All tagged Guest writer series
I’m Priscille Bukasa, a spoken word artist, teaching artist, and arts facilitator at Arts Commons. I’m also a full-time professional artist, and I’ve been reflecting a lot on the importance of rest lately. So, I wanted to share with you about how I’ve learned to be intentional about making time to rest and recoup over the past year.
Every other dawn before the birds take to their singing, I sit at my desk thinking of the myriad ways a story can be told or a life lived to appease a foe’s aggro or appeal to the sentiments of readers and spectators waiting to be intrigued; people asking to be enthralled in a web, a weaving that transforms the acts and flaws of a character into the magic created from a marriage of the mind, the ink, and a blank sheet of paper; the most perfect threesome ever since man opened his eyes to see the breaking of dawn and the falling of dusk, the two constants that determine his days, ways, and the canvas on which he paints his masterpieces.
In 1975, in the heart of Venezuela, Maestro Jose Abreu initiated a groundbreaking program that would not only shape the lives of countless individuals but also revolutionize the approach to music education. This program, known as El Sistema, was designed to give kids a safe haven off of the streets, by providing them with the opportunity to learn music, play instruments, and cultivate their minds in multidisciplinary ways.
Growing up, art held a special place in my heart and began with my older sister. She's the one who kick-started my artistic journey, and it's sort of a ritual of ours that she insists I acknowledge her role. “Don't forget to tell people where it started,” she playfully reminds me before speaking or writing anything art-related. It's our little inside joke.
What’s the point? Why spend so many hours painting portraits that will soon be destroyed? Why put so much effort into a “passion” that nobody cares about? What’s the point when none of us or our art matters anyways in the end?
On May 1st, 2023, with little fanfare, the World Health Organization declared the end of the COVID-19 global emergency. The virus that had ravaged the world for just over three years, forced many into isolation, devastated workplaces, and took loved ones from us, has now faded to background noise of booster shots and broken trust. Should we not be happy? We made it…?
Art is my medicine. More accurately, it is our medicine. Because we are inseparable.
Art has always been medicine for human beings. Cultures across the world acknowledge medicines, powers, and gifts within various images and art forms.
It has been this way for my ancestors and it is this way for me.
I am not a trained artist.
Art is my teacher.
