While the in-person work of Back to the Beat continues this year, I felt the need and desire to add something else to the toolbox: A podcast about how people not only cope with daily struggles but manage to stay optimistic and motivated during some pretty dark moments in the past and in the present. I’ve teamed up with regular collaborator Natalie Helm of “Upward Notes” to bring “Mission Artist” to the podcast world. My apologies ahead of time, but there’s no short version for the back story.
It started in the month of May. I tried blogging about the things that gave me hope, but like a lot of people, with the continuous newsfeed of war, suffering, mass shootings, natural disasters caused by global warming, and fear/hate becoming acceptable political platforms – I found it hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I thought about turning off the newsfeed in general, but an article about a rose bush popped up in my newsfeed and it started an internal conversation. This was a rosebush that had been planted by an incarcerated Japanese American family at the Granada Relocation Center during WWII. The dormant bramble was discovered in the fall of 2021 during a Denver University research dig. The bramble had managed to survive 80 years in the inhospitable climate, then in the Spring, the bramble presented the research team with a single pink bloom. It was described as a witness and testament by one camp survivor and it reminded me of yet another article that had caught my attention earlier in the year – an OpEd by writer and historian Tiya Miles. It began as a mother’s response to their child’s plaintive cry at the dinner table: we’re all going to die… Miles lets her child know, “This is not the end. This is just a change.” What follows is a brilliant essay on the importance of not just knowing history but bearing witness to it and the testimonies of all those that survived, and persevered. She uses the word “blueprint” and it’s the perfect word to describe how Black History gives us the blueprints to put one foot in front of the other in the face of the forces of destruction.
I could blame my parents and their upbringing which makes me less than a firebrand when it comes to issues that matter to me ( 出る釘は打たれる or The nail that sticks out gets hammered down), or I can accept that there are far better firebrands out there and my strength lies in witnessing and sharing their experiences. I firmly believe in the power of shared stories as they validate and include; educate and inspire; offering a light and a map. With that map, we don’t need to turn off the newsfeed or cover our ears. We just listen…
