Andrea Hylen

Week Fourteen: Flipping the Script on Creativity

Day Ninety-two

We believe that artists have a valuable function in every society since it is the artists who reveal society to itself. Just as the civil rights needed to be amplified, the conditions of poverty and Africa needed to be told. ~Harry Belafonte

I was watching a documentary on Netflix this week called The Greatest Night of Pop. It’s the story of how the song, “We are the World” was written and recorded in January 1985 to raise money to help people who were starving in Africa.

We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving.

There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day, just you and me.

Harry Belafonte had the idea for raising money with a song. The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie and recorded in the middle of the night after the American Music Awards in Los Angeles with popular musical artists who were in town for the awards ceremony.

Watching the documentary, I was inspired by the hearts that came together to create and shared their gifts. I found myself just wanting to play and sing that song. There was so much sensation running through my body on Monday that I hopped on the Big Blue Bus Line 1 and headed to the beach so I could walk and sing out loud. Walking down Main Street in Santa Monica and Venice Beach, I sang, “We are the World” wearing headphones and playing the song on repeat for thirty minutes on my phone. After an hour of walking in town and on the beach, I cranked up the songs with a medley of Confidence by Demi Lovato, Falling in Love by Colbie Caillat and Have it all by Jason Mraz. I was speed walking to the music and feeling the pulse in my body.

After writing and living in a “field” of flip the script for the past six months and completing a week around Social Justice, the song and documentary were a tipping point that indicated change. I can feel my body physically shifting. It is a feeling like being made of Legos or tiles on a board and the pieces are being rearranged.

This is the power of creativity.

Creative self-expression is not a frivolous past time. It is life itself. It is food, water, air, shelter. It is life force.

Transformative Social Justice reminds me:

I resist by writing and marching.

I reform by writing and imagining.

I build by writing and dreaming.

I heal by writing and caring.

Creative self-expression is mana for our souls. It is the way we learn about ourselves and understand and feel each other.

This week we will explore:

Creativity as Mana for the Soul

Creativity as Healing

Creativity as Awakening

Creativity as Nurturance:

Creativity for Integration

Day Ninety-two Prompts:

• What does creative self-expression mean to you?

• Using this Harry Belafonte quote as inspiration, reflect on what you see as the function of artists. We believe that artists have a valuable function in every society since it is the artists who reveal society to itself.

• Write a reflection about what the current films and art and music are revealing to society now? What themes are you noticing?

To read all 100 days of Flip the Script, go to Medium: https://andreahylen.medium.com/