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June’s Theme is Reverie.

All the hugs and highest of fives to our Summer Partners at Arts & Letters who are graciously hosting us this month. Space is limited to set your alarms for Monday, June 12 at 10:00 am when tickets go live here.

When your gaze softens around the edges, where does your mind travel? What thoughts arise unbidden? Reverie beckons us to dream while awake, spinning loose associations that seem to emerge from somewhere not entirely inside or outside of you. Our woolgathering summons past memories and nascent fantasies. We turn them over and over, like smooth stones in our hand, making meaning.

Neuroscientists have found that daydreaming ignites your brain’s default mode network. Counterintuitively, this unfocused part of the mind is where many creative breakthroughs take place — think Archimedes‘ fluid mechanics in a bathtub and Newton’s gravity under the apple tree. When you’re not preoccupied with solving a problem and chaining yourself to your desk in a fit of productivity, your mind is free to drift, roaming for the pieces that might complete the puzzle unexpectedly.

Pay attention to what lulls you into reverie. What conditions disarm your focus? Let your thoughts float and not settle on anything, but drift like a cloud, or a child skipping across a sidewalk on a hot summer day.

Our Omaha chapter chose this month’s exploration of Reverie and Eduardo Gardea illustrated the theme.

More here…

ACCEPTANCE | Roscoe Burnems

“If you consume no other content, give yourself the gift of Roscoe’s words.” -Michelle Mercurio, CMRVA host

This powerful talk from Douglas Powell/ Roscoe Burnems, Richmond’s First Poet Laureate tackles the topics of racism, privilege, gender roles, his son being a butterfly, the five things they don’t tell you about grief, love and god and love, and more for #CMAcceptance.

To our friends at Frontier - thanks for accepting our invitation to partner with us in these creative efforts.

• Venue Visual Arts of Richmond
• Videography  The Erwin Creative
• Photos Mahogani Moore, @moorethanflicks
• Full Album Here

In-kind partners that fuel this engine of generosity Worth Higgins & Associates, Lavender Hill, The Anderson Accounting & Advising Group

Give yourself the gift of watching the full talk HERE. 

May’s theme is Acceptance.

Acceptance is the act of surrendering to our reality, without judgment or fear. There are many things in our lives that cause us discomfort or pain. We attempt to change or resist them, to no effect. So we wave a big stick, keeping them at bay like a wounded animal.

Acceptance is weaving into your story what once caused you pain — and still might, to this day. You welcome that creature into your home, tend to its wounds, and feed it out of your hand. Acceptance is knowing that this feral animal lives side by side with your tender house cat of a heart, always.

Embracing what cannot change can help you gather the energy to change what must. Accept these truths: you cannot make another person love or see you. You did not finish everything before the sun set on another day — and you didn’t need to. Every moment will pass, the blissful and the excruciating. It’s the hardest lesson, but one we need the most: the grace to let go.

Our Lexington chapter chose this month’s exploration of Acceptance and Robert Beatty illustrated the theme.

MOVEMENT | Rasheeda Creighton

Rasheeda Creighton reminded us to be ready to MOVE, in season and out. You never know what life is preparing you for. But when it’s go time - you better be ready.

Thanks to our local partners at Frontier for keeping it moving this month!

• Venue The House at Richmond Urban Dance
• Videography  Double Take
• In-kind partners that keep this engine moving Worth Higgins & Associates, Lavender Hill, The Anderson Accounting & Advising Group
• Photos Antoine Robertson
• Full Album Here

Listen to the full talk HERE. 

April 2023’s 126th CreativeMornings Theme is MOVEMENT.

The body in motion is a thing of beauty. Our cells shake kinetic energy through the finely articulated instruments of muscle, ligament, and bone. We blink, we pulse, we dance. Some even pull off feats of human athleticism and daring, from which we can hardly look away.

Movement is a universal state of being. Even at rest, the matter we’re composed of is in motion — subatomic particles whir about at dizzying speeds, to create the sense of solidity. The things that appear still — the earth beneath us, the trunk of a tree above us, is but a trick of the eye. They move slowly but at a staggering scale.

