Who gets to be creative? What does your creative process look like? And how is creativity different from productivity? We discuss discovering process art and free writing, and we talk about what gets in the way of creativity–and how we overcome it.
What We’re Reading and Listening To
Ashley’s Pick: Nadiya’s Time to Eat on Netflix
For folks who are familiar with the show the Great British Bake-Off, Nadiya Hussein was the winner of Season 6. The premise of her Netflix show is she’s a busy mom who uses shortcuts in the kitchen so she can have more time with for herself and her family. Her recipes are easy and interesting. She cooks in bulk, and she also uses lots of canned and frozen ingredients.
She’s also a practicing Muslim, and throughout the pandemic lockdown in Britain she’s been vocal about what it’s been like to experience Ramadan in isolation. She also talks on her show about eating by halal customs. Check it out.
Katey’s Pick: Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
Katey picked Samantha Irby’s latest book Wow, No Thank You. If you don’t know her work, she started out as a blogger and has several other collections of personal essays. This one is about her life after marrying her wife, a white woman, moving from Chicago to Michigan, and turning 40.
She has an entire chapter on what she would include on a mix-tape, both A and B sides, and how she would listen for a song to come on the radio and record it. She has a chapter about the agony of going out with friends for dinner and drinks and how at the time she agreed to do it, it seemed like a good idea, but then when it came to actually putting on clothes and getting out the door, she’s desperately hoping someone else will cancel so she won’t actually have to leave her house.
Kindreds of the Moment: Community Poem, “If the Trees Can Keep Dancing, So Can I.”
Kwame Alexander is NPR’s poet-in-residence (how cool is that)? And on an episode of Morning Edition he invited listeners to share how their lives have been affected by COVID-19 in the form of a poem. He asked people to submit poetic lines starting with the words, “What I’m Learning About Grief,” and then took on the task of creating a crowdsourced, community poem. What he came up with weaves together the words of more than 30 people. You can read the full poem and listen to being read by Alexander and Morning Edition host Rachel Martin on the NPR website.