Art, Blooming

This is a time of wonderful and long-awaited change. First, quarantine unceremoniously uprooted our traditional forms of creative expression, cracking open the sidewalks of artistic freedom to uncover inventive new ways of creating and sharing art amidst the concrete and gravel.

Now, the Black Lives Matter movement is tearing down institutional oppression, making room for an even bigger and more inclusive garden, and watering all new shoots with the promises of freedom and equality.

We are setting out on huge, society-altering ambitions. We are writing more inclusive narratives on every petal and reaching out for more hands to plant the seeds for systems that everyone can benefit from. And new art forms are sprouting up everywhere.

These are times of great change, magnificent creativity, and glorious evolution.

Art doesn't just survive despite all these changes—it feeds off of the rain of upheaval and glistens in the sunbeams of struggle. This pandemic has made creative expression stronger than ever. Free online performances can reach farther than ever before. Artists across continents can create together and audiences from all over the globe can share artistic experiences. Together, we are weaving a world that is more connected than ever before in human history.

Our garden is blooming around us. Please take time to stop and smell everything, regardless of whether or not it conforms to societal beauty standards.

Immerse yourself in the powerful and cathartic reflection on black history in When the Wolves Came In.

Listen to Angel Blue’s heavenly voice as she takes on ever-shifting characters and bridges the audience-to-performer distance better than booming opera halls would ever let her.

Read about the emotional powerhouse of Blackfish, a documentary capturing the depressing tale of a captive killer whale driven to murder, as an installment in the Virtual SIFF Cinema.

Feel the hearts of teen filmmakers from whole states away in creative and well-done SXSW 2020 Official Short Film Selections.

Reflect on Black Lives Matter and the power of art as resistance by watching A.I.M.’s Meditation: A Silent Prayer.

Experience the evolution of live theater through the digitally rehearsed, recorded, and performed King Lear by Penguin Productions.

Celebrate the growing representation of queer relationships and identies by reading about the tender and nourishing film So Pretty, part of the Seattle Transgender Film Festival: Transitions.

Make change. Get involved with Black Lives Matter by educating yourself and having difficult conversations, all while you sign petitions and demand justice.

But most of all, take time to be. Lie down in this garden of change and feel the tendrils of inclusion, freedom, and hope grow under you and around you and lift you, carrying you up into the air until you can touch the clouds of the future.

Lead photo credit: Nelson Estevao for Unsplash.

The TeenTix Newsroom is a group of teen writers led by the Teen Editorial Staff. For each review, Newsroom writers work individually with a teen editor to polish their writing for publication. The Teen Editorial Staff is made up of 6 teens who curate the review portion of the TeenTix blog. More information about the Teen Editorial Staff can be found HERE.

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