Support the Creation of Building The Road

Help me raise money to edit the second draft of my book project Building The Road As We Walk: Our Creative Future in Features, Gleanings, and Colloquialisms which has had excerpts published in Present Magazine, Testing Ground Journal, and The New York City Jazz Record. These funds will go directly to pay an editor for their work on the entire manuscript!

Why Build The Road? Miami based performance artist Corey Johnson helps us understand in this short interview. Click here to watch!

Previously, as the director of The Creative Center, a nonprofit that provided free arts programs in 9 hospitals across New York City, we annually served 10,000 chronically ill people from all walks of life. I worked to shape a teaching team of 70 artists deployed in public and private hospitals, community spaces, and virtual spaces during and after COVID-19. While working in health systems, I began to see committed artists holding an organically acquired wealth of knowledge that will make them the leaders of our changing world.

Organizing events that helped people realize their many talents was such a highlight of this work! Check out this video for an example of that!

Often, it felt like people served through this program, many after just being given a terminal diagnosis or an earth-shattering wake-up call that all of their life patterns would need to be adapted around the discovery of a chronic illness, had just begun living by falling in love with art. The participants' work painting, writing, knitting, sculpting, and singing with the artists on my team allowed them to be more than statistics on monitors or labels on charts. These patients could redefine who they were, and art gave them new tools and vocabulary to do just that.

After eight years, I left The Creative Center to discover more of what was needed across areas of life where systems were failing just like they were in hospitals. I decided to survey the many creative communities I intersect with to conceptualize new life configurations that might make us less anxious about our changing world. In 2024, I started to send out an 11-question survey designed to gather thoughts from individuals who self-identify as artists to examine divergent thinking, abstract reasoning, and the ability to redefine problems within creative communities. This has become the foundation of a book project that I am raising money to edit.

Building The Road As We Walk: Our Creative Future in Features, Gleanings, and Colloquialisms is modeled after the format of naturalist field guides to distinguish what you need to create, how to start creating it, and what is at your disposal to do so. In its content, Building The Road centers on understanding creative skill sets to empower all people to treat their life as art, to cherish and share it, and to help build a new culture.