This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:37] Laura Camien: Welcome to The Spark File, your go-to source for creative inspiration. I'm Laura Camien.

[0:43] Susan Blackwell: And I'm Susan Blackwell. If you're an OG listener, welcome back, Sparkler. If you're joining us for the first time, welcome. But you may be asking yourself, what exactly is a spark file? Where do I get one? What do I file in it? These are good questions, and we have answers. A spark file is a place where you consistently collect all your inspirations and fascinations. Here's the deal. We are makers who make all kinds of things. If you're like us and you're making stuff all the time or want to be making stuff all the time, you know that the wellspring of inspiration can run a little dry. So we're on the lookout for fresh ideas, images, and inspiration that spark our creativity and pique our curiosity.

Things that inspire us to get up off of our asses and make things like this podcast. Or a well-versed understanding of the longstanding battle for basic human rights. Oh. Or a creative call to action. Every episode, we're gonna reach into the spark file and exchange some sparks. And from time to time, we're gonna talk to some folks who spark us too. And if you're not careful, you might just be able to imagine a different kind of future. So without further ado, let's open up the spark.

[2:04] Laura Camien: Oh, Blackwell. How are you doing, baby cams?

[2:09] Susan Blackwell: I'm not gonna lie. It's hard to think about much else, you know, besides what's going on in the world right now. It's you know it is hard, but I know that we also, you and I both have all sorts of other responsibilities on top of the things that are going on in the world. On top of the things that are happening in the world, there's also work responsibilities we have, financial responsibilities that we have, responsibilities to family and loved ones. I'm sure I'm singing a tune that everybody is familiar with.

[2:42] Laura Camien: Yeah, and I'm feeling really grateful because I work with people who, you know, at the top of every meeting, at the top of every meeting, there has been an acknowledgement of George Floyd. There has been acknowledgement of feelings and emotions that people are having, and at least naming that focusing on whatever the topic of the meeting is feels um insignificant, you know, somewhat insignificant in light of all the other things we're carrying. I think like to acknowledge that all of this conversation, held the conversation you and I are having right now rests on top of these things that are happening in the world.

[3:28] Susan Blackwell: Yep, it really does. So here we are.

[3:33] Laura Camien: So here we are. I'm not gonna lie, my spark is highly influenced by all of this, Suze. All of it.

[3:42] Susan Blackwell: Excellent. Excellent. I'm just gonna jump in and tell you just like, yeah, everything that's happening in the world, the brutal murder of George Floyd, the ensuing protests, and incredibly important conversations about Black Lives Matter, and why all lives matter doesn't quite cut it. The social media blackout, the pallets of bricks, or possibly no pallets of bricks, the white supremacists, the boogaloo boys, Antifa, the president's photo op, straight to the center of it.

[4:18] Laura Camien: Oh my god, General Mattis condemning his behavior. I mean, it has been a real challenge to think of anything else mattering right now. Like, is there anything more important than human rights? And in particular, black human rights. So this week got me thinking, I mean, among other things, first of all, why the hell is this a battle that still has to be fought? Right. You know, why do black and brown people still have to fight for their rights over and over and over again? What does it say about humankind that centuries and centuries go by and we can't agree on the fact that humans are humans and we deserve equal rights?

[5:04] Susan Blackwell: I think there's a—and if I if I'm jumping your spark and you're gonna get to this, then please tell me to shut the fuck up. But there's something about I know you will, you sweet, sweet girl. Uh there's something about this idea we were talking about this uh last night. This is a problem that was created by white people, and the idea that people of color, black people, brown people have to fight for these rights or solve this, I feel like is completely inaccurate and inappropriate. I feel like this was uh situations this was created by white people. And I think I think that um white people need to do a lot of work to find and implement solutions around this.

[5:58] Laura Camien: That's not the entire topic of my spark, but I'm in complete agreement with you.

[6:04] Susan Blackwell: Rock on. You know what I mean? I'm just yeah, I agree with you. It's um it's not their problem to solve. There's a lot of white people that have some real work to do ahead. Um, you know, I got to thinking about just what does it say about America that we can't agree on equal rights a hundred and fifty years after slavery was abolished.

[6:41] Laura Camien: And the word I realized I was looking for is not great. I can tell you that the word is not great. Great doesn't even come close to describing uh America in, you know, as long as we don't figure this out. So we live in a society where we deny groups of people human rights, and then we're shocked or we criticize when people fight for their rights or fight for their lives, literally.

[7:17] Susan Blackwell: So I got sparked thinking about the long history of protesting, because this is top of mind as I'm watching this play out. And I started to wonder whether or not it's ever been truly successful in making change. I don't know.

[7:36] Laura Camien: Yeah, I don't know about you, but I really needed to know if there was hope that true social justice and genuine social change might actually be a result of all of this. So I had to dig into it as you. I love this, especially pursuant to our conversation with Donna Lieberman, where she was saying that uh yes to peaceful protest, yes to civil disobedience, but no to become a violent protest. Uh I thought that was so interesting because she is a person who has been around long enough that she has seen all manner of protest. She has been part of all different kinds of protests. So I felt like she had an informed opinion about that.

[8:30] Susan Blackwell: She did, and she really sparked some of this uh thinking. Um, and I'm gonna get into that peaceful versus um civil disobedience, too.

[8:40] Laura Camien: So you're so right on target, Blackwell. Bucking here for this part.

[8:45] Susan Blackwell: Thanks for doing this.

[8:47] Laura Camien: Thanks for doing this.

[8:48] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm here for you. So, first of all, I had to remind myself is peaceful protest a right protected by the Constitution, and the answer, you might be surprised to know, is yes, sort of, kind of. The First Amendment reads, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

[9:39] Laura Camien: Got it, got it, got it.

[9:41] Susan Blackwell: So it doesn't like explicitly say it, but if you mash those three things together, it does protect us. But according to law, any public property can be used for a traditional public forum where ideas are shared, but most state and city ordinances require notice and appropriate permits if the demonstration plans to do things like make noise, like uh amplify volume.

[10:07] Laura Camien: Right, right, right.

[10:07] Susan Blackwell: Or cross uh plans to cross traffic during a march or gather in such a large crowd that it blocks pedestrian or vehicle traffic. However, this was interesting. Police cannot use failure to secure a permit in response to demonstrations that respond to breaking news. So, for example, like when a verdict is announced in a high-profile case like Rodney King, demonstrations can and did pop up immediately, and the police are not allowed to shut it down just because you didn't file a permit in advance.

[10:49] Laura Camien: So good to know.

[10:51] Susan Blackwell: Permits are nice, but if something is happening in real time, protests can absolutely fully uh uh like spring to life in a moment's notice. Interesting. So there's been many, many relatively peaceful protests in history that are well known. And uh I just want to touch on a couple. These are like, trust me, there's multiple stories to be told in each and every one of these. But these are in in other countries, some peaceful protests.

[11:26] Laura Camien: Uh, the salt march in 1930, Gandhi led a peaceful protest against Britain's rule by walking 240 miles, followed by dozens of other people to uh yeah.

[11:39] Susan Blackwell: I don't know. Did you ever see that movie, Gandhi?

[11:42] Laura Camien: I it has been decades.

[11:44] Susan Blackwell: It's been a long time because we would have been children, but I remember that that movie really did this moment justice because I have a real clear visual in my mind. But he um was walking to the Arabian Sea to collect a bit of salt out of the sea because this exact act had been deemed illegal by the British. No Indian could collect or sell salt in the country.

[12:05] Laura Camien: Wow.

[12:05] Susan Blackwell: So it took 17 years, but eventually India gained independence from Britain. This one I hadn't heard of, the singing revolution. Um, it did bring me a little bit of joy to think about this though. In 1988, more than 100,000 Estonians literally gathered to sing their way out of Soviet Union rule. They sang for five nights straight in protest, and it was known as the singing revolution. Just two years later in 1991, this little small country regained its independence from the Soviet Union.

[12:43] Laura Camien: Can I ask Camille? And if from your research, do you know, like why was that effective?

[12:50] Susan Blackwell: Why was the singing revolution and singing for five nights effective? I'm gonna get into not specifically the singing revolution, but I'm gonna get into what makes peaceful protests effective.

[13:02] Laura Camien: Awesome.

