Ballast Year Check-In, Pecha Kucha Style
As a beloved former colleague and mentor put it in a recent LinkedIn message, I'm "building an 'otherwise' world and collecting compatriots to join."
I'm not expecting the remaining months of 2025 to settle down any more than the year has so far, but I do feel well ballasted to meet what they bring.
Into the Chrysalis 🐛
Why am I currently identifying with the gooey caterpillar soup?
Because work isn't quite working for me the way I need it to.
So I'm leaning into abundance instead and paying people I trust for help.
Choosing CARE in a Time of Chaos
In this Chaos Moment, we need human connection with people who can share ideas and emotions with us.
That's the caregiving work I'm leaning into and putting out in the world. I hope being a guide and an experimenter like this, publicly, is part of what makes that care work (and CARE work) resonate with others. And I hope, if it feels right for you, that you'll join me in CARE.
Being Ship and Anchor for My Ballast Year
2025 is My Ballast Year.
Ballast is about when I need to be bolstered up, and when I need to be the bolster for others. When social and governmental systems can't be trusted to look out for us, we must look after each other. We must be each other's ballast. It's on us to be the stabilizers for others to fly, and to take our turn flying when others offer us stability.
ILTP: A Podcast Lover’s Love Letter to Podcasts
I listen to a lot of podcasts.
My father has coined an acronym for me: ILTP ("I listened to a podcast").
In homage to Ross Gay's beloved collection of essays The Book of Delights, I'm highlighting some of the podcasts that are delights to me.
Creating Community in Isolating Times
A major pillar of the work I do is community building. That’s radical in a time when the public discourse is so much more about shutting down voices of dissent.
To give us all a little grace, I'm leaving the doors open to join the next cohort of CARE (the Consortium of Arts Related Entrepreneurs) for just a little longer.
Pirating and Pollinating: Building Abundance Through Meaningful Connections
I know my work is better when I do it with others. That can be true for all of us if we think of ourselves as parts of an ecosystem. Our outputs can be as rich and varied as a forest when we share resources the way woodland species do.
Planting Seeds of Community
My first public offer in collaboration with Rebecca Shulman and David Bowles is here!
It’s SEED:Baltimore. It’s a 1-day, in-person workshop in Baltimore on May 16, 2024 (the day before the American Alliance of Museums annual conference sessions begin), followed by 6 virtual 90-minute sessions over the following months, all accompanied by a resource library.
A Blogging Experiment about Communality
I’ve been very interested in how these digital spaces can successfully feel like true communities, even if they’re not made up of people who’ve ever met in an offline space.