communicating positively

our last friday event in july focused on thinking positive and communicating these thoughts creatively. in the above photo, each person contributed one item from their list of "things i like about myself." group members also chose happy songs that played in the background while they wrote.

the happy songs list:

the girl- city and color
what a wonderful world - louis armstrong
this will be our year - the zombies
autumn leaves - joe pass
life is good - mos def
soft shock - yeah yeah yeahs
mr. blue sky - electric light orchestra
three little birds - bob marley
there is a way - mos def
what cool breezes do - digable planets
BBQ - 2 skinnee j's
let the right one slip in - morrisey
in the aeroplane over the sea - neutral milk hotel


share your happy songs with those you care about. list them in the comments section of this post :)


sometimes we just doodle collaboratively the rest of the time.

last friday: free write cipher session

i hosted an event called "last friday" which was held on the last friday in may. it was inspired by my belief that "the third place" is endangered. it's a whole blog post for another time. anywho...

if you've ever been to a "first friday" event, then you know that it's about appreciating and celebrating creations by local artists. so one day i thought,why not gather to create together instead? hence the birth of "last friday." every last friday of the month (or close to it), i plan on inviting a small group of friends to participate. we may write, we may draw and we may even put on a puppet show. it'll be good times.


this is what we did for our first meet up:

free write instructions part one: in two minutes list "things you like to do when you're not at work."

i noticed that our lists seemed to reveal an order of priority or what seemed to consume our thoughts the most. i openly admitted to listing "facebook" first. several of us listed "sleeping."

free write instructions part two: pick one item from your list to use as a writing topic. in 8 minutes write in a stream-of-consciousness style. do not stop moving your pen. write whatever comes to mind even if off topic. don't worry about grammar or spelling. if you can not think of anything to write, then doodle and squiggle until you do. the point is to keep the pen moving. everyone shares their freewrite around the room.

we shared. we laughed. someone cried. i got teary. we appreciated one another. we created together.