https://48bconsulting.com/

INVITING: Creators ... writers, poets, painters, builders, etc.

SEEKING: Clients looking for a unique way to improve human performance

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“Beads on a String” by Harriet Bowers recounts the raising of children and the relentless passing of time – how a house full of the happy noise of children can so abruptly become quiet, still, and lonely.  Bowers lacked a formal education, yet she and her husband of more than fifty years raised six daughters in a little house on top of York Hill in northwestern Pennsylvania, and when the kids were grown and gone, she spent her time gardening, writing, and painting in her makeshift studio.  She was an artist, a poet, yet you, dear listeners, have never heard of her because she cared little if anything about the powerful gatekeepers in places like New York and Los Angeles who, for reasons largely related to money and influence, decide unilaterally what is and what is not “art.”  Harriet Bowers, you see, was my grandmother who explored her creativity without having to answer to any of the elites who pull the levers of marketing and celebrity. 

There are many like my grandmother – those who refuse to bow or otherwise compromise their art to appease the latest trend – indeed, to satisfy the infamous “wish list” of some obscure and self-important agent or publisher, and beginning May 5 of 2026, I am going to begin to showcase a few. 

As a professor of English with over twenty-six years of experience in the classroom, I sometimes marvel at how limited we are in the selections we teach.  We might use one writer whose niche is that they are marginalized and oppressed, forgetting the fact that we are reading their work at a major institution of higher learning.  How is that being marginalized, exactly?  While I will be the first to admit that my humble podcast does not have thousands of followers, I will say that the numbers are slowly creeping up.  Perhaps there is a taste for the truly marginalized after all: those who have legitimate voices with legitimate things to say yet do not have what we now call a “platform.”  I chuckle to think of what my grandmother would think of that concept.  Regardless, consider this to be an invitation to you or anybody you know who creates – writes, paints, sculpts, draws, builds, etc.  I review what people create, and I can certainly feature that review on The Professor’s Bayonet. 

I also continue to plug away at promoting my consultancy, 48B.  Story is powerful, and if someone does not know their story or the story of the organization of which they are a part, then their potential will never be reached.  Story and human performance go hand-in-hand.  Our mission is to take what happens in the college classroom out into the corporate world – businesses, youth organization, professional clubs, etc. -- in order to help learners leverage the power of story to accomplish their goals. 

So the bar is high, but the potential yield is worthwhile.  I cherish my grandmother’s poems, and two of her paintings hang in my study to this day.  Let’s champion the underdog artist, the underdog writer.  Let’s work together to bring to light everyone’s story, especially those not endorsed by the gatekeepers, for everyone deserves for the power of story – their story – to be unlocked. 

As always, please like and share.  This podcast only grows with the help of loyal listeners.  Thank you!