Why resist with words?

“I believe the world is beautiful, and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone.”–Roque Dalton

“Books are the engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions … treasures of the mind … humanity in print,” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“Art has often judged the judges … shown to the future what the past has suffered … the powerful fear art … as it becomes a meeting of the invisible,” – John Berger

Poetry, stories, and art cross borders. They humanise both author and subject, bring a cause to life, and promote empathy. Through writing and reading we learn about the social character of our personal lives, and we develop individual and collective identities.

Creativity as a process bestows dignity, and when we write (or paint, sing, or dance) we show that we as a people are incredible, and we are worth fighting for. Creativity is also a way of being; it is unlazy thought that goes beyond the obvious and accepted to find interesting solutions. Only being creative can we imagine the change that we want to see, and start to head towards it.

Creativity, expression, opinion, and thought are as much necessary for human life as water and air. They should be for everyone, but the right to think profoundly is still limited to an elite few. With some rare exceptions, it is the first world, men, white people, university graduates, and above all, the rich, who are heard louder and more often than others in the media and in fiction and non-fiction.  The rest of us often doubt that our opinions are even valuable and our stories worth telling, we doubt our ability to theorise, propose, and imagine. Until our voices matter just as much, democracy is a farce.

On this website I post stories and poems, and even photos and art, to promote excluded narratives and to promote creativity as one of many tools of resistance. I welcome submissions (to tamararedbird at gmail.com), including things that have been published elsewhere, and will link back to the original posting or the author’s blog.

In struggle,

Tamara