Kuumba means Creativity
Creativity is in our blood, we create as naturally as we breath. From music to clothing, businesses, inventions, hair styles, instruments and more; creativity is a part of our culture. During this sixth day of Kwanzaa I challenge each of us to tap into our creative spaces. Practicing our creativity clears the mind and the heart in a way that no other activity can do. It allows us to share a piece of ourselves to our audience. For me writing songs on my acoustic guitar gives me the opportunity to share a piece of my soul in the words of my songwriting. There are several forms of creativity that we can tap into: music, dance, art, but the celebration Kuumba is popularly defined as, “To do always as much as we can in the way that we can in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than when we inherited it.” The way that we inherit our world is out of our control but the way that we leave it for the next generation is completely dependent on us. For as long we’re on this earth the way that the world looks is more of our responsibility each day that we inhabit it. We can use our creativity to make the world a better place in several ways, the more obvious of which being physical or aesthetic appeal but there are other areas from spiritually and ethically, that our creativity positivity impacts the world we live in.
Asthetic Beauty: The color, the music the beat and the movement of the body all add to the beauty of what we see, hear and feel everyday. Without art, our world we bland. Without our creativity, a lot of aspects of American culture would be nonexistent from dance moves, to music genres, even colorful aspects of the English language and hundreds of inventions, so many that aren’t even accounted for. When we produce we create a better functioning and looking world as a result.
Ethical Influence: Ethically, when we create art for others to consume it impacts those of other communities in a unique way by helping people understand our perspective in a way that they would not have been able to otherwise. In this way its our responsibility to produce and share our art. Our art opens up closed minds, expands perspectives and educates those that are ignorant to our experience.
Spiritual Awareness: We become more aware of ourselves in our creativity. When we create then sometimes we’re surprised with what comes out of us. For example, whenever I push myself to write a song so much more comes out of my spirit in the lyrics than what I expect. There’s so much emotion and history buried inside of each of our souls making art is a beautiful release. Although not each of us make use our creativity on a professional level, whether we realize it or not, every single on of us are artists in one way or another. Its important for each of us to practice our art on a regular basis, its a form of relaxation in the mist of all the rushed tasks we do day to day.
As a result of consuming others art we become more connected to those around us, by recognizing ways that we relate to others. Social media has become a large part of our connectivity to one another and I urge each of us to follow 10 new artists on our social media accounts, from facebook to instagram; be active on their profiles, show them some love and share their work with others. Even if you don’t directly support their art by buying a piece you can share their work with others who may do so.
Kuumba
