Every day I look at a framed poster on my office wall, its message of love and peace beaming down, from John and Yoko. The poster was a gift from a beloved friend who I haven’t seen in quite some time – I wish the circumstances weren’t so. “War is over if you want it.”
There are plenty of us, people and countries and friends and relatives who long for peace. And while I do believe I have to want it, I may also have to work for peace – make it my job. And yet, I choose to believe everything is in alignment just as it is (excepting that is, man-made disasters like war crimes, genocide, climate emergency, inequality and other conditions “unhealthy for children and other living things”). Severed ties, no replies, disappointments and other communication breakdowns may also fall into the category of human failings. So this year of our lord, 2023, certainly didn’t turn out the way I planned it, but my gracious, that is likely for the best (!). With that in mind I make the choice to carry on and employ whatever abilities I have accordingly. What I mean to say is, artists and writers, maybe more so than others but maybe not, use the skills we have to strike back. I mean, doctors help sick people. Caregivers give care. Billionaires could be of help, but often, they go the other way. Just thinking out loud here, but it’s been said writers write, so there’s that.
Pandemics, economic downturns and waiting for the long arc of the moral universe to bend toward justice have historically been periods of great discovery and learning, that is for those who seek knowledge. Turbulent times are valuable to artists and writers and thinkers and doers; it gives us space to get down to the real work of visualizing and implementing change and exercising resistance. And yes, both work and resistance require resilience, and resilience requires care and attention to self. Big questions, like how to tend to our own needs without turning our backs on the wider world at war or away from the people who need us will arise. And yes…I agree, that’s a fine line to walk, and there are times I fail miserably.
Lucky, and I am oh so lucky, living in the Bay Area, I am surrounded by people who provide living examples of the balancing act. I’m thinking right now of artist and activist Megan Wilson. I’ve had the opportunity to interview her several times, most recently about her curatorial and creative role with the Clarion Alley Mural Project’s current installation, Manifest Differently. Successfully merging the political and personal, community organizing and creativity into a holistic vision of making art with a message, Wilson and CAMP point the way for future directions of arts communities to flourish in perilous times. You can link to my full profile of the artist at Bay City News.
Despite the unforeseen this and that, these and those throughout the globe, I struck gold this year when my reporter self found an outlet to tell the stories I want to tell, uncensored and unbothered by market-driven concerns or an editorial board whose political leanings or voting record does not match my own. Independent, non-profit media was not always on my radar. Growing up in capitalism, caught between survival and Aquarian idealism, most of the time I chose survival. That often meant working for people and places I found shall we say, less than savory. Minimum wage in America is not a living wage as anyone who has worked or still works at that rate of pay well knows. Low wage work is painful and it is essential for the world to run as we know it. But maybe, things are changing. I see people rising up, organizing, reasserting their right to unionize and crowding the streets in protest – that makes me hopeful.
In the early part of this century, I was dreaming of people-powered movements coming to life again, the kind the world saw in the Sixties. I began researching and writing a book calling for change – fueled by the power of music. Keep on Pushing published in 2011, a couple of months before the Occupy Wall Street Movement and before Black Lives Matter hit the streets. The book was a vision. The time arrived. The moment passed. We keep working.
My day job as a writing instructor is often a night job. My “students” (strange to call such competent adult writers students) do great work and teaching has become an unexpected source of joy and gratification — the perfect adjunct to the writing life that keeps me engaged with trends and topics writers are interested in exploring and developing. But if I may speak the truth, and you know I will, my own work often takes a back seat to the job. I have once again failed to achieve mastery of life’s balancing act. Some personal and longer term projects were side-burnered, not always of my own choice or making, but so be it. Projects will likely reach completion in the new year and I hope at that time to share them with you. A way will be made.
I hope 2024 brings us all more work and more jobs to do. For now, I’ll leave you with links to my most recent assignments for hire, a review of Sonic Life, by Thurston Moore for the San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, a profile of Nathalie Lermitte and the songs of Edith Piaf, and the aforementioned profile of Wilson. I’m grateful for the weeks when paycheck and passions intersect, and mindful of my privilege to pursue both — in peace.
Filed under: anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-war, books, Clarion Alley Mural Project, John Lennon, Megan Wilson, murals, San Francisco, Yoko Ono
Denise Sullivan 