[13:03] Laura Camien: Um, the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989, although the Berlin Wall had divided East and West Berlin for 28 years, in 1989, repeated public protests started to take place.

[13:19] Susan Blackwell: And those protests put pressure on the German government.

[13:22] Laura Camien: And two months later, that was one of the quickest I'd seen like a response to.

[13:27] Susan Blackwell: Two months later, they demolished the wall.

[13:29] Laura Camien: I remember that moment from high school.

[13:31] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[13:31] Laura Camien: I remember Tom Brockall being like they're dancing on the bird.

[13:35] Susan Blackwell: So huge. Huge. So I'm not meaning it to sound like those are nice and tidy protests that lead, you know, to change immediately. Not at all. Sometimes protests are just the inciting incident. Um, and it can take months or years or decades to see change happen. But looking at those other countries' examples did give me a little hope that peaceful protests can make a change. But here we are in America. And I would like to specifically focus on some of the protests throughout U.S. history that black or brown people have had to organize, whether planned or spontaneous acts of protest, just to try to call attention to their human rights, and perhaps help us all begin to understand just how many fights, how many battles have been fought on the way to their desired freedom. There's so many more than what I'm about to share, and we're in the midst of many more because we're not there yet.

[14:39] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. Um here are just a few. One that comes to mind immediately is the silent parade of July 28, 1917. The New York Times said of this parade the following day. This is a quote. To the beat of muffled drums, 8,000 Negro men, women, and children marched down Fifth Avenue yesterday in a parade of silent protest against acts of discrimination and oppression. The protests were silent. Think about that. That is amazing. Silent, no rallying cries, nothing. The women were white, the men wore black, and it was an incredibly powerful event, which is considered possibly the first African American civil rights march in our country. Certainly it was the first in New York City. The Bowery Boys podcast just did a great episode about this protest and the brutal violence against blacks that led up to it. So check that out.

[15:43] Susan Blackwell: That is an amazing spark. Isn't that incredible? I want to see that movie. I want people to bring that story to life. Oh my God. Amazing. Amazing. Um, of course, there was the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Rosa Sparks famously refusing to take her place at the back of the Montgomery bus.

[16:04] ⚠ About 4 minutes of audio could not be automatically transcribed.

[20:25] Susan Blackwell: During the 1960s, it was considered illegal for people to dress as anything other than their birth gender.

[20:32] Laura Camien: And bars had specific qualifications on how many, quote, correctly gendered pieces of clothing a person had to be wearing before they could be served.

[20:43] Susan Blackwell: It was fucking shit.

[20:44] Laura Camien: This is like yesterday.

[20:45] Susan Blackwell: Really?

[20:46] Laura Camien: This is like it's too much.

[20:49] Susan Blackwell: It was also illegal for homosexual couples to hold hands, kiss, show any kind of public affection, or even gather together.

[20:56] Laura Camien: So oftentimes, if the police believed you to be, quote, too gay for public viewing, you could be fined for disorderly conduct.

[21:04] Susan Blackwell: The Stonewall Inn, located on Christopher Street in New York, was a favorite target of police and subject to many raids and seizures.

[21:12] Laura Camien: Witnesses have said that police officers would often bring suspected cross-dressers into the bathrooms and force them to strip down to prove their birth gender.

[21:23] Susan Blackwell: On June 28, 1969.

[21:26] Laura Camien: On top of trauma.

[21:28] Susan Blackwell: On top of trauma.

[21:30] Laura Camien: It's too much.

[21:32] Susan Blackwell: On June 28, 1969, enough was finally enough.

[21:36] Laura Camien: And following a police raid and the arrest of 13 people, five days of protesting began.

[21:43] Susan Blackwell: On the first anniversary of those riots, the world saw its first pride parade called Christopher Street Libertarian Day, where protesters chanted out, say it loud, gay is proud.

[21:57] Laura Camien: So that is Marcia.

[22:00] Susan Blackwell: And then, you know, more famous and more visible are protests like the March on Washington, which was 1963, where 200,000 people gathered in the nation's capital to protest injustices for black Americans.

[22:18] Laura Camien: This protest ended with Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech delivered during a rally to promote racial equality in the United States.

[22:28] Susan Blackwell: And this event is often credited with pressuring JFK to write concrete civil rights legislation.

[22:37] Laura Camien: And then there's Selma.

[22:39] Susan Blackwell: In 1965, black Americans had been granted the right to vote, but major voter suppression was occurring in Alabama.

[22:48] Laura Camien: Protesters planned to march from Selma to Montgomery, but were brutally attacked by state protesters and forced to retreat.

[22:56] Susan Blackwell: And this brings up a very interesting point.

[23:01] Laura Camien: This entire time I've been mentioning peaceful protests and the fact that they're protected by the Constitution.

[23:08] Susan Blackwell: What about violent ones?

[23:10] Laura Camien: No, violent protests are considered civil disobedience and it is not protected, although some groups consciously use it to get the attention that their cause needs.

[23:22] Susan Blackwell: Unfortunately, while it might get them media attention for a short while, typically it has not fared well when a group is violent.

[23:31] Laura Camien: Potential allies and supporters are turned off when they see that your group is harming others.

[23:36] Susan Blackwell: What is most successful is when nonviolent protest can bring out the ugly violent side of the government or the state.

[23:46] Laura Camien: This is a little twisted.

[23:48] Susan Blackwell: In a recent article in The New Yorker, they featured an interview with Omar Wasau, a professor of politics at Princeton.

[23:56] Laura Camien: Omar studies protest movements and their effects on politics and elections.

[24:00] Susan Blackwell: And he said this about Selma.

[24:02] Laura Camien: That's fucking fascinating.

[24:04] Susan Blackwell: What?

[24:05] Laura Camien: That he studies that?

[24:06] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[24:07] Laura Camien: Yes.

[24:07] Susan Blackwell: I mean, it's that article is incredible.

[24:11] Laura Camien: And it just came out a few days ago.

[24:13] Susan Blackwell: So if you can find it, the New Yorker Omar Wasau, amazing.

[24:18] Laura Camien: Um, he said this about Selma.

[24:20] Susan Blackwell: The interesting thing to me that came out of this research was the civil rights leaders were picking Birmingham and Selma specifically because they had police chiefs with hair-triggered tendencies toward violence.

[24:33] Laura Camien: So there was this strategic use of violence by the civil rights movement, but it was to be the object of violence, not the instigators of violence.

[24:43] Susan Blackwell: Oh my God.

[24:45] Laura Camien: Oh my god.

[24:46] Susan Blackwell: It's it's I I understand the strategy of it, and I think the wow.

[24:59] Laura Camien: They put their bodies into their fight.

[25:01] Susan Blackwell: They did.

[25:02] Laura Camien: It's an incredible risk to take, but it's one that peaceful protesters know all too well.

[25:09] Susan Blackwell: Those in power, the police, the military, the government may often be the first to show a display of force.

[25:16] Laura Camien: So the flip side of that, also from the New Yorker article, uh Professor Wasau says, so I think there's a lot of evidence that nonviolent tactics can be effective.

[25:28] Susan Blackwell: You saw this on the first day in Minneapolis, where the police showed up with the excess of force, and you had these images of children running away and police dressed like stormtroopers.

[25:39] Laura Camien: So a nonviolent protest where we see state excess is a very powerful and sympathetic narrative for the cause of fighting police violence.

[25:50] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[25:50] Laura Camien: That has an unfortunate side effect of muddying the story.

[25:55] Susan Blackwell: Instead of talking about the history of police killings in Minneapolis, they are we're talking about a store going up in flames, and the focus is on reporting tends to shift from a justice frame to a crime frame.

[26:11] Laura Camien: And that is the unfortunate thing for a protest movement.

[26:14] Susan Blackwell: It ends up undermining the interest of the advocates.

[26:17] Laura Camien: So just thinking about that for a minute, like I was fascinated by this topic of violent protests, because I think you can see now that the stories are getting muddy and they're intentionally confused.

[26:29] Susan Blackwell: So you can't tell who started the violence.

[26:32] Laura Camien: That's in that confusion is intentional because it's all about detracting support for the peaceful protesters.

[26:42] Susan Blackwell: And if you can get people to believe that those protesters incited the violence, they will lose support and the protest will dwindle.

[26:50] Laura Camien: This reminds me of this conversation that we've had.

