#CMCommunity at CreativeMornings/EDI
August in Edinburgh… What a crazy time and place to be alive. The population of our city more than doubles. The streets are filled with the familiarly unfamiliar, and not a street nor lane can be traversed without festival leaflet bombardment. We can all too easily find ourselves surrounded, yet feeling totally detached from our community spaces.
With this dynamic at play, the global theme of #CMCommunity was both timely, and welcome. The CMEdi team set to work, creating a fun, sunny meadows gathering, where we could all re-group, and share creative inspiration. However, Scotland - as always - had other ideas…
The rain came down, ensuring a hearty drenching ahead. Team chatter filled with concern over whether anyone would even make an appearance. Nevertheless, the team held out hopes… And boy did you turn up!
Photography by Ellie Morag 📷
Despite the grey skies and soaked anoraks, you graced our picnic blanket with delicious home-made dishes to share. Exchanging hugs for cups of hot coffee and tea. Not only did you make the event worth braving the storm, but you re-enforced our teams appreciation, and dedication to all that is CreativeMornings Edinburgh…
“Having a strong network and community is one of the reasons I love
living in Edinburgh. It was really heart-warming to see that even though it was
pouring with rain, our Creative Mornings/Edinburgh community were still willing
to bring food and connect” - Ellie, CMEdi Photographer, and Instagram Story Extraordinaire.
“At CreativeMornings/Edi we like to keep things fresh, so when someone suggested having an outdoor potluck brunch during the month of August, we jumped on the idea - what could go wrong? Naturally it poured with rain.
But this made the whole experience even better, as bit by bit members of our community trickled in, laden with freshly prepared homemade bakes. It was a heart-warming morning where our community warmed our hearts and shared their stories of what #cmCommunity meant to them. Albeit a little soggy, I left the event with a toasty fuzzy feeling that no matter what, we could always count on our cm attendees to be as daft as us.” - Alex, CMEdi Host & Founder.
Photography by Ellie Morag 📷
One particular dish, which appears to have gained its own fan club since the event, was hand made by community member Emily. That was, porridge cake!
Of course, we had to discover her culinary secrets. In a statement from an interview following the event, Emily shared a little insight into her magic…
“I read in Ruby Tandoh’s book ‘Eat Up’ that there’s nothing more beautiful than sharing food you’ve make from scratch with someone you care about. It’s essentially kneeding your time, care and energy into something and giving it to someone else so they can absorb it and use its’ energy to go about their life. So this setup for Creative Mornings was something I was extremely excited about - the thought of making something from scratch that would go on to fuel the lives of these wonderful, creative people was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.”
“Emily on the left” by Ellie Morag 📷
As well as our CM Edinburgh activities, CreativeMornings chapters around the word were
also coming together - creating a month-long wave of renewed faith in both
local, and global #CMCommunity.
At CM Harare, Zimbabwe, their speaker for August’s theme of Community was Thembe Khumalo, “a social, political and business commentator with big opinions, her aim is to provoke us into thinking differently about ourselves and one another, to require more of our leaders and our communities, and to begin to see ourselves more clearly”.
Thembe gave words of social motivation, sharing a vision for an Africa “in which Africans are embracing their authenticity and thriving as a result”. From the buzz of activity from the community members, her words and passion struck a chord, as quotes and gratitude filled timelines:
“Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (A person is a person through other people.)
“The work of community is when a person walks into a room with fear and self-doubt, only to leave with a new narrative and a feeling of possibility and hope. We can give that experience to one another. It’s the work of being human.”
CM Ottowa, in Canada, brought the theme to life with 6 speakers, giving representation to diverse, yet interwoven parts of Ottowa’s wider communities.
"Explore our city through these various lenses and experiences as told by different walks of life.”
“It was an incredible event, not only because it was our largest to date, but because we opened the stage to 6 members of our community doing great work.” - Marwan Mansour, CMOttowa Video Lead.
From empowering young people in democratic process, and bringing full gender-spectrum inclusion in extreme sports, to building community entrepreneurship and nourishment - these speakers are leading the way, in so many diverse, yet interconnected directions. Learn more about all of them on the CMOttowa event website!
At CM Bangalore, India, two speakers lead the event - Executive Chef Varun Raj, and Resteraunteur Madhusudhan Kashyap. The core purpose of their talk? To honour the important social role of food in fostering community.
Stepping away from the stage, they joined the community, sharing a nutritious and hearty meal. Throughout the dining experience, they provided guiding words on finding balanced mindfulness - of both self, and community. Health, enjoyment, and wellbeing, for all, placed at the heart of intentions.
Looking back on the special month of #CMCommunity, we also get to wish a
Happy 10th Birthday to the CreativeMornings founding chapter, in New York City.
Ten years of creative community, growing ever more global by the day. All
united in the spirit of giving a damn!
“Everyone is creative. Everyone is welcome!”
We can’t wait to see you all at our next CMEdi event, and hope that you have the good fortune to explore the global community that awaits. It’s only ever just a click away… At CreativeMornings 🗺️
