By Gary L. Lemons
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Community Healing through Artistic Transformation
“CHAT” with Guest Editor Gary L. Lemons
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Thematically, the stories in the Arts Coast magazine in June 2022 will center on bringing artists together across differences of creative expression to demonstrate the life-saving power of what I have conceptualized as “community healing through artistic transformation — CHAT.”
Considering this focus, the artists’ works included illustrate ways creative practices can act to promote human healing and well-being in mind, body and soul.
Promoting this concept, I imaginatively envision these artists conversing with each other through varying forms of creative expressivity.
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In the Oxford Languages Dictionary, the word “chat” is defined in two grammatical forms in cyber-technology. As a verb it represents an “exchange [of] messages online in real time with one or more simultaneous users of a computer network,” as in “I keep getting messages popping up on my screen from people wanting to chat.”
As a noun “chat” signifies “the online exchange of messages in real time with one or more simultaneous users of a computer network,” as in “join Me for a live online chat Wednesday.”
According to Merriam-Webster.com, two definitions of “chat” are (a.) “to talk in an informal or familiar manner” and (b.) “to take part in an online discussion in a chat room.”
In my own creative expression, I employ painting and poetry to promote and enliven conversations with other artists — as well as those individuals who view my visual artwork along with those who read my poems. I envision this activity as a collective play on a creative “chat” with me.
I have conceived the acronym “CHAT” to illustrate the critical importance of engaged conversation about the liberating power of art devoted to community-building for human enlightenment, sustainability and survival on this Earth.
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Together with the life-transforming artworks represented in the June 2022 Arts Coast Magazine, I maintain that they lay the foundation for an enlivening, artistic dialogue. Moreover, I contend that overall – long before “chat” became a tech-tool for naming computerized communication among folks — “CHAT” was the global foundational structure for human existence.
WE WERE CREATED TO BE CREATIVE! I believe the love for creative expression was, is, and will always be the natural, Earth-grounded root for artistic expression. I believe it acts soulfully to demonstrate what it means to build community, for creative dialogue in support of anyone in need of healing — in mind, body and soul.
For me, “CHAT” is the meaning-filled definition of what I believe is the art of soul-work.
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You can explore a range of stories on Arts and Healing
throughout the month of June, curated by our guest editor Dr. Gary L. Lemons
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Gary L. Lemons, PhD is Professor of African American literature, Black feminist-womanist theory/criticism, and biblical studies in the Department of English at the University of South Florida. Lemons’ published books include — Black Male Outsider, a Memoir: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man; Womanist Forefathers: Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois; Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads: Intersectional Women’s Studies for Transracial Alliance (Co-edited with Kim Marie Vaz); Caught Up in the Spirit: Teaching for Womanist Liberation; Liberation for the Oppressed: Community Healing Through Activist Transformation, a Call to “CHAT”; Building Womanist Coalitions: Teaching and Writing in the Spirit of Love; Hooked on the Art of Love: bell hooks and My Calling for Soul Work; Let Love Lead: On a Course to Freedom (Co-authored with Scott Neumeister and Susie Hoeller). Lemons is also an ordained minister.
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