[26:53] Susan Blackwell: I've had it in life, I believe I've had it on the podcast, though they tend to blend together and I can't keep track anymore.

[26:59] Laura Camien: But it's about storytelling.

[27:01] Susan Blackwell: Whether you're a political organizer, whether you're a scientist, whether you're a researcher, whether you work for insurance reform, you have to find a way and a platform to tell that story clearly, or the story just doesn't make it to the light of day.

[27:21] Laura Camien: And I'm thinking now with what you're describing with these protests and the ensuing coverage that comes out of it, you I've seen, I've seen on in, especially on social media where people are like, don't get distracted. They're trying to get you to look over here at the crime aspect, you're looking in the wrong place. Like they are, it's like a magic trick, and they're trying to get you to look in the wrong direction.

[27:51] Susan Blackwell: That's right. And in terms of the storytelling, visuals tell a very strong story. So if they can capture photographs of someone who appears to be on the peaceful protester side, but is throwing um, you know, a firebomb into a building, um, yeah, then you've lost, you've lost that story. You've lost control of that story entirely. Um it's clear like if the story is clear that the protesters are peaceful and that it is the police, the military or the government who are violent towards them.

[28:29] Laura Camien: Well, history has shown that in that case, large swaths of people will respond in support of the protesters. This is making me think of like uh Tiananmen Square. So you had peaceful protesters, students sitting, literally like sitting for days, and then the government brings in tanks.

[28:48] Susan Blackwell: Yes. And so that kind of story, I mean that's not the kind of story like the government actually wants to get out. But when people saw those images, they were outraged.

[29:02] Laura Camien: Yeah. So speaking of supporters, in an article on courts by Dan Kopp, they claim that a study by Harvard University and Stockholm University finds that protests do in fact have a major influence on politics, just not in the way you might think.

[29:18] Susan Blackwell: The true reason that political protests lead to change, it's not to do with the engagement of political leaders. It's because protests supercharge everyday citizens to become active, visible advocates in social change that they may have been supporting before, but just kind of on a casual level of engagement. Protests bring people out of their homes into the cultural tide and give them space to use their powers for good.

[29:51] Laura Camien: There's also psychological reasons that people protest. In an article on Forbes by Nicole Fisher, they outline the conditions that, when present, make for the most explosive or engaged protest. Listen to these. Lack of trust in government or authority, shared grievances, shared intensity, anonymity, survival triggers like fight or flight, efficiency.

[30:16] Susan Blackwell: When you're doing something alone, it feels like a waste of time. But when you see someone else like stand up for their rights, other people are more likely to do the same thing. So I just want to be clear here for a second. The brutal murder of George Floyd is reason enough to protest and to activate, period. Full stop.

[30:37] Laura Camien: But that list of psychological reasons why we protest in general also applies here. We've been dealing with the erosion of trust in our leadership. We've been dealing with a fight or flight feeling of survival mode with this pandemic and the lack of leadership. Black people have been dealing with a disproportionate death toll from the pandemic, and every day that goes by without a clear plan makes the situation disproportionately difficult for them.

[31:05] Susan Blackwell: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. In fact, I read this fantastic article, another one in The New Yorker by Isaac Choutner with an interview with Opal Temedi, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter. This interview is fantastic. She put it really well. She said, While we see that a lot of anger and outrage and frustration was sparked by the barbaric murder of George Floyd, it's also clear to me that we have been sitting in our homes navigating the pandemic, dealing with loved ones being sick, dealing with a great deal of fear and concern about what the day and the future will hold.

[31:42] Laura Camien: We have millions of people who have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment and are living paycheck to paycheck and hand to mouth. And I believe they are just thoroughly fed up and thoroughly beside themselves with grief and concern and despair because the government does not seem to have a plan of action that is dignified and comprehensive and seeks to address the core concerns that the average American has.

[32:10] Susan Blackwell: And I believe there's a lot of truth to that. Yes, Opal, yes. People have been pent up at home watching these injustices play out over and over. And simple things like having to work might have kept people from being able to join a protest in the past.

[32:26] Laura Camien: But without a job to go to, it's a lot easier to get involved and put your put yourself, you know, in action. The flip of that is is interesting to me is that the pain of this the violence against people of color and black people and the social injustice has tipped the scales where it outweighs people's per concerns for their own um safety and well-being health.

[32:57] Susan Blackwell: That's right. They're like, fuck it, kind of, this is too important. This is more important.

[33:03] Laura Camien: 100%. That's been amazing. Like they've been sitting at home stressing about their health. And then this is like, no, this is too important.

[33:12] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. So Barack Obama recently posted an article on Medium, and he said, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States.

[33:29] Laura Camien: The overwhelming majority of participants have been peaceful, courageous, responsible, and inspiring. They deserve our respect and support, not condemnation.

[33:40] Susan Blackwell: So, what do we make of it? A practice of educating ourselves, asking questions, and thinking critically when presented with information about protests, particularly the violent ones.

[33:52] Laura Camien: A determination of support, decide how you're going to support, join the protests safely, make donations to key organizations, buy products from black-owned businesses, join an anti-racist book club, decide how you're going to support and do it.

[34:08] Susan Blackwell: And then, of course, create, create, create, create protest art, protest songs, murals, sculpture, plays, films, you name it. All of it, all of it is welcome.

[34:20] Laura Camien: Of course, it was no surprise to me or anyone else that it would be Barack Obama who had the answer to my original question can real and lasting change come out of this moment.

[34:32] Susan Blackwell: He said, the bottom line is this if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn't between protest and politics. We have to do both.

[34:41] Laura Camien: We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.

[34:52] Susan Blackwell: So there it is.

[34:53] Laura Camien: We have to protest, we have to vote, we have to protest, we have to vote.

[34:58] Susan Blackwell: Stacey Abrams in the New York Times this week wrote an op-ed about how voting feels inadequate right now. She wrote, "Every night for more than a week, we have witnessed the anguish and anger of demonstrators, their cries punctured by politicians, urging them to vote their power."

[35:15] Laura Camien: Both are right. Protests demand attention to the wrenching pain of systemic injustice. Vote because we deserve leaders who see us, who hear us, and who are willing to act on our demands. Voting will not save us from harm, but silence will surely damn us all.

[35:34] Susan Blackwell: If there's any good to hold on to in all of this, I think it's watching and listening to the powerful black voices rising up, seeing more white people listen and learn. It's seeing groups of people getting passionate about making a difference, making a change, and remaining energized until we see it.

[35:54] Laura Camien: If we can sustain our collective engagement, keep the pressure on, we just might see the positive change. We just might actually live up to the aspiration of being great. But we have a long, long way to go.

[36:08] Susan Blackwell: For anyone who is feeling the protests are futile, I offer you this. The famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote an essay for The Atlantic in which he reflected on the benefits of rebellion. There is cause to be thankful, even for rebellion. It is an impressive teacher, though a stern and terrible one. He then concluded the only thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.

[36:36] Laura Camien: Cammian.

[36:39] Susan Blackwell: I didn't get it. But that's just what that's where we're at. That's where we're at right now. I'll take it. I'll take it any way I can get it.

[36:53] Laura Camien: This is one of the cases where I think our sparks dovetail with each other. When I was doing research for my spark, I came across this piece of art that I loved, and I didn't end up referring to it in my spark, but I think it's relevant to share it with you now. It's this beautiful piece that says, "If you want nonviolent protests, listen to nonviolent protesters." And there's this little illustration of Colin Kaepernick kneeling.

[37:23] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[37:25] Laura Camien: And I was like, yeah, if you want nonviolent protests, you have to, I mean, listen when, you know, instead of saying, "How very dare they," like that's what nonviolent protest looks like. You know, I am like kicking myself because I was gonna include Colin Kaepernick, and I honestly, I just loaded my spark up and it was like, that's okay, we're including him now.

[37:53] Susan Blackwell: It's uh yeah. Um, I think that is such a perfect, perfect example because we are in this moment where people are saying, like, if you're wondering how we got here, it's like you didn't listen to this act, and now you're being forced to pay attention to this act.

[38:15] Laura Camien: Yeah, yeah.

[38:17] Susan Blackwell: Oh great spark.

[38:19] Laura Camien: Thanks.

