CREATIVITY: the persistence of resistance

A spiking wave of creative energy has been boiling up within me these past few weeks. Granted, a lot has occurred in the past couple of months internally, around me and in more expansive global spaces. I will, however, note that the feeling that has been brewing within me these past weeks has been a unique mix of sadness, emotional pain, anger, anxiety, inspiration and excitement. The additional mental work propelled by my character development and beliefs, as well as my professional work and academic writing, has been a steady fuel to a growing flame inside me.

Out of these creative bursts, I found myself writing poem after poem, unable to stop thinking of musical ideas. My body began to itch to participate in this mental activity. I sang these new ideas, took out my guitar, and trained my fingers to align with my thoughts. I found myself urging to write, sing, play, and even think with an unexpected sense of urgency. Most recently, random mental calls forced me to awaken in the middle of the night with a deep sense of contemplation. It’s almost as if at every turn, my mind whispers, “Honour your energy; you must continue to finish”.

Considering that a chain of unexpected events is something of life’s way, this is not a new experience. It, however, stands out to me for one key reason: the trigger. I suppose I have been inspired mainly by those closest to me who, for a long time, have been champions of knowledge and truth within their circles. By those whose thinking is empathetic to the human experience and those who continue to live their truths and stand up for themselves and others. These are my friends, by the way. Shauraut to you <3. This is not to say that their words and actions have held no sway until now. This is not the case. I think my personal experiences, particularly those directly linked to psychosocial needs and responsibilities, have drawn a greater awareness of the newness of some of these encounters I have been privy to in the last few months.

These combined factors have triggered great movement within me, and I associate this movement with the theme of resistance. I recently came across Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Caged Bird’, yet another of my new favourites, which I consider strung up in musical rhythm. This poem vividly visualizes two birds, one free to leap and roam the skies while the other is trapped and tied in a cage.  Maya speaks of the caged bird’s songs, which ring with a fearful trill, expressing their unrealized hopes and dreams. And the songs of the caged bird ring far and wide, “for the caged bird sings of freedom”. The moment I read this poem, I felt a deep sense of validation and peace, and I finally understood what was happening within me, for the words rang clear like a bell in my mind, in absolute harmony with my body and spirit.

The whirlwind inside me demanded to be felt, to be experienced, to be free. And the experiences around me triggered this feeling even more. What shook me even further was interacting with friends and colleagues with similar intense movements within themselves. Some even experienced moments of euphoria from these motions. The newly acquired awareness of the existence of resistance within the self has been a mind-blowing realization, especially experientially. It has genuinely drawn me back to the truth that nature is connected, and whenever there is unrest, all aspects of nature manifest their unique expressions of this unrest. From a human-centred perspective, my awareness was sparked by and enhanced the understanding of resistance within the people I related with. We were united in the communion of the resistance within each of us and how this affected our individual and collective life experiences.

Maya Angelou's poem enabled me to rationalise and contextualise my inner struggles and to seek further to understand the struggles of others. The persistence of resistance within the 'caged bird' is the light that sparks its creativity. And so, I continue to work through the struggles of my inner resistance, a battle that is met with grace and sometimes with a counter resistance. And in this inner struggle, the energy of creativity slowly continues to sprout, while in the mind prevails the never-ending whispers… “ Honour your energy, you must continue to finish”…

~The Afreecan