The Purple Party
An invitation to recognize your royal shade
Dear Starlight,
Where to begin?
The other night I awoke from a vivid dream. I wandered into a basement and began painting purple in one of my Creativity + Courage exercises. The dream ended with me feeling and picturing a hand drill or whisk spiraling up from deep within me—dark purple, undulating, swirling purple hues. I woke and saw in my mind a photo of a small inkwell of dark "Virginia Woolf" purple ink. (Dear reader hold onto this story.)
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I was reminded that Sunday Circle turned two years around the sun this month! I went back in time and revisited my first post, which, god bless, sets the tone for everything ever after. Reading it again I decided to post Love Notes again to Instagram--let's counter current fear with a little more everyday love, shall we?
Lately, I’ve been revisiting past works while casting future visions. I’m also refreshing my website—an existential exercise more than a practical one. Do people even use websites anymore?
In my history closets, I discovered that I have not updated my CV in seven years, which is how long I have been headfirst devoted to Place Corps (also described as diving into the deepest never-ending story).
CVs are tedium, boring as fuck, but also kind of cute. There were many titles and events in my timeline that were important enough to note but lost in the soup of my memory. But reading it backwards, there is an evident bread trail…
Love these art exhibit titles from 2014:
Plant Magic Dust
Your Spirit Don't Leave Knowing
(I aim to share a new website next week! With new Creativity & Courage offerings…Yippi!)
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Anyways, my first Sunday Circle shares the anecdote of a fairytale I had written on a whim in my mid-twenties as I was starting to call myself an artist—it was before I had ever imagined teaching, starting any fellowships, having a baby, etc. In the fairytale, I had a wand (my paintbrush) and a role in the revolution. I helped people recognize their creative powers through liberating imagination, and collectively, our joyful song entered the hearts of soldiers operating the machines (it was people vs. machine I wrote it circa 2005). The songs were felt. They jingle-jangled hearts with the feeling of love that once upon a time the soldiers felt in their mothers' arms…anyhow, you get it. (Dear reader hold onto this story…)
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This week we hosted a very special evening at Place Corps where our fellows, ages 18-21, shared their “Place Stories” publicly. This is the first time our young adults have ever spoken publicly—it should be noted that our fellows are not typical type A fellows. Instead, they are a group of courageous and curious young people who might be considered misfits, young people underserved and overlooked in our society. They are a mélange of identities and experiences—different abilities, genders, races, ethnicities, citizenships, orientations, and classes. At Place Corps, they start discovering their inherent belonging within each other’s company and then within their larger community as they venture throughout the year into new learning and professional experiences.
The night was what it has been every time—a night of radical vulnerability and outpouring of love, resulting in the most exquisite, empowering experience. Have you ever seen a wilted flower take a gulp of water and suddenly stand proud? It’s like that—fucking gorgeous. And guess who cries the most? The public audience, the grown-ups, because we all have had those feelings and fears that kept us armored. To see a teenager unshackle from shame and claim their lives and their place is a gift for us all!
At the event, I had a brief convo with deep pockets who told me they were going to be investing in significant infrastructure for the future we know is here, like yesterday… and impulsively I replied: Don’t forget the artists and poets—we need more than ever the voice of hope, beauty, and love. And they said, Yeah, yeah, nodding in that way that I’ve always been nodded to when someone knows that art is important but still thinks it’s an extracurricular to science…
That evening I left Place Corps for another community event—this one somber—a circle of concerned citizens reviewing the chaos of the executive orders. As I sat in the circle, someone said, “The red and the blue,” discussing the two-party system, and suddenly my mind flooded with the deep purple ink of my dream. Purple—the in-between, the merging, the color of something new being made.
Then I thought about my teens at Place Corps, who enter from opposing belief systems and different lived experiences, and within a short time, they are having a party, telling each other their secrets, and crying on each other’s shoulders…
And so:
I know what my role is in this.
I might not have always known
my role in capitalism—
but I know it
in its collapse.
And maybe
it’s the same.
You can call me
artist,
magician,
poet,
bard,
lover,
or something else.
Thank God
there are powers investing
in new infrastructure,
energy systems,
food systems,
and economic systems.
Thank God
there are people learning
how to start fires,
fire shotguns,
make sourdough
and kimchi.
But me,
I’ll be wielding my wand.
Painting pictures.
Building vessels.
Singing songs.
Praising the sun.
Worshipping the moon.
Dancing with stars.
Feeding bellies.
Seeding hope.
I’ll be gathering conventicles
around the hearth.
I’ll be reminding people
of our superpower—our nuclear fireball
Our will.
Our imagination.
Our creativity.
Meet me
On the frontlines of love.
I belong. We belong. Together, we are the Purple Party.
The Purple Party: A Movement of Belonging
Purple happens when we meet, when we mix—when the absolutes of red and blue dissolve into something more majestic.
Purple is the color of becoming, the space between, our center, our hearts, the middle ground we all share—our earth, our home, the place where we root down, radically connect, and grow well together.
Purple is the party that knows what’s good for the earth is good for us all.
The Purple Party flows like a river, nourishing neighbor to neighbor, dissolving illusions of division.
Purple is the party that likes a party, because joy is as necessary as justice.
Be part of the party. Be part of the whole.
Love is our operating system.
This is an invitation to recognize your royal shade.
PS. I’m thinking to get some Purple Party stickers or pins…I genuinely feel that its a unifying symbol in this moment…would you want a purple heart?
PPS. I’ve created a little survey for you that will help me know what type of content you would like to study or discuss together. I would love your feedback to help inform that vessel. In gratitude for your feedback, I will create and send a unique blessing for your month—surprise gifts on route.