[38:20] Susan Blackwell: That's a sparkish spark. I love it. There's just so much. I want to acknowledge, like, there's just so much. There's so much story to be told in the so much you can share in 45 minutes.

[38:33] Laura Camien: You're not writing your doctoral thesis, we're just sharing some sparks here. It's 10 pounds of spark in a one-pound bag.

[38:41] Susan Blackwell: But as the old saying goes, that's right. Um, I love that spark. Let's take a little break and I'm gonna just like send some sparks your way.

[38:51] Laura Camien: Sorry! Cammy, I as I just said, I love the way that these little sparkies sometimes dovetail with each other. And that is definitely the case this week. Um, as you laid out so beautifully, these are complicated times.

[39:06] Susan Blackwell: As Donna Lieberman said in last week's Make or Sode, it's like we're experiencing two pandemics right now, a new one and an old one. Oh we're experiencing the relatively young COVID-19 pandemic and this centuries-old pandemic of systematic violence towards and the oppression of people and specifically in our country, people of color.

[39:29] Laura Camien: And at a time when we could really, as a nation, benefit from some qualified political leadership. We not only don't have qualified, it's so funny when I say this, I think of in the mailbag recently, somebody wrote and was like, "I know that you don't like to get political." And I was like, "Don't we?"

[39:45] Susan Blackwell: But we always say we don't like to, and then we do.

[39:49] Laura Camien: I don't do we say we don't like to? Maybe sometimes do.

[39:53] Susan Blackwell: I think we usually lightly touch on like, listen, I'm not gonna go down this rabbit hole, but just one thing. Here we are down the rabbit hole.

[40:00] Laura Camien: So at this moment, not only do we not have qualified leadership, I believe we actually have destructive leadership.

[40:07] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[40:08] Laura Camien: So I actually think that might count as yet another epidemic. And all of these pandemics and epidemics just twist around each other like a bundle of snakes moving rapidly on several different dimensions, pandemically, politically, societally. And a person can get overwhelmed easily during a time like this.

[40:27] Susan Blackwell: How's that for an understatement? And if you're a person of color, or if you're a person who's been in the fight for a long time, or you've been on the receiving end of injustice for a long time, I can only imagine what that must feel like.

[40:41] Susan Blackwell: I've seen this quote that has been attributed to a number of people—Tony Robbins, Dr. Henry Cloud, Dr. John Townsend. I don't know who said it first, but whoever said it, I'm feeling it. And that is this: We change when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. I'm gonna say it twice, just because it's so nice. We change when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. I feel like for many people, this is a moment when the pain of staying the same—for some people, this is so past due, but some people are just now coming into it. The pain of staying the same has become greater than the pain of changing.

[41:09] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[41:25] Susan Blackwell: We all know that change can be painful and laborious. It's one of the reasons we, I think, just our reptilian brains resist change because we know it's gonna hurt and it's gonna be a lot of work. But oh, the possibility that exists on the continuum of positive change. I also know it can feel like it's impossible to make a difference. A sense of pessimism can take hold, a sense of hopelessness born out of fatigue and historical evidence supporting how difficult transformation is. But I read this post from the Twitter account of @noname, and this spoke to me. Pessimism is a tool of white supremacy. They don't want you to be imaginative about a world free from genocide, wealth hoarding, patriarchy, etc. In the moments when you think revolution is impossible, it's important to remember that way of thinking is inherently violent and supremacist.

Those are strong words, but I think Noname is onto something. When I throw up my hands, or when you feel a sense of hopelessness, a lack of inspiration, a lack of creative problem solving, or a sense of pessimism, that's dangerous territory. I want to be clear, I'm all for the necessary rest and self-care. In fact, I do think it's vital because we need to consistently restore ourselves and each other in order to continue fighting and finding creative ways to respond to injustice and ultimately to restructure our world and our communities.

[42:58] Susan Blackwell: But I want to revisit a story that I told you all a while back. If you remember, I told you a story about a guy I met. This is a—I met a real human being. Some of the names may have been changed to protect the innocent. We're gonna call him Dave. And when I met him, I said, and I'm quoting this to the best of my ability, I said, "Hi, I'm Susan." And he said, "Hi, I'm Dave. It's nice to meet you." Boy, can you believe this? Can you believe what's happening in the world? It's out of control. I mean, I can't believe this is real. I am just freaking out. Can you believe that this is our world? And I said, "It's nice to meet you, Dave." Sidebar, this was shortly after the 2016 elections. And sweet Dave, Dave had some idea, but no idea what was coming down the pike.

Oh boy. Sidebar concluded. So even though I had just met Dave, yeah, poor sweet Dave, we none of us knew. We had a feeling of dread, but look how it hasn't taken shape. It was not big enough dread to contain what has really transpired. So here we are. Um, so even though I had just met Dave, I did recognize that look in his eyes. I've seen that look in a lot of people's eyes. I've seen that look in my eyes in the mirror, that look when someone is overwhelmed by the injustice in the world, or maybe for the first time in their lives, they're fearing for their personal freedoms. And that fear and overwhelm had Dave turned inside out. And even though I had just met Dave, this is—I uh, true. I'm surprised people don't smack me more.

Even though I just met him, I reached over and I put my hand on his heart and I said, "Dave, let me ask you a question. How many times have you initiated this conversation in that way? I just met you and I don't know you, but if I may be so bold, I'd like to offer you something, and you can always tell me to go fuck myself, Dave. But I think I know what's going on here. I think you're addicted to the conversation. I think you're sort of addicted to this shitty swirl, and you talk and talk until you're blue, and then you stew and stew and stew and stew. But I swear there's other options. There's actually something you can do, which is my spark today. Making change part deux. Part two part deux.

Making change. Here we go. So Sparks sources include several things, including a Time magazine piece by Risa Bruner, an L magazine piece by Madison Feller, a Facebook event page by Kalia Perkins, a piece on Vicenews.com by Samantha Cole, some other sources I'm gonna cite along the way, and a tweet from Ego Nwotum. For those of you who don't know Ego Nwotum, she's a cast member on Saturday Night Live. I don't know her personally, but I think she's really great on that show. And she wrote something on her social media that really grabbed my attention.

[45:51] Susan Blackwell: Um, another sidebar. I sort of hate social media on a good day. I hate that it's designed to suck us in and it's super sticky, and it essentially is constructed to get us to spend a lot of time sort of just staring blankly at our screens instead of taking action. Recently, there's been a demand for both institutions and individuals to make a public declaration about where you stand on what's going on, which I'm all for. But social media can feel to me so lacking and so reductive. Some people use the platform so creatively and so beautifully and make such a strong impact. But during this time, I personally was feeling this resistance, strong resistance to social media. And part of that was because I crave a longer form conversation or like a deeper dive, but it wasn't all of it, and I couldn't put my finger on it.

And then I saw this tweet from Ego Nwotum, whose Twitter handle is @Eggy_underscore_boom. First of all, it was handwritten. She posted a photograph of like what I'm imagining was a handwritten page, maybe from her journal or something. I loved that. It reminded me of some of your Sparks, Cam, about the power of handwriting. Ego Nwotum, you have great handwriting. Um, this is just a small portion of what she said. Please recognize your social media posts as simply a declaration of your commitment to do something every day to dismantle oppressive racist systems because so much of the work that needs to be done is internal, long-term, offline, real-life work. And I was like, yes, that's it. That is it.

[47:39] Laura Camien: I think I—sorry. Did you say that to interrupt you? I think I saw that.

[47:42] Susan Blackwell: And I remember feeling the same way, like almost resentful, like, of course, I'm going to post a post of support. That's who I am. And that's aligned with my beliefs. I can do that. But I felt more annoyed of like, but this isn't the action. This isn't the action. Isn't the action? And so I want someone to like do a whole campaign that's like, what are you doing? What action are you taking? What are you actually doing? You know, um, yeah, I think in this context, making a declaration on social media, it's making a pledge, it's making a commitment to do something in real life. As the hip hop group Stetsasonic once said, don't let your mouth write a check that your ass can't cash. And as Ego Nwotum reminds us, that means internal, long-term, offline, real-life work.

