Hey all!
I was going to move on from mythmaking in real time in the larger, cultural scope, but a few things have happened this week, that, again, I would feel remiss about not exploring in some way.
Because things that happen in real time are not just about the cultural but about how our culture/cultures do deeply affect us in our personal lives – and in our personal narratives that we carry inside of us.
It is important to dreaming because our dreams want to help us unweave cultural strands that only serve to inhibit, constrain, bind us.
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If you are unaware of the NEA – The National Endowments for the Arts – it is an organization that awards grants to individuals and non-profit organizations in the arts to promote creativity, innovation, forward-thinking. They say, on their website, that they want to award grants “…in which the arts benefits everyone in the United States.”
The idea is to offer artists and non-profits in in many disciplines grants to continue and deepen the arts in my country. They are also an organization dedicated to research as well as creating opportunities to bring the arts to everyone. They have worked to underwrite not just mainstream art, but also art from the many underserved cultures that are woven into the fabric of this country.
I have several friends who have won NEA grants and it helped them so much in their work. The NEA has, even with some issues, given space for people to find voice and to find audience who may not have otherwise.
The money for these grants is federally funded.
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In my country, right now, there is a push to promote specific narratives around gender, race, sexuality among other “labels”. One way this has been happening is that there are have been “executive” orders released from the new administration around these agendas.
Two of these executive orders, in particular, are around race, specifically diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI and around the Queer community.
Part of the application process for NEA grants this year is that any application must be within the bounds of these executive orders.
Because of this, people and organizations who are applying for NEA grants now can only apply for grants with work that does not speak to race or gender/sexuality.
The wording is like this: federal grants cannot be used to “promote gender ideology” – which references the executive order that states the current administration only recognizes “two sexes”. The other is that applicants cannot apply for grants that would promote DEI.
Some of this translates to the banning, even, of certain language around grant applications – so you can’t use words like race or gender, for example, in the application.
There are, of course, protests that are happening around using federal money to ban and censor creativity and truth in the arts.
But here it is. In real time.
Creating a narrative and a mythology of what can and cannot be spoken in the realm of the arts – all the arts – in a country is about changing a narrative from truth to based on a true story. When an administration or a government wants to curate narratives and abuse power, they will go after education, schools, teachers and the arts. For it is in these places that diverse and new voices are learned about and also celebrated.
Another part of the “initiative” for the NEA grants this year is that they are looking for applicants who celebrate America and its “rich” history because of the 250th anniversary of the states.
Again, here we are in real time. One group of people of an incredibly diverse country, using power, privilege and federal monies to shut down voices, to try to deny the existence of certain people and deny the struggles of all people.
Here we are.
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Of course, this does not mean that artists who are transgender, who are Black or Brown, who speak about race and gender cannot make art. [Well, not yet.] But it does mean these voices no longer can have the support and also audience that getting an NEA grants offers.
And, when the national arts institute aligns with the declarations of an administration bent on building a narrative that is wrong, that ignores the true, factual, history of a country – including especially hundreds of years of enslavement, of continued oppression of Black and Brown U.S. citizens, of gender violence against trans-humans and against all women – then this does filter down to us as individuals.
If we are in a minority group, then it affects us directly, of course. The narrative that there is no need for keeping diversity, equity and inclusion into all that we do as a country changes the truth that there is still no equity, still intense exclusivity and still the push against creating space and safety in the public realm for diverse voices and experiences.
It affects all of us, too, even if we are in the majority. Because to believe the narrative that there are no longer issues around gender, around race; to believe that we live in an equitable society; to believe that there is no discrimination based on all of this including socio-economic issues, means that we, in the majority, do not have to look at what is wrong. We, in the majority, do not have to fight for all people. It means that the majority – and especially the majority around wealth – can keep building and living through white privilege.
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I recently watched a reality show that aired a few years ago around fashion, where upcoming designers competed to win a big money prize and mentorship in the fashion industry.
There was an intense moment when one of the designers spoke about a dress he had made. He said, “This harkens back to a simpler and even better time in American history – to the 1950s – when housing was achievable, when the middle class was strong.”
He said this to an array of judges who were black, white, brown and a mix of straight and gay.
What was great for me to see was one judge, a black woman, who immediately spoke, saying how the 1950s were terrible for people of color, for women of all colors, for the queer community, etc. She basically told him [and yes, he was a white man] that the 1950s were only “good” for white men, and white men of a certain socio and economic reality.
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So, how does this affect me and you, today, right now?
When a narrative is being manipulated “based on true stories” in this way, when power and money is abused and legislation is created to impose a narrative, we are affected deeply on personal levels.
First, of course, is around physical safety. When these kinds of narratives are made into law, then discrimination is legally condoned. It also creates permission for people to not just discriminate but to respond, even with violence, against those the laws oppress.
We are affected in the physical world, in our day-to-day.
And, it affects us in our inner worlds, too. Because these narratives have been woven into our psyches, have been woven into who we are and who it is safe or not safe for us to be.
At a very core level, if I battle with accepting myself in all the glory of who I am because I am a woman or I am queer or I am trans or I am black or brown or I am poor or I am just different in my thinking and creativity than mainstream, then the culture trying to ban who I am from cultural consciousness can and does make this battle within even more difficult.
If it is not safe for me to be myself because I am outside the mainstream narrative, then I will go into hiding or mask or try to pass in order to be safe. I lose freedom of expression.
I think about the white male designer from the show who was very confident working next to other designers who had been ignored or told they were not good enough because of their gender or identities or the color of their skin. How many of those designers fought these kinds of voices internally as well.
How many of us – you – battle this, too? No matter the narrative of the culture and the cultures we live within, we are deeply affected on every level.
When we are censored, then we censor ourselves. When we are censored, we can then censor those around us.
Maybe even in ways that are not even conscious.
Our dreams work to help us un-censor our selves. Work to un-censor and unweave narratives that are woven into our beings based on centuries of heritages.
Your dream, my dream, works to free us from internal censorship, from internal oppression that we have had to do in order to survive. They also work to teach us how to discover and be our truest selves – within the reality we live.
Not out of context of the oppressions we live under. Not out of context of the realities of the world. But with and in response to.
Next article, I will go into how dreams work with us around internalized censorship, mythmaking based on a true story. We first need to acknowledge and be aware of the external realities we face every day.