When we move together, we can build social and collective movements. Like a murmuration of swallows, we can form sweeping visions of a world never seen before. Our collective energy directed like a mighty river flowing downstream, taking unexpected and winding turns to carve mountains.

Our Wellington chapter chose this month’s exploration of Movement, Hannah Webster illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

CORRUPTION | Ngiste Abebe

“Corruption shows up when people are trying to survive.”

Ngiste Abebe walked us through the roots of corruption at our March 2023 event. Using superhero examples, she reminded us that not all corruption starts that way. Everyone typically starts with good intentions and survival can change the course of their motives. To beat corruption takes courage, but there is hope.

Thanks to our local partners at Frontier for keeping our talks fueled!

• Venue ICA
• Videography Double Take
• In-kind partners that fuel this engine of generosity Worth Higgins & Associates, Lavender Hill, The Anderson Accounting & Advising Group
• Photos Tina Take My Photo
• Album Here

Stay in touch and listen to the full talk HERE. 

March’s Global Theme is Corruption.

Corruption can start innocently, like favoring someone you know over someone you don’t. Or recalling a gift they once sent, and repay them with a project for that sweetness. Corruption is a spectrum, rewarding social connections and financial advantages over the rules of fair play. It exists in every society and every institution. 

Some people survive through corruption, the labyrinthine bureaucracies where they live making it literally impossible otherwise. But while they survive, others perish. Rising plumes of toxic chemicals, collapsing buildings not constructed to code, we owe the calamities all around us to those who cared more about profit than people and gain over the greater good. 

As social anthropologist Lucy Koechlin notes, “A world without corruption is a powerful idea. But it doesn’t appear out of the blue.” It takes courage to speak out. To demand transparency and accountability. To strengthen whistleblower protections and the rule of law. To break up corporate concentration while organizing coalitions of people to reset the balance. What will you do to hold power to account? 

Our Monterrey chapter chose this month’s exploration of Corruption and Violeta Hernández illustrated the theme.  

Join us on March 17 as we chat with Ngiste Abebe.

TOUCH | Dr. Faith Wilkerson

“You speak whatever you want into existence.”

Dr. Faith touched us all this February with her authentic story on impact reminding us that our touch (& our voice!) matters.

Thanks to our new local partners at Frontier for keeping the lights on!

• Venue Studio Two Three 
• Videography Andy Erwin of The Erwin Creative (@theerwincreative)
• In-kind partners that fuel this engine of generosity Worth Higgins & Associates, Lavender Hill, The Anderson Accounting & Advising Group
• Photos On Three Photography
• Album Here

Stay in touch and listen to the full talk HERE. 

Come join us at an UnlockingRVA event soon!

February ’s Theme is Touch.

Across the years when we had to stay apart to keep one another safe, skin hungered for the sensation of being pressed against another. The longing for touch was deeply felt. 

Unlike sight or sound, the senses we primarily rely on for information, touch cannot be conveyed across distance through screens and speakers. Touch invites us to slow down, pay attention, and come closer. 

When we open ourselves to the ineffable — what cannot be transmitted through words — touch emerges as a language unto itself. The grit of the soil under our bare feet, the clay slip enrobing a potter’s wheel, the sun-warmed fur of a beloved pet — these sensations can be healing.

How will you stay in contact with the electric matter that keeps us alive? What will pass through your hands today?

Our Lisbon chapter chose this month’s exploration of Touch and Emma Lopes illustrated the theme. 

Meet us at Studio Two Three at 8:30 am on Friday, February 17th to explore TOUCH with Dr. Faith Wilkerson. More Here. 

SANCTUARY | Dr. Hollee Freeman

Thanks to our new local partners at Frontier and our in-kind partners at Worth Higgins & Associates, Lavender Hill and The Anderson Accounting & Advising Group, we kicked off the year with a great event!

• Venue American Civil War Museum 
• Videography Joey Tran/Erin Adelman of Double Take (@thisisdoubletake)
  
• Photos Tina Thomas (@tinatakemyphoto)
• Album Here

Stay buzzing like we did and listen to the full talk HERE. 

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