What is up?! October in Long Beach is reminding me of New York :-) That's a good thing. A little good nostalgia is good for the soul.
Long Beach is such an amazing place. The spirit of the people and the community is uplifting and since I started Leadership Long Beach, this feeling has just intensified. There are so many great opportunities for collaborations and support for the work we are doing at Cabrillo Villages Shelters as well as for our work at Bixby Park near where I live. That's the bomb, actually running into kids that we do programs with in our own neighborhood. Nothing beats it. I can see the wheels turning in their head when they see us coming down the street, like "oh, hey! those are the heads who do the art in the park," nice feeling to be apart of something positive in a child or young person's life.
We had a grant letter due yesterday, was fortunate enough to be able to walk it into the office where I ran into Sandy, who we've been working with from the Long Beach Community Foundation. They're great and even if we don't get the grant (I hope we get the grant :-) I told her that it's a good thing just to have a chance to tell the story, even to ourselves, of what we've done. The most amazing thing about this work is that you're so present and in it that you don't really have a chance to sit back and see what you've accomplished until it's time to write one of these grant proposals or do a press release or one of these kinds of things. Kind of keeps you honest in a way.
The angels really sent me some inspiration though. Back when I did the Liberty Hill piece, which we'll be working on again soon, I was having a hard time articulating exactly the connection between how the arts contributes to sustainability in communities. It was coming off as kind of airy fairy and when that happens for me then it's a signal that I need to go back to the ground, as my homeby Mark Armstrong in Chicago used to say.
Because there is definitely a connection.
When I sat down to write the proposal for Long Beach Community Foundation, it all fell into place. This is what I came up with, check it out:
"Little by little Living Love Foundation is doing its part in creating a space where children and their families can work and think progressively about their world and the possibilities of their lives inside and outside shelter grounds. By yielding tools; helping make connections and providing real capacity building, our goal is to establish a sustainable continuum of creative community engagement that will move beyond our investment of time and resources at the shelters."
This is the first place I've shared that outside of the grant proposal, but really it's what we've been doing, and it feels good to be able to put a hold of some words to describe it. Because I think it's really magic, when we can work with communities, employing art and fun and love to do this, then we've been involved in magic making. Straight up. Need more of that in the world.
I told Sandy that it's like this cauldron of all these great things, a stew that we've put together and hopefully, with the continued help of the community and the attention of folks like Councilman Robert Garcia and his staff (lovely folks) and on the ground support from friends of Living Love like Chris Lyles (my great big shining light), it will all come together in some wonderfully inspired young people who are ready to face the world with their heads held up high, ready to walk in any room, anywhere in the world and feel good about themselves. That's what all this rigamaroo is about...can't ever forget it. Til later-Cheers :-)