[48:42] Susan Blackwell: Yes. And I want to add that maybe could include real creativity and creative problem solving. So today, if you are listening to our voices and you're feeling overwhelmed, if you feel inspiration depleted, or you want to do more in real life, I want to share some sparks of creativity that people are fanning into real-life flames. They are writing checks that their asses can cash, and it is giving me life. And that is saying a lot in these complex, rapidly changing bundle of snakey times. The interesting thing is that so much of this is coming through, is blasting out through social media. So these are great examples of where people are marrying action and then just using social media as sort of as the megaphone to get it out.

[49:30] Laura Camien: So that's right.

[49:31] Susan Blackwell: There's that. I loved, you know, I loved what our dear friend Hunter Bell was doing because he was posting the actions that he was taking. Who was reporting, donations, who's didn't any money to, like what—no, no, not at all. Nope, not at all. That's exactly right. He was, it sort of became just kind of like a scrapbook of action.

[49:50] Laura Camien: Yeah, yeah.

[49:52] Susan Blackwell: Which I loved. That's the proof in the pudding right there.

[49:54] Laura Camien: Yeah, you're doing it.

[49:55] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. So there was a piece on time.com by Risa Bruner that introduced some of the artists behind some of the most widely circulated images of George Floyd. George Floyd, as everyone knows, is a black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who suffocated George by kneeling on his neck. And the work that these artists are making is beautiful, it is thought-provoking, it is haunting, it is penetrating like a song or a scent that evokes a feeling. This art touches our emotional core.

[50:36] Susan Blackwell: So last week I talked about the art of Shirian Damra, whose Instagram handle is @sheryan.creates. I just mentioned her briefly as one of the—uh, what do we make of this? And I wanted to take a deeper dive. So Shirian is a 33-year-old freelance user experience designer who lives in Chicago. And in the Time article, she said, I think art can touch our emotional core in a way that the news can't. True. And I think she's correct. Shirian has created one of the most widely circulated images of George Floyd. It's a pastel, color-blocked portrait of George. His eyes are closed, he's wreathed in flowers. It's one in a series of similar portraits that Shirian has done for people who have fallen victim to violence.

In an article in Elle Magazine written by Madison Feller, it talks about how when Shirian first heard about the death of Ahmed Arbury, she was horrified to hear about this young black man in Georgia who was gunned down by two white men while he was out for a run in broad daylight. And while she couldn't bring herself to watch the video of the encounter, she wanted to create something. She was moved to create something, something that would be a gesture of solidarity with black communities in their time of grieving, an art piece to raise awareness about what had happened, a tribute to combat the racist stereotypes that are often used to justify the killing of black men.

[52:11] Susan Blackwell: And in the Elle.com interview, Shirian said, I was afraid that people would only see the video and remember his soul being taken from him. Which I was just like, that is a spark. That is a spark moment that that desire to be like, instead of this person's life being defined by this moment of violence, let me make something that memorializes them and captures them in a beautiful way.

[52:42] Laura Camien: Yes.

[52:43] Susan Blackwell: So Shirian set out to make something soft, something with humanity that would celebrate his life. And she played around with different color palettes to see what kinds of emotions they evoked. And in the end, she chose bright colors and florals for her portrait of Arbury, attributes that she says are rarely seen in depictions of black men. She says there's this demonization that exists, and I wanted to challenge that.

[53:09] Laura Camien: Oh, amen.

[53:10] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, her work is beautiful. And I think its beauty allows people to take it in. It's like a point of access so that people can take it in and then enter into the story.

[53:26] Laura Camien: That's right.

[53:27] Susan Blackwell: With George as a human being, as a full person, and you know, containing multitudes and not just the victim of a police officer. Yeah, and Ahmad as a whole human being, not just, you know, and Breonna as a whole, like a beautiful human being whose life was taken from them. So Shirian Damra has an interesting background, and I loved the way it has flowed into her work that she is doing now. According to the Elle Magazine piece, art was one of Shirian's first loves, but for a while she stepped away from it. As the daughter of Palestinian Muslim immigrants who come from a refugee family, she was very aware of racism growing up, but something shifted when she was a freshman in high school, and September 11th happened.

[54:19] Laura Camien: Shirion said there were a lot of intense hate crimes and really negative portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in the media, which got me to read more about systems of oppression, Islamophobia, racism across the board.

[54:31] Laura Camien: She started out as an art major in college, but decided she needed to learn about social issues and switched to sociology, eventually getting her master's degree.

[54:40] Laura Camien: After she graduated, she did advocacy work and she was a community organizer.

[54:44] Laura Camien: But after a few years, she started to burn out.

[54:47] Laura Camien: And then in 2015, she had to step away from her job when she was diagnosed with cancer.

[54:53] Laura Camien: And during that time, she realized that she needed to start creating again.

[54:59] Laura Camien: Though this time around, she wanted to combine her art with her social justice work.

[55:05] Laura Camien: And she said, I decided I needed to use art again as a promise to take care of myself, but it could also be used as a tool for raising awareness.

[55:15] Laura Camien: It would take care of two things at once.

[55:21] Laura Camien: I think there's something really remarkable about those moments in life when maybe you've lived through some stuff, maybe you've had, uh, maybe you've looked at more your own mortality square in the eyes, and you had this flash of clarity, and your pain and your passion start to weave together and start to define your creative work.

[55:41] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[55:41] Laura Camien: I'm so fascinated by that.

[55:45] Laura Camien: And um, in the moments where that has happened for me in small ways, like it feels like such a release of the pain when the pain becomes something, uh, it transforms.

[55:59] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, it transforms us.

[56:01] Laura Camien: That's a great word.

[56:01] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[56:02] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[56:03] Laura Camien: Um, in the time.com piece by Resa Bruner, Sharion said that one thing artists can do is help illustrate what comes next.

[56:13] Laura Camien: Sharion said, we know what we don't want. We don't want any more black lives targeted by police and white supremacy.

[56:20] Laura Camien: But one thing that I have found we struggle with is actually imagining what kind of things we do want to see in our world.

[56:28] Laura Camien: I feel like as artists, one role we could play is allowing ourselves and others to reimagine the possibilities.

[56:35] Laura Camien: Our society will likely never turn back to how it used to be before the pandemic and everything happening right now.

[56:42] Laura Camien: Art can be a powerful catalyst in bringing more people together to take action.

[56:47] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[56:48] Laura Camien: That is what I'm talking about.

[56:50] Susan Blackwell: Those are the words I think of someone who has their eyes open and they're looking to create a new world that they want to live in.

[56:56] Susan Blackwell: And they're using their creativity to illustrate that bridge into the future and the future itself.

[57:03] Laura Camien: Suze, this is so right on target.

[57:06] Laura Camien: This is what we've been talking about for a few weeks now.

[57:09] Laura Camien: This idea of we have got to form in our mind's eye what is it we want the world to look like after this, not just passively waiting for it to become what it becomes, but rather have an image of it.

[57:27] Laura Camien: And as you're saying, artists can help us all see a collective picture and agree upon that picture.

[57:36] Laura Camien: Because artists can use their imagination to see other futures, other possibilities, other ways of being, other ways of organization of information.

[57:49] Susan Blackwell: Um visualize it, yeah, and help us to visualize it to help write the story that helps it like, oh, it flows in, and we can understand what that might look like.

[58:01] Laura Camien: Um for something completely different.

[58:06] Laura Camien: On a Facebook event page hosted by Kalia Perkins, there was an event announcement titled Joy Friday.

[58:13] Laura Camien: And this is a little bit from the description.

[58:16] Laura Camien: We know you are out there protesting every day and collecting donations and distributing food/slash supplies to community, as well as trying to rebuild and uplift others who are struggling right now.

[58:27] Laura Camien: We are proud of you, we love you, we admire your courage and tenacity.

[58:31] Laura Camien: You are out there every single day doing what you can to support your community.

[58:35] Laura Camien: This is why we wanted to remind you that you need to focus on your mental health and overall well-being.

[58:41] Laura Camien: We don't want you to burn out and not be able to continue supporting the community.

[58:45] Laura Camien: This Friday, that's today, we are hosting an intergenerational collective healing gathering for art, music, and movement that allows both kids and adults alike to engage in forms of play.

[58:57] Laura Camien: Activities you will find, community-led art making, Zumba led by Katana Holland, spoken word from people of color impacted by the current and past events of governmental and police violence and decompression from sensory stimulation.

[59:13] Laura Camien: So also they're hosting a Facebook Live for immunocompromised and disabled individuals who would like to attend.

