Tales of Our Sisters

In today's episode, I found myself reflecting on the past 2 years since the pandemic hit, and how it forced us to look all around to see that life was more than unsatisfactory: we were deprived of truly living, and living creatively. My journey since then has been all about choosing myself and what this life has to offer, and leaning on heart and creativity more than anything else. 

This episode is for those of us still struggling to introduce the normalcy of play, creation, and imagination into our everyday lives. For those of us who had no choice but to continue working or living in environments that didn't encourage creation. For those of us who may even have that time and space now, but no one to play with. No idea how to start.

Creation is about movement. Leaps. Doing something different. So I beg the question, Are You Ready To Live A Creative Life?

I reference Black women writers and hosts Johnica Rivers and Gabrielle Hickmon of their Twitter space, Artists We Will Be.

"Cosmic" beat by Urban Nerd Beats

When we think about relationships, we inherently know the basics of how to keep them alive: provide attention, communication, growth, care, and love (to name a few). What if I told you there is a relationship between you and your craft, and there's a great chance the reason you feel so far away from it is that you aren't nurturing that relationship? It's become a burden, nagging you for not showing up for it. Your guilt is manifested in neglect because you can't bare to face the truth: you're scared to disappoint it. You know you're not putting in work. Shit, maybe you don't know how. You show up for other people, places, and things while your art is begging you to love and see it. Appreciate it, but not half-heartedly?

In this episode, I discuss a moment that brought me to this realization, and how this realization is shaping how I not only see my art as a lover/child, but how important it is to show up for it and what it expects of me.

music by JustDanBeats

I've been away for a bit too long. And some may say I needed the break, while others (myself) knows any longer, and I might have quit. And while I advocate for quitting, I also stan for pushing through. Discernment is the key. And if you're not confident, confused, and unsure of which is which, a productive rest may be necessary.

...but what is that?

Article Mentioned: "Ditch the Persona and Find Your Muse" by Joe Lazauskas

Audio by: F3licity Beats

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Work pulled me away, but it also brought me back. It's a beautiful thing that's been abused and soiled down, misunderstood, and seen as the enemy. But what if it's our relationship with work that's stopping us from doing it? What if work ain't so bad? What if we made peace with the truth, that we can run but we can't hide from the duties our purpose begs us to perform? What if we embraced the responsibilities of living this life?

What if we let work bring us back to ourselves?

Listen for an update and a message. Missed you guys.

Okay, so... someone you look up to has granted you the permission to be your weird, romantic, dark, twisted self from the art they so shamelessly make and the baton they've passed. You're beside yourself. You're bashful from their audacity, and judging from the tingles shooting up your spine, you're inspired af. "I can MAKE what I want! But... can I? What about this? Well, what about that?"

In this episode, I (re)affirm your idols in reminding you that, yes, you really can create what you want. But what will it take to help you get to that point of shamelessness? I name (and slam, lol) the three thoughts you'll have on this journey as you unlearn listening to that voice telling you no. We're making room for our honesty and our intrigue. We're doing flips with our obsessions as the story we want appears across the page. Not the story you think will matter to people. Not what can get you paid and admired. Not what doesn't really sit with your spirit because you're still judging your obsessions... none of that.

If you're going to tell a story, give yourself permission to tell it. Your imagination is too precious to ignore, so grab a chair and make friends with it.

And be ready to transform.

On today's episode, I introduce to you the podcast's new segment, Words With Friends, where I sit down and have a conversation with a Black woman storyteller about their art, their lives, their obsessions, and their techniques.

Today, we're joined by Yasmina Price, a writer, researcher, and Ph.D. student currently obtaining her degree in both African American Studies and Film/Media Studies at Yale University. She’s written brilliant essays highlighting Black filmmakers across the diaspora for sites such as Vulture Magazine, Criterion, The New York Inquiry, and The Metrograph. It was her essay on Kathleen Collins titled “Kathleen Collins’s Ecstatic Self-Discovery,” for the New York Review of Books that made my heart leap. And in our conversation, we talk about all things Kathleen, from her teaching the interior perspective, the lack of tools provided to do so consistently, her contribution to lush, intimate Black storytelling, and just how radical that position was.

Follow Yasmina here: https://twitter.com/jasminprix

Her Kathleen article: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/02/29/kathleen-collinss-ecstatic-self-discovery/

theme song prod by: @JLeslieMonique 

“I am interested in how human beings evolve; a consciousness that is true to who they are in HERE. In the center of their being. I am interested in telling stories that give pleasure to the psyche.” —Kathleen Collins

In this episode, I introduce to you all our monthly masterclass, where we visit key elements to telling a story from our ancestors of the arts. To kick it off, we study from the late filmmaker, playwright, poet, novelist, and professor Kathleen Collins, who passed way too soon but left behind bold work that explored the beauty of our Black mundane and nuanced life. From a guest lecture she did at Howard University in 1984, we learn how to begin removing ourselves from the White gaze, the basics of how writing starts with our obsessions, our intrigue with our characters, and the places we give them room to lead us towards in pursuit of documenting their journeys and finding ourselves along the way.

Masterclass Link: https://vimeo.com/203379245

In our very first episode, we start our conversation on the ways we withhold our right to expression, particularly through our stories. Inspired by an essay written by Stephanie Fields, who theorizes how time hasn't always been kind to Black women storytellers of our past, I break down the truth of this thought, highlighting our greats and how they were not afforded the support, freedom, and confidence to be artists. How the fight to simply be killed them, whether in body, mind and/or spirit, right at the brink of true exploration. How we of this generation own the privilege to dream and dream big, and how we can take advantage of it.

Stephanie Fields essay: https://theestablishment.co/solange-beats-the-deadly-clock-constraining-black-women-creatives-2e6d1ce16677/index.html

Welcome to Tales of Our Sisters, a podcast exploring the art within numerous forms of storytelling from the worlds lived and told by Black women storytellers. I'm your host, Cynthia Francillon, and I hope you're as eager as I am to celebrate the imagination belonging to us, and the boldness to express it.