I’d never spoken face-to-virtual-face with E Oscar Maynard of Tenderheart Press until I invited them to chat with me for this series, and I’m so grateful they took a leap of faith to participate. Some of the themes of our conversation are:
Art as medicine, both personal and collective: Oscar’s letterpress practice began as their own emotional release and healing, and over time it became a vehicle for collective grief and joy too. The medicine they makes for themself is what others need as well. (I relate to this for my coaching practice, too!)
Protecting the medicine of creative practice from capitalism: Oscar sometimes struggles with self-doubt and worries that being a professional artist means the purpose of his work is subsumed by capitalism, and shares some of the ways he counteracts that.
Seeing adversaries as human doesn’t mean accepting harm. We touch on the spiritual challenge of finding the humanity in others, even our oppressors. The point isn’t to excuse or forgive: it’s that holding that perspective gives us more grounded power than dehumanizing them right back.
Permission to fail is permission to try. Oscar’s closing practice is simple: do the thing a lot, and fail a lot. Remember that what’s for you will find you.
Read show transcript.
Support Tenderheart Press:
* Browse the shop
* Follow @tenderheartpress on IG
I’m having a couple more conversations around the question: how do we show up for “the work” and for ourselves when the stakes are so high? Tune in live on IG:
* Wednesday, April 1 at 12pm PT with Dean Spade
* Wednesday, April 8 at 1pm PT with meital yaniv