[59:20] Laura Camien: And they stress that they are practicing social distancing and wearing masks and not reusing supplies to keep, uh, everybody safe because in case you forgot, we're still in a pandemic.

[59:29] Laura Camien: So, this is actually, Cam's right now, as we record this.

[59:33] Laura Camien: This is happening in Minneapolis.

[59:36] Laura Camien: But Kalia Perkins, if you're listening to our voices, what a gift you've created.

[59:41] Laura Camien: You saw that people were working hard and fighting hard, and that they needed some joy and some refreshment and some care and some recovery.

[59:49] Laura Camien: And you organized it all during a pandemic.

[59:53] Laura Camien: And I saw I looked at your spreadsheet of volunteers.

[59:56] Laura Camien: I saw who was working and what they were doing during what times.

[1:00:00] Laura Camien: And I just want to say we celebrate you and the people who organized this, and we are so inspired by you.

[1:00:00] Susan Blackwell: Amazing.

[1:00:00] Laura Camien: So inspired.

[1:00:10] Susan Blackwell: That's so that's incredible.

[1:00:12] Laura Camien: And I hope so many people take advantage of that.

[1:00:16] Susan Blackwell: I really do.

[1:00:17] Laura Camien: There's something that Kalia's post made me realize.

[1:00:21] Laura Camien: I think that I have felt, if I'm honest, I have felt this sense of, uh, guilt because I am as somebody who is like has social anxiety and I'm like a stone cold introvert, like being in a group in a protest, being marching and things like that has never sat well with me.

[1:00:44] Laura Camien: It's the source of an enormous amount of anxiety.

[1:00:48] Laura Camien: And then I was looking at this infographic about how in a protest, Cam.

[1:00:54] Laura Camien: If you haven't seen this, it might be super interesting to you, uh, given the spark you just did.

[1:00:58] Laura Camien: In a protest, different people sort of have different jobs.

[1:01:04] Laura Camien: So there are people like put the white people up front to block to basically run human shield in front of the police.

[1:01:12] Laura Camien: And then there are people that they're all different like roles that people can play.

[1:01:16] Laura Camien: And I was like, oh, that is powerful.

[1:01:18] Laura Camien: And ooh, that doesn't make me want to attend a protest more than I did before.

[1:01:25] Susan Blackwell: But I will say this: Kalia's spark of creativity that she shared in creating this day of joy for people.

[1:01:33] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[1:01:34] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[1:01:34] Laura Camien: Reminded me that different people have sort of different makeups.

[1:01:41] Laura Camien: And some people are fighters.

[1:01:44] Laura Camien: And some people are healers.

[1:01:46] Laura Camien: And some people, and I was like, I think I'm a healer.

[1:01:50] Laura Camien: Like when I read Kalia's Facebook post, I was like, that's that's where I could report for duty.

[1:01:57] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[1:01:58] Laura Camien: Like to be a healer of people.

[1:02:00] Susan Blackwell: And 100%.

[1:02:01] Laura Camien: Like Hunter was saying, Hunter Bell, who is quarantining with us, was saying that like it's okay, like pick your lane.

[1:02:09] Susan Blackwell: That's right.

[1:02:10] Laura Camien: It's that that meme that's going around.

[1:02:12] Laura Camien: Pick your lane and then keep your foot on the gas.

[1:02:14] Susan Blackwell: That's right.

[1:02:15] Laura Camien: So that's if you're a healer, Susan, be a healer, but keep your fucking foot on the gas.

[1:02:20] Susan Blackwell: So it's the truth because it's it's also so easy for us to get wrapped up in the guilt of what we can't do or don't feel like inspired to do.

[1:02:34] Laura Camien: And that wastes our energy.

[1:02:36] Laura Camien: Choose the thing, choose the way that you feel good supporting, that you know you can do it, that you will show up for it and do that.

[1:02:45] Susan Blackwell: And but do it.

[1:02:46] Laura Camien: But do it.

[1:02:47] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[1:02:47] Laura Camien: Yeah, exactly.

[1:02:49] Laura Camien: So now for something completely different.

[1:02:51] Laura Camien: Uh, something that I saw on Celia Keenan-Bolger's Instagram page.

[1:02:56] Laura Camien: Celia blew my hi Celia.

[1:02:58] Laura Camien: It blew my mind.

[1:03:00] Laura Camien: In her post, she said, New Yorkers, in my bio, there is a magical link.

[1:03:05] Laura Camien: Click it, and you will immediately be sending an email to 47 city council members asking them to reject the mayor's budget, which generously funds our violent anti-black police force while bludgeoning our already hurting highly segregated and economically lopsided hospitals and schools.

[1:03:22] Laura Camien: Cammian, I have never seen anything like this.

[1:03:25] Laura Camien: There is indeed a magic link in Celia's Instagram bio.

[1:03:29] Laura Camien: And immediately, if you click on it, immediately a draft email opens up on your computer or on your phone, and it is addressed to 47 New York City Council members.

[1:03:41] Laura Camien: And the email reads, Dear New York City Council members, my name is Fill in Your Name, and I am a resident of Fill in Your Borough.

[1:03:49] Laura Camien: Last April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed major budget cuts for the fiscal year 2021, especially to education and youth programs while refusing to slash the NYPD budget by any significant margin.

[1:04:00] Laura Camien: I urge you to pressure the office of the mayor towards an ethical and equal reallocation of the New York City expense budget away from NYPD and towards social services and education programs effective at the beginning of FY21, July 1st, 2020.

[1:04:16] Laura Camien: I am emailing to ask for an emergency council meeting among city officials regarding this matter.

[1:04:22] Laura Camien: Governor Cuomo doubled the presence of the NYPD on New York City streets this week.

[1:04:27] Laura Camien: I am asking that city officials lobby the same amount of attention and effort towards finding sustainable long-term change.

[1:04:33] Laura Camien: Thank you.

[1:04:34] Laura Camien: Fill in your name.

[1:04:35] Laura Camien: Cammian, again, I've never seen anything like this.

[1:04:39] Laura Camien: And so you fill in, you fill in the blanks, you click send, and literally in 20 seconds, you have contacted 47 New York City Council members.

[1:04:51] Susan Blackwell: This to me, I'm going there right.

[1:04:54] Laura Camien: It is one version of using social media for real immediate action.

[1:04:58] Laura Camien: And if I may be so bold, Camille, I think we should, uh, I have a link that I think we should put on the Sparks file.

[1:05:06] Laura Camien: Um what do they call it? The Bio Tree or whatever it's called.

[1:05:09] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[1:05:10] Laura Camien: So, but first a little bit more.

[1:05:12] Laura Camien: So this magic link was created by a software engineer who has asked to remain anonymous.

[1:05:18] Laura Camien: They have also created a website called defund12.org.

[1:05:23] Laura Camien: That's D E F U N D 12.org.

[1:05:27] Laura Camien: And if you go to the site, you'll see that they are creating this elegant, easy way to email government officials and council members to reallocate egregious police budgets towards education, social services, and dismantling racial inequality.

[1:05:41] Laura Camien: In a piece on Vice.com, a reporter named Samantha Cole wrote this.

[1:05:47] Laura Camien: As police escalate peaceful protests into dangerous violent situations, people across the country are demanding that the police forces in their cities be defunded, not reformed, but denied the millions or in some cities, billions of dollars they receive each year from taxpayers.

[1:06:03] Laura Camien: One way to make your elected officials hear your demands is via email.

[1:06:07] Laura Camien: And a new email template tool makes it easier than ever to hit send on a message to dozens of your council members at once.

[1:06:13] Laura Camien: In New York City, Bill de Blasio's proposed budget on the Office of the Mayor's website makes it sound like the city's budget, including the bloated police budget, is set in stone, but it's not.

[1:06:24] Laura Camien: Council members are set to vote on it later this month.

[1:06:27] Laura Camien: And while emails can feel less effective than phone calls or in-person lobbying, they work.

[1:06:33] Laura Camien: Brooklyn Council member Justin Brennan posted a video of his own inbox on Twitter, scrolling through page after page of emails demanding the same thing, defund the police.

[1:06:44] Laura Camien: The caption on his tweet reads every council member's inbox for the past three days, the people have spoken.

