Episode theme: creativity
“To be sane is to create, a way to salvage beauty from our pain. For me, it’s often writing, but it can be building a business, a bookshelf, or a family. Creativity can teach us how to move from curiosity instead of striving for perfection. —Laura Joyce Davis
Episode 94: revelry
“That's what leads me to write most anything, is that I want to know more about the subject. Because when I write, I learn.”
Kara Lee Corthron is a playwright, a novelist, and a TV writer. In this third installment of our episodes with the women who wrote FIERCE: Essays by and about Dauntless Women, Kara tells us about her own journey as a writer, and why she chose to write about a woman who understood that sometimes to be fierce, you need to make some noise.
Episode 78: story saturday (a beautiful place)
“I need to learn what I can about life. I'm not here to destroy. I'm here to love.”
Elmer Yazzie grew up on the Navaho reservation in New Mexico, and was the son of a translator for the "white missionary." In today's Story Saturday, he shares a nuanced view of his people's history, and a vision for the future that prioritizes community and courage.
Episode transcript
Episode 61: do not be afraid
“What you feed yourself drives whether you're going to be cynical or whether you're going to be hopeful. I want to create art that people will come back to that will drive them towards the hopeful as opposed to the cynical.”
Laura talks with Nashville Singer-Songwriter Christopher Williams about how making music for twenty-five years has taught him how to not be afraid--even when everything around us is crumbling.
Episode 50: story saturday (in service to the poem)
“There's a way to be a writer that isn't an egotistic identity-driven way, it's a way that helps us to show up more clearly in the world.”
On today's Story Saturday, Laura talks with poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommor about her daily practice of writing and publishing a poem a day for over a decade, and about why her favorite people in this world are the people who don't like poetry.
Episode transcript
Episode 36: non-essential
“The people who have success are the people who have gotten over their fear of accepting money in return for the work they do, and being unapologetic about the ask.”
In the second installment of this week's invitation to dream and be grateful, Laura continues to navigate her family's recent loss of income, and consider what it means to create art in a world where she is among the non-essential. She turns to Queersplaining podcast host Callie Wright to find practical solutions for creating art you can live off of during the time of COVID-19.
Episode transcript
Episode 87: untouched
“I like the uncooked texture of being real, but I also hate it. Real love, the kind that won't walk away when you're detestable, requires squeezing fingers through emotions like ground meat.”
Fifteen years ago, the first thing Laura ever published was a short piece of creative non-fiction called "Touched." Today, she responds to that younger version of herself with "Untouched," a reflection on life in a world where she no longer takes touch for granted.
Episode 65: goodnight America
“It's not about me, the message is so much more important. It's bigger than me. And so I was like, I have to do this song.”
Singer songwriter Miko Marks shares music and words to guide us in these troubling times.
Episode 57: (Slab City)
“The name’s not important, but the bike is. It’s a Harley, the kind you always dreamed of getting if you could have sold the house that went to your ex-wife…”
Laura takes this Memorial Day holiday off from the usual episodes, and instead shares a short story she wrote called "Slab City," which was originally published by A Capella Zoo.
Note: This story may not be suitable for children. The original version of this story included a few words of profanity, which Laura has excluded from this reading. You can read the original version at laurajoycedavis.com.
Bonus: creativity and COVID-19 with Emerging Form
“I’ve been kind of galvanized creatively.”
In honor of Mother's Day, Laura shares this very special bonus episode, a conversation with Emerging Form's hosts, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Christie Aschwanden. They talk about motherhood, creativity in the time of COVID-19, and what the daily practice of creating has taught them during this time of life in a pandemic.
Episode transcript
Episode 17: story Saturday (picnic)
“It’s very anthropological, but then as a mother your goal is to keep your children alive.”
On today's Story Saturday edition of Shelter in Place, Laura talks with Oakland painter Christine Ferrouge, whose solo show "Picnic" was scheduled to open today. Christine talks about being a mother artist, painting the world that her daughters are growing up in, and why it's important to keep creating. You can view Christine's work on her website.
Episode transcript
Episode 84: the capacity for courage
“It's not that you're not afraid. You're still afraid, but you act with your heart.”
Micheline Aharonian Marcom has been writing brave, beautiful, award-winning novels for over twenty years. Her latest book, The New American, comes out next month. One of the great gifts she has given to her students is to teach them to write with courage, too. On today's Story Saturday, Laura reflects on why the lessons Micheline taught her more than fourteen years ago are still with her today, and what she continues to learn from Micheline about our capacity for courage.
Episode 66: what’s going on
“Your sense of self should not reside in people or a job or a career or things or accomplishments, but that's how I spent so much of my life”
James Jones has been carving his own path for a long time--as a musician, a voiceover artist, a podcaster, and a Black man in the Mormon church. He shares how taking the leap to follow his dreams have included some falls, but ultimately landed him exactly where he needs to be.
Episode transcript
Episode 64: blues for almost forgotten music
“We have holidays to honor the dead who have been lost in war. Why don’t we have holidays to honor those whose lives have been lost to the evils of racism?”
Award-winning poet Roxane Beth Johnson shares poems to help us remember the music of life, and talks about how this time has taught her to to live a quieter life and find hope in the small moments.
Episode transcript
Episode 56: story Saturday (bent toward hope)
“I think there's part of me that's always kind of searching for this legitimacy.”
In this very special Story Saturday edition, Laura talks with award-winning author Kirin Khan, who began this time of sheltering in place in a firestorm of tragedy, but through it all has found her way to hope and grace.
Please note: this episode mentions suicide.
Episode transcript
Episode 45: story saturday (through lenses)
“It’s been a lifelong dream to work there … to have a hand in creating those hopeful stories of ordinary people thriving in extraordinary situations.”
Laura talks with Hollywood executive Andrew Calof, who has spent the past twenty years chasing his dream of making movies, and how pursuing that dream and spending years crafting stories is helping him to shelter in place.
Episode transcript
Episode 8: the call to create
“In a bad economy, art is the first thing to go. In a time of catastrophe, what good can art do?”
Midway through week 2 of the Bay Area Shelter in Place mandate, Laura reflects on why she feels compelled to push her anxiety into creativity in this time, and reflects on other times when artists have led the way.
Episode transcript