltimore.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/baltimores-graffiti-alley/

Nether 410 website.  Retrieved from http://www.nether410.com

Overunder website.  Retrieved from http://eriktburke.com/

Pixel Pancho website.  Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/PIXELPANCHO

Red Emma's website.  Retrieved from https://redemmas.org/

Station North Arts & Entertainment District.  Retrieved from http://www.stationnorth.org

Vhils website.  Retrieved from http://www.alexandrefarto.com/