Creative Selves, Creative Cultures, Creative Futures

Abstract

We are living in a time of uncertainty and for many people around the world that uncertainty is marked by fear and violence. The need for creativity in crafting selves and cultures and futures is made ever more urgent by and because of these uncertain times. That creativity demands both concentration and a concerted effort to act. Jane Hirschfield (1997) writes that in her work as a poet, the “effortless effort” of creativity is an act of concentration that pivots around six central forces or ‘energies’—music, rhetoric, image, emotion, story and voice (p. 7). And we can see clearly why and how the energies of rhythm, making a passionate and compelling ‘case’ or a moment or experience or point of view, and the masterful deployment of imagery, emotion, storytelling and a strong narrative voice come together to construct poetic selves and worlds that move us to see and act differently in the world. In these uncertain times, the imperative to join inquiry, feeling and action are urgent necessities in maintaining not only the coherence but also the expansion of selves and worlds.