Project 25:365
Creating to resist the destruction
My friend, the fantastic artist and art historian Sara Witty, has devised a remarkable project of resistance. Project 25:365 is a hub for artists who will each create and publish a work of creativity every day of 2025 (or roughly every day, as we all need a break once in awhile). Since Donald Trump’s second presidential election win, the mantra I have been repeating to my students, as well as on the radio, has been, “It is better to make things than to break things.”
So, I will practice what I preach. I will be participating in Project 25:365. Each artist will house their work on their own platform, with Sara’s site serving as a hub. My work will be housed here.
I expect my contributions to be primarily writing, though I will likely also doodle, paint, and make music. Maybe I’ll build more stuff for the trellis I built over the summer:
Another act of resistance I am engaging in is starting an MFA in Creative Writing in January. So that, along with the surprising progress I’ve made on my novel and the fact that I mostly teach writing these days, puts my brain in word mode.
I’m preoccupied with the novel at the moment, so some of my work will probably be focused on it—world building, sketching the fictional cities of its setting, music inspired by it, that kind of thing. I have been writing short stories set in the novel’s world, which I’m hoping to build into a podcast, which might show up here, too.
I expect things in my nation to start breaking at rapid speed in a little over a month. Maybe it won’t happen. I hope it won’t happen, but we shouldn’t operate exclusively on that hope. The way to fight against a destructive force is to be a productive force. I’m grateful to Sara for providing a community for creators, and I hope you will spend time, come January, exploring what we all build. And I hope you build some stuff, too.