Going to SXSW
I need your help and a here's an update on what I have been doing this summer!
Oh My Gosh - I need your help! I’m excited to announce that voting for SXSW 2025 sessions is now open, and the panel I’m part of, "Healing a Divided Nation, Starting Where You Live," is on the shortlist. I can’t get there, though, without your support. SXSW has the public vote on who will present at the conference, and our panel would love to be part of that mix to share the hope we have through our community-building work.
HOW TO VOTE
Visit https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/151204 and sign in or create an account. It’s super easy, and you won’t get spammed from them.
Once you are signed in, search for Healing a Divided Nation, Starting Where You Live in the search field.
Each voter can vote once per proposal – selecting “arrow up” for yes or “arrow down” for no. I’m not advocating for you to down vote - everyone is providing such great work that there isn’t anyone that shouldn’t have the chance to be there.
What The Heck Am I Up To?
I have been having a great summer and hope you have had some delight, too. It hasn’t been a summer of trips or vacations, but it has been a summer of growing a beautiful garden that we have been eating from for months, learning new creative things, and attending tremendous training. I feel, at 54, that I might be starting to feel comfortable in my own skin. What a thing!
Here’s a fun list of things I’ve been up to:
I’ve been reading terrible Regency Romances and loving every minute of it. I know that I could be reading more highbrow literature, but the silly rom-com/historical romance has been filling a happy vibe for some time. They just make me laugh out loud. What can be better than that? I blame Bridgerton and Outlander for this joy, btw. But joy is joy wherever you might find it.
We have grown massive sunflowers this year. We grow the Henry Wilde variety from Bakers Creek, which is multi-headed, and they are over 10 feet tall this year. We are in the season when they are fading, but that brings out the yellow finches, and we get so much delight from that.
As I told you, I have started my YouTube channel, and I’m loving it. It’s challenging in the best way. I’m having to figure out the best way to tell a story, how to edit, and how to understand the nuances of the platform, and I’ve just been tickled by the process. I haven’t found my groove yet, although the channel is growing at a nice pace. It’s just an amazing creative project.
I attended the first year of a three-year Community Development Institute program, where I can become certified after three years. It was just so refreshing to see that the work I’ve been doing for the last 17 years in the Main Street program aligns perfectly with the ideas behind community development.
I wrote four grants this summer, and so far, we have heard that we were awarded one of them. It’s always such a fun thing to develop a grant, and then you just sit there crossing your fingers that you will get it. I hope there’s more success, and I’ll keep you posted.
I finished a big collection of paintings that I’m calling Spill the Tea and entered them in two different shows. I have no idea if I will be included, but the process of having to write my artist statement and actually finish a full selection of paintings was really good for me. I’ve started another series that is going much slower, but it is fun. That series is called The Animal Queendom and is very fanciful.
I’m loving Chappell Roan’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Jack White’s new album No Name, and this silly Affirmation Song by Snoop Dog because after the Olympics, how can we NOT love him?
Lastly, I was selected to join the Weave Speakers Bureau from the Aspen Institute. I’ve been working for the past two years to be part of a speakers bureau to further my ability to land on more stages and speak in more rooms, and I was really grateful to be asked to be part of this team. My bio isn’t up yet, but it will be soon.
Here is one of the latest videos if you want to join me on YouTube.
I hope you have had a great summer! Please drop me a note to tell me what you have been doing. I want to hear all about your vacations, adventures, and fun projects.
XO-
Jackie