[1:06:52] Laura Camien: So if you want to make your own email template for your city's elected officials, the creator of dfund12.org also created a how-to page on making mail to redirects.

[1:07:04] Susan Blackwell: Wow.

[1:07:05] Laura Camien: What a way to expand your technical skill set.

[1:07:09] Laura Camien: But listen, if you feel that's too daunting for you and you don't see your city listed, you can open a request on dfund12.org so that your city can be added.

[1:07:21] Laura Camien: So we can put the link in the Sparks file, uh, link tree bio.

[1:07:26] Laura Camien: We can put either dfund12.org, which is the list of cities is growing.

[1:07:32] Laura Camien: It's growing by the hour.

[1:07:34] Laura Camien: Um and you find your city, you click on it, you click on that link, an email opens up.

[1:07:40] Laura Camien: It's got all the language in there already.

[1:07:43] Laura Camien: You can edit it as you see fit, and all the emails of those elected officials are already plugged in.

[1:07:50] Susan Blackwell: It's amazing.

[1:07:51] Laura Camien: That's amazing.

[1:07:52] Susan Blackwell: What a remarkable use of creativity.

[1:07:55] Laura Camien: Yes, and using the skills you have to make, uh, bigger to, you know, to amplify, that's right.

[1:08:03] Susan Blackwell: The message, how great.

[1:08:06] Laura Camien: That I'm delighting in.

[1:08:08] Susan Blackwell: I just want to say hats off to you, anonymous programmer and your team.

[1:08:11] Laura Camien: Thank you.

[1:08:12] Susan Blackwell: Keep on applying your imagination and keep on fighting for the powers of good.

[1:08:16] Laura Camien: But you don't have to be crazy tech savvy to create something that is beautiful and of service to others.

[1:08:23] Susan Blackwell: There is a simple static Wix website at, and I'm gonna say the name of this website, so get out your pencils.

[1:08:31] Laura Camien: Q I E S C I S dot Wix site, W I X S I T E dot com slash make it known.

[1:08:44] Susan Blackwell: Okay.

[1:08:45] Laura Camien: It was created by, uh, Maya Richardson, and Richardson is spelled S-U-N.

[1:08:52] Susan Blackwell: Uh, Maya has been described as a theater maker and a world changer.

[1:08:57] Laura Camien: Maya has created a list of black mental health resources, and it includes music to uplift, it includes hotlines and warm lines that offer support over the phone.

[1:09:08] Susan Blackwell: If you don't know what a warm line is, a warm line is essentially when you don't have to be in full-blown crisis, but you need somebody to talk to.

[1:09:17] Laura Camien: That is a warm line.

[1:09:18] Susan Blackwell: Um, sorry, I gotta stop you there.

[1:09:22] Laura Camien: When did warm line come around?

[1:09:24] Susan Blackwell: Because I've missed it, but I think that is the most genius thing.

[1:09:28] Laura Camien: It is genius, and the way that it keeps people on track, out of the hospital, like it really does, um, help people work through issues before they escalate.

[1:09:42] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[1:09:43] Laura Camien: And Cami and I actually tried to find out.

[1:09:46] Susan Blackwell: I did some research trying to figure out who's the first person who created a warm line.

[1:09:52] Laura Camien: Where did the term warm line come from?

[1:09:54] Susan Blackwell: Couldn't find it.

[1:09:55] Laura Camien: Oh, couldn't find it.

[1:09:57] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, there's another spark for another day.

[1:09:59] Laura Camien: It's so genius.

[1:10:00] Susan Blackwell: I've had, I can't tell you the number of times where I'm like, I need some help.

[1:10:06] Laura Camien: Not that badly.

[1:10:07] Susan Blackwell: I wouldn't want to take resources from anyone who like really needs help.

[1:10:11] Laura Camien: And before you know it, I can talk myself out of actually needing help with anything.

[1:10:15] Susan Blackwell: Right.

[1:10:16] Laura Camien: If you know, and in this case, if you actually need some help, um, and if the fact that there is a hotline is a barrier to entry for you, a warm line is just perfect.

[1:10:31] Susan Blackwell: Oh my god.

[1:10:32] Laura Camien: That's right.

[1:10:32] Susan Blackwell: I just really think that's a good thing.

[1:10:34] Laura Camien: Yeah, and if you go, there are great lists.

[1:10:37] Susan Blackwell: Usually, uh, from the research that I did do, there are warm lines that are, uh, you have to be in the state or in the community that you're calling in to.

[1:10:48] Laura Camien: We're all in a virtual landscape now, so that may have changed.

[1:10:51] Susan Blackwell: But, um, yeah, so hotlines of warm lines offering support over the phone, these are all part of Maya's list that she's made.

[1:10:58] Laura Camien: Again, this is just a static web page.

[1:11:01] Susan Blackwell: It's just a Wix webpage.

[1:11:03] Laura Camien: There are therapist networks, there's a host of organizations that you can donate to.

[1:11:08] Susan Blackwell: I think that this is such a thoughtful creative act to support people who are processing a great deal of trauma.

[1:11:17] Laura Camien: Black mental health resources.

[1:11:19] Susan Blackwell: And Maya is encouraging everyone to share and post this list of resources for mental health outreach to people of color.

[1:11:25] Laura Camien: But if you're listening to this and want to donate, I think that would be great too.

[1:11:29] Susan Blackwell: I think we'd like to put the link to this in our Instagram bio.

[1:11:33] Laura Camien: So if you're so inclined, you can write a check that your ass can cash.

[1:11:37] Susan Blackwell: Um, I learned about Maya's creativity from a friend of the podcast, Austin.

[1:11:42] Laura Camien: Hi, Austin.

[1:11:43] Susan Blackwell: Hi, Austin.

[1:11:44] Laura Camien: Austin lives in Georgia, and Austin is actually doing something very creative and very actionable.

[1:11:50] Susan Blackwell: He has organized a black author book drive.

[1:11:54] Laura Camien: Oh, and he has asked his Facebook friends to join him in sponsoring a book.

[1:11:59] Susan Blackwell: He's having the books delivered to his house.

[1:12:02] Laura Camien: And then when school, the school doors are open and receiving, he is going to bring these books to his local area school.

[1:12:11] Susan Blackwell: The books are from a Buzzfeed article written by Farah Penn entitled 23 Phenomenal Young Adult Books by Black Authors from the First Half of 2020.

[1:12:22] Laura Camien: And if you want to be super bonus, you could bypass Amazon and purchase those books from a black-owned bookstore.

[1:12:29] Susan Blackwell: I found a fantastic list of black-owned bookstores compiled by Corrine Siegel on lithhub.com.

[1:12:36] Laura Camien: And the books that I purchased for the book drive include This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew and Ashley Lukashewski, The Black Flamingo by Dean Adda, Felix Ever After by Case and Callender, and Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You, a remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds and Ibrahim X. Kendi.

[1:13:00] Susan Blackwell: If you would like to support Austin's book drive, and black authors and black students and black-owned booksellers all at the same time, you can take part in the book drive, and we'll figure out how to get that link up there too.

[1:13:13] Laura Camien: That is so much support all at once.

[1:13:16] Susan Blackwell: Let's make it rain books.

[1:13:17] Laura Camien: I like it.

[1:13:18] Susan Blackwell: So for those of you who missed this, uh, Making Change spark last time I told it, or you need a refresher, let's check back in with our friend Dave.

[1:13:27] Laura Camien: Remember Dave, the one who was freaking out, the one who I thought might be addicted to the conversation around it.

[1:13:34] Susan Blackwell: Let's pick up there.

[1:13:35] Laura Camien: So I said, I just met you, Dave.

[1:13:37] Susan Blackwell: I don't know you, but if I may be so bold, I'd like to offer you something.

[1:13:41] Laura Camien: You can always tell me to go fuck myself, Dave, but I think I know what's going on here.

[1:13:44] Susan Blackwell: But Dave didn't tell me to fuck off.

[1:13:47] Laura Camien: In fact, his eyes lit up.

[1:13:48] Susan Blackwell: He wanted to know what I was proposing.

[1:13:50] Laura Camien: So I shared with him a little formula that my meditation teacher, Emily Fletcher.

[1:13:55] Susan Blackwell: Hi, Emily.

[1:13:57] Laura Camien: Hi, Emily.

