Your Genius is Your Generosity
Give it away to receive
Join us for the upcoming Worldbuilding Workshop on Tuesday, September 26th at noon EST where we will locate your “Element X” and learn how to seed or deepen an interdisciplinary practice rooted in deep desire.
I am noticing a theme emerging inside my practice. The more I share, the more the work travels, the more abundance I receive in the form of opportunities, resources, affirming relationships and space for sacred practices. While reflecting on this observation, these words made their way from my gut, to my tongue, filling my mouth with delicious certitude: “Our genius is not in our work, it’s in our generosity”. We compromise the emergent potential of our work by hiding the generative project idea or hoarding what we know. Let’s be clear, there are practices in our creative ecosystem that are intentionally private — “we clamor for the right to opacity for everyone”1, everywhere, forever and ever. But there’s a difference between keeping a practice sacred and denying ourselves the pleasure of release out of fear. A release that is at once creatively cathartic and healing while also being generous to the communities we care about serving.
“I sell the shadow to support the substance” are Sojourner Truth’s words from 1864, that made their way to my body in 2020 and have been swirling inside my chest ever since. I think we’ll be wondering what she meant for at least 7 more lifetimes. What I do know is through sharing and studying alongside others inside of Seeda School, I’ve created the space in my life to cultivate and tend to the practices of substance that keep me whole. Practices that allow me to keep returning to the work with something to give. Sacred practices like retreating, dancing in the mirror, spell casting, bathing in water, bathing in the forest, running, walking, praying, meditating, tending to my grief, being available for the grief of loved ones, writing to incarcerated kin, shopping with my mother for a new headstone for my grandmother’s grave with a very particular care towards the words and grade of granite. It mustn't be too dark and definitely not too light, the static of the speckles can’t be too distracting but in the absence of speckled noise the stone can’t fall flat. Sometimes this feels like the substance Truth was speaking about.
As an artist whose practice has been sustained by institutions for a decade and supplemented by an array of hospitality, freelance and salaried jobs — I can’t tell you how empowering it is to finally have clarity on which nodes in my creative ecosystem are sacred and which nodes I can call on to fund the rest of the map without solely having to rely on that grant money to come through. I’ve been talking about the concept of “Element X” quite a bit in the last few newsletters. N.K. Jemisin describes “Element X” as a creative device that powers speculative fiction. She frames it as a, ““What if...” question that establishes some foundational oddity”2. Inside Seeda School we frame it as a “What if...” question that establishes clarity on your deep desire and powers the story of your creative ecosystem.
What if…my writing practice could establish a school and sanctuary for black worldbuilders in Shenandoah Valley?
What if…my ceramic practice is the vessel for a lesbian publishing press storytelling at the intersection of witchcraft and software engineering?
What if…my herbalism practice is the seed for a trans worker-owned coop that goes on to purchase land through a community land trust?
Your wild dream is the “foundational oddity” at the center of a generous world, a vision full of oxygen. When your Element X is at the center of the map and every node stems from a practice rooted in deep desire, we are able to build and hold a world in our work that makes space for our multiplicity and constellation of curiosity.
The Seed A World Retreat is a brand new, 9-week program inside Seeda School helping you seed or deepen an interdisciplinary practice, release a creative offer and develop a cohesive narrative through the framework of worldbuilding. Out of every system or tool in your work or process, what is the insight that would have saved you the most time, money or unnecessary suffering if you learned it earlier? Perhaps that’s your offer that funds the entire map of your creative ecosystem with pleasurable ease. The work of the shadow that increases our capacity to access the substance. Your container for sustainable generosity, your genius.
Join us for the free upcoming Worldbuilding Workshop happening on Tuesday, September 26th at noon EST. Inside this workshop we will use Seeda School’s Element X Quadrant to locate your deep desire, the central node in your creative ecosystem. Then we will dive into the Seeda School worldbuilding framework, helping you get clarity on a creative offer rooted in your desire and income generating goals.
Please share this flyer with a friend or a loved one! <3
With care,
Ayana
Poetics of Relation (1990) by Édouard Glissant. “For Opacity”, pg. 189-194.
N.K. Jemisin teaches “Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing” published by Masterclass. Learn more about the concept of Element X by viewing the Masterclass class sample and checking out the instructor guide.
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Love your shares. Thank you for sharing. The land in my body with a resounding 'yes'.