it seems like this gets lost on people; the value of cultivating a space or being a part of a community where everyone is experimenting and trying things out and meaning is made through the shared experience of trying, working together, learning and processing with each other https://twitter.com/hollyherndon/status/1290024365824892929

i realized over the last few years that the effort of cultivating collective spaces and experiences is a long and non-glamorous one, but the outcome is much greater than anything that could be measured monetarily. i get that i have a predisposition toward thinking and being this

way because of my upbringing, but i also kind of don't have a choice? i never knew solitary joy and as soon as i realized the myth of the solo artist genius was a deep-rooted lie capitalism borrowed from the colonial christian savior narrative, i realized that the only solution

to undoing all of this would be to live out the demonstration of the alternative, and to stick to it in the long-term. i'm super grateful to have had mentors and friends who do the same, and understand that the end goal doesn't always have to be about winning or being the best.

My friend Isabel Lewis introduced me to a book called "Love or greatness: Max Weber and masculine thinking" by Roslyn Wallach Bologh, which eloquently places narratives of greatness, legacy, and historicization as linked to the thinking of a few male theorists of the 20th century

love is SUCH a dirty word when talking about friends, creative scenes, and figuring out solutions together, and understandably contagions of care become cringe because we are all so traumatized from participating in a perpetually commodified world where our ideas are stolen and

quantified and sold back to us for profit. how can we operate from a place of love when fear is the guiding principal of survival, competition, etc., in a music or performance scene? it don't work!!!!

i often think about the memorable, meaningful spaces that no longer exist as portals, and that it takes a certain belief and understanding of what kind of work and people are needed, in order to make these portals re-appear somewhere new.

we need community organizers more than ever who understand that finding new ways of making meaning is an art practice in itself, and that we will suffer a lot less if those spaces of meaningful experiences can be taken care of and cherished, knowing that they are all temporary.

ending this thread by also recommending the incredible book Make Some Space by Emma Warren which catalogs the magical yet challenging alchemy of creating a space, a scene, a place for making meaning
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49903598-make-some-space ! please read and support Emma and her work!