[1:13:58] Susan Blackwell: Shared with me on November 9th, 2016, when I was freaking the fuck out, like our good friend Dave.

[1:14:04] Laura Camien: It's a four-step formula and it goes like this.

[1:14:07] Susan Blackwell: Step one, pick a pressing issue, a need in your community or your world.

[1:14:13] Laura Camien: Pick something that really, really lights your wick.

[1:14:16] Susan Blackwell: Black lives matter, literacy, representation in the arts and literature, defunding the police, people without homes, clean drinking water, climate change.

[1:14:25] Laura Camien: If you can, if you're able to right now, shut your eyes for a second, for real, right now.

[1:14:25] Susan Blackwell: Shut your eyes.

[1:14:32] Laura Camien: If you're listening to this while you're driving, don't shut your eyes.

[1:14:35] Susan Blackwell: Think about the most pressing need in the world for you.

[1:14:39] Laura Camien: It can be big, it can be small.

[1:14:41] Susan Blackwell: It doesn't have to impress your neighbor or your friends on social media.

[1:14:46] Laura Camien: I know there's a lot of issues, but pick one.

[1:14:50] Susan Blackwell: And at the count of three, open your eyes and say it out loud.

[1:14:54] Laura Camien: Even if you're listening to this podcast, walking down the street, hopefully you're wearing a mask.

[1:14:58] Susan Blackwell: Ready?

[1:14:58] Laura Camien: One, two, three.

[1:15:01] Susan Blackwell: Beautiful.

[1:15:03] Laura Camien: Now, step two, this is important.

[1:15:06] Susan Blackwell: You have to absolve yourself of the responsibility for the millions of other issues on the planet.

[1:15:12] Laura Camien: Yes, be informed.

[1:15:13] Susan Blackwell: But if you aren't going to do anything about a particular issue, don't get trapped into thinking you have to have a solution or a reaction to every single crisis.

[1:15:23] Laura Camien: It will only get you to spin your wheels and it's gonna wear you out, like our friend freaked out Dave.

[1:15:28] Susan Blackwell: Remember him?

[1:15:29] Laura Camien: Great.

[1:15:30] Susan Blackwell: Step three, ask yourself, what are my unique gifts and talents?

[1:15:35] Laura Camien: I'm sure you have a lot of them.

[1:15:37] Susan Blackwell: Close your eyes again unless you're operating heavy machinery and consider.

[1:15:42] Laura Camien: Are you a great woodworker?

[1:15:44] Susan Blackwell: Are you a gifted speaker?

[1:15:46] Laura Camien: Are you an illustrator, an organizer, a healer, a musician?

[1:15:52] Susan Blackwell: I know you've got a lot of gifts.

[1:15:54] Laura Camien: Pick one you're really feeling.

[1:15:56] Susan Blackwell: And at the count of three, open your eyes and say it out loud.

[1:16:00] Laura Camien: Ready?

[1:16:00] Susan Blackwell: One, two, three.

[1:16:03] Laura Camien: Okay, gorgeous.

[1:16:04] Susan Blackwell: Now let's review.

[1:16:05] Laura Camien: Step one, you picked a pressing issue.

[1:16:07] Susan Blackwell: Step two, you absolve yourself of saving the world.

[1:16:11] Laura Camien: Step three, you define your gifts and talents.

[1:16:14] Susan Blackwell: Step four, ask yourself, which of these gifts do you want to use right now?

[1:16:14] Laura Camien: Which of these gifts do you want to use right now?

[1:16:22] Susan Blackwell: So let's put it all together.

[1:16:25] Laura Camien: Right now, if you are a super organized planner, communicator who is super passionate about modern dancing and black lives matter, then organize the hell out of an online modern dance class or performance where all the proceeds go to an awesome organization like Black Lives Matter.

[1:16:45] Susan Blackwell: Right now, are you a talented computer programmer who's passionate about activism and defunding bloated police budgets and redirecting that money to education and hospitals?

[1:16:54] Laura Camien: Then create a magic link that generates emails to local elected officials.

[1:16:59] Susan Blackwell: You can multitask, like Shiryan Dhamra, who said, I use art as a promise to take care of myself, but it could also be used as a tool for raising awareness.

[1:17:11] Laura Camien: I can take care of two things at once.

[1:17:13] Susan Blackwell: But here's the magical tricky part.

[1:17:15] Laura Camien: Like I told Dave, Dave, there's no one busier or lazier than me.

[1:17:20] Susan Blackwell: But if you want to change the way you feel right now, if you want to make change, you have to do something.

[1:17:27] Laura Camien: You have to pick a thing and do it.

[1:17:31] Susan Blackwell: And of course, it's fine and in some cases extremely powerful to express yourself on social media.

[1:17:38] Laura Camien: But as Ego Wotum said, recognize your social media posts as simply a declaration of your commitment to do something.

[1:17:47] Susan Blackwell: In real life.

[1:17:49] Laura Camien: In real life.

[1:17:51] Susan Blackwell: Oh, amen.

[1:17:52] Laura Camien: I'd like to close with the words of Shiri and Dhamra.

[1:17:58] Susan Blackwell: I just want, I just want this to be the last thing people hear, not in their lives on this podcast today.

[1:18:06] Laura Camien: Our society will likely never turn back to how it used to be before the pandemic and everything happening right now.

[1:18:13] Susan Blackwell: Art can be a powerful catalyst in bringing more people together to take action.

[1:18:18] Laura Camien: I feel as artists, one role we could play is allowing ourselves and others to reimagine the possibilities.

[1:18:27] Susan Blackwell: Friends, it's time to reimagine the possibilities.

[1:18:30] Laura Camien: Picture it.

[1:18:32] Susan Blackwell: And that is my spark for today.

[1:18:43] Laura Camien: There's so much challenging shit happening.

[1:18:46] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[1:18:46] Laura Camien: I don't want to, let's not, you know, let's call it like it is.

[1:18:50] Susan Blackwell: But it's still there.

[1:18:52] Laura Camien: That's still there.

[1:18:54] Susan Blackwell: And there are people doing great creative work.

[1:18:58] Laura Camien: There are people doing, there are people fighting hard.

[1:19:01] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, there are people healing those people who are fighting hard.

[1:19:05] Laura Camien: They're trying to uplift, they're trying to give us a new perspective on the victims of these brutal crimes, trying to make us think differently about what's happening and to picture a future that we could share collectively.

[1:19:22] Susan Blackwell: That's right.

[1:19:23] Laura Camien: That's right.

[1:19:25] Susan Blackwell: Art.

[1:19:25] Laura Camien: Art, Camien.

[1:19:27] Susan Blackwell: The possibilities.

[1:19:29] Laura Camien: The possibilities, Cammian.

[1:19:31] Susan Blackwell: So I guess that's it.

[1:19:34] Laura Camien: I hope this put another bunch of sparks in your file.

[1:19:37] Susan Blackwell: Listen to us.

[1:19:38] Laura Camien: If there's a spark you'd like us to explore, or if you've taken a spark and you fanned it into a creative flame and you'd like to share that, oh, please email us at thesparkfile@gmail.com or submit it through our website, thesparkfile.com.

[1:19:53] Susan Blackwell: We will even happily take your feedback, but you know the price of admission.

[1:19:57] Laura Camien: First, you have to share a creative risk that you have taken recently.

[1:20:01] Susan Blackwell: You can follow us on social media at thesparkfile and be sure to subscribe, rate and five-star review this podcast.

[1:20:08] Laura Camien: If you like this podcast, we hope you'll share it with people you love.

[1:20:11] Susan Blackwell: If you didn't like it, frankly, I question your taste.

[1:20:16] Laura Camien: If something tickles your fancy and gets your creative juices flowing, we are writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door.

[1:20:26] Susan Blackwell: It's your turn to take a spark and fan it into a flame.

[1:20:31] Laura Camien: You gotta rock some web design or paint a protest sign.

[1:20:35] Susan Blackwell: Make some art straight from your heart and let your passion shine, people.

[1:20:44] Laura Camien: And make it when I bump into something that inspires me.

[1:20:56] Susan Blackwell: I dump it in the spark fire.

[1:21:00] Laura Camien: Could be something that I wanna make or how I wanna be.

[1:21:05] Susan Blackwell: I pump it in the spark fire.

[1:21:10] Laura Camien: I jump into my spark fire.