Early in my time with Life Together, I remember one of our fellows telling me that it was hard for creative, arts-based people to find a place in our paradigm of leadership. Her comment stuck with me, and made me wonder anew what prayerful and prophetic leadership looks like. We have always offered people a variety of practices, from centering prayer to public narrative, to help them engage in spiritually grounded action for justice. And yes, “action” has often been the operative word. We assume that people are coming to us because they want to be change-makers, and seek the skills to do so. They are, to take the line from James 1:22, “doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” On a fundamental level, Life Together is designed to form doers.
Yet the fellow was right in challenging me to think more expansively about prophetic leadership. Artists often function as our prophets. As activist adrienne maree brown reminds us, “We must imagine new worlds that transition ideologies and norms, so that no one sees Black people as murderers, or Brown people as terrorists and aliens, but all of us as potential cultural and economic innovators” (brown 2017, 19). Brown points to the ways that writers such as Octavia Butler, Grace Lee Boggs, Audre Lorde and others cultivate that imagination. Such creativity comes from a sacred place: the Spirit hovering over the waters of chaos and death to bring forth new life. Great activists are also often artists and visionaries, able to see a new future and then inspire us to go there.
Art also helps cultivate joy and community, so maybe in this season of pandemic-induced isolation we’re hungering for it even more. I love going to hear live jazz, far more than I enjoy listening to recordings, because it is an art form based on interaction: between the musicians as an ensemble, between the ensemble and the audience. The experience isn’t complete without all of them, and the intimacy of co-creation in that moment binds everyone together. Those experiences of co-creation have been rare for most of us in the past year, which makes the moments it does happen more precious.
During my time at Life Together I’ve come to see how many members of our community actually are visionary artists. Fellows smash their way through white supremacy culture in trainings as those knitting needles click steadily away. Alumni have founded a musical storytelling troupe, performed poetry throughout Boston, sang and chanted during protest actions, and much more. Their art is an intrinsic part of their leadership, countering the Empire Way that deals death in our midst. In these pandemic times, it also points to the resilience that the Easter season is all about. Death is not the last word. God is calling us to co-create a world of human flourishing, and has put prophets in our midst to point the way.
That’s why our event this year, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made,” will showcase the creative leaders in our community for an evening of poetry, song, visual arts, and more. It will celebrate not only the young leaders Life Together cultivates, but also the vision of community that we are building together. And because it is a virtual event, we can again bring together beloved friends who are making an impact in all parts of the country. Join us on June 5th in connecting with friends and co-conspirators to support Life Together, and to dream together about a different future.