Art In The Time Of Unbearable Crisis
“The call of our times is to awaken from the collective nightmare in which we are currently living and to rise above the limitations of our conditioned thinking – it is possible to experience an evolutionary leap allowing for an arising of enlightened consciousness … go within, Center to circumference,
emerge with an inward outlook …”
~ Dr. Laura Basha
“The Awakening” 2020
by Laura Basha
Acrylic on canvas 30” x 40”
From the website of Stephanie Raffelock
ART IN THE TIME OF UNBEARABLE CRISIS
Edited by Stephanie Raffelock
Art keeps good alive in the worst of times. In the face of ugliness, pain, and death, it’s art that has the power to open us all to a healing imagining of new possibility; it’s art that whispers to the collective that even in the ashes of loss, life always grows again. That’s why right now, in this tumultuous time of war and pandemic, we need poets more than we need politicians.
PUBLISHED JUNE 28TH, 2022
Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis is that collective exhale, of She Writes Press authors
answering a call and giving voice to this moment.
from the forward of
ART IN THE TIME OF UNBEARABLE CRISIS
by the publisher, Brooke Warner
This anthology came to be because we’re hurting. As a people, we have been sick and we have lost loved ones. We have been isolated, dealing with the fallout of distance and endings. With the war in Ukraine, cellular losses have crashed to the surface for refugees and their children and their children’s children, in addition to immediate tragedies and atrocities we see unfold each and every day. … Basic rights I once took for granted—to love who we want to love, to express how we want to express, to live free from attacks on our identities—feel threatened.
… I read somewhere that the reciprocity of writing and reading is like exhaling and inhaling. A beautiful metaphor for how we need both—the exhale being the creative release, the inhale being the inspiring intake that feeds us. Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis is that collective exhale of She Writes Press authors answering a call and giving voice to this moment. This thoughtful chorus of women is offering the essays, poems, and art in these pages as a means to connect, to bear witness, and to log a record of these times.
ALL PROCEEDS DONATED TO
The collection of essays, poetry and art in this book are meant to feed and nourish our hearts and minds. It’s what women do – we feed people. To that end, the proceeds from this work will be donated to the non-profit World Central Kitchen, an organization conceived by chef José Andrés as a way to feed people affected by natural disasters and war.
WHAT'S THE BUZZ
FROM AMY FERRIS, AUTHOR, MARRYING GEORGE CLOONEY,
CONFESSIONS FROM A MIDLIFE CRISIS
“These are brave and beautiful and riveting pieces that reinforce the absolute truth that art indeed saves lives, and to make art in the midst of war or crisis or any form of turbulence is triumphant. To make things—create things—to 'write, to sing, to dance, to pay homage to grief upon an altar in the corner of our garden,’ as Stephanie Raffelock writes in the introduction, is indeed how we change the world, clean up the messes of hatred and violence and indecency. Making art is life-changing and life-affirming, and this book, this stunning collection, is filled to the brim with that affirmation.”
FROM JENNIE NASH, FOUNDER & CEO OF AUTHOR ACCELERATOR
“Want a perfect example of `show, don't tell'? It's this book. Show us that art matters in times of despair. Show us the power of a publisher on a mission to raise women's voices. Show us those women coming together create something beautiful. It’s all here in these pages.”
FROM DEBRA LANDWEHR ENGLE,
AUTHOR OF THE ONLY LITTLE PRAYER YOU NEED and TWENTY:
“This extraordinary anthology reminds us that, in the end, love always triumphs. It's a gift for each reader and a much-needed balm for our collective heart and soul.”