EMILY, THE RENAISSANCE CREATIVE

The word Renaissance denotes a revival of, or renewed interest in something.

We know of the redefining Renaissance period in Europe with the revival of art and literature under the influences of the classical models of the 14th to 16th Century.

While that word renaissance would usually be used to refer to a time in history, such as the European Renaissance that was characterized by piqued interest in science and ancient arts; or a changing period of style and sound of music that as well characterized the 15th and 16th Centuries starting as early with the music of Trecento, leading up to the Medieval music era, from Humanism and its aspects that existed in the renaissance, to all the discoveries being made through science, technology and the eventual industrialization of the world, it was a rebirth that touched architecture, dance, the fine arts, literature, philosophy and even warfare as well. The renaissance was the bridge in European history from the middle ages to modernity. The point was to revive, refine and surpass the ideas and achievements of the classical antiquity. Sound familiar? I think so.

I enjoy reading about everything and anything in history that can connect me to where I am today and how the world around me presents itself. I think its always good to look back to look forward. As is apparent, my most recent interest is the Renaissance period.

Why was there a need to rewrite; to rebirth; to reinvent? What was so wrong about then that the times needed to change? How did these ideas come to the movers and influential figures that moved the social order and organization at the time to the core? Was it an accident? Did they intend to? Did they know their actions would have the magnitude that they eventually did? I ask myself those questions and so many more and then within that process. I however suddenly realized that whomever those individuals were, and even with the other individuals and institutions that followed suite or didn’t regarding their revolutionary suggestions, these were people that simply decided to take to fruition the utmost, and in my opinion, most sacred task of any human being- the duty to completely be oneself.

They just did and chose to do what made sense to them to do in their time, and space and various contexts; invent a new machine, write a classic literary novel, nail 95 theses to a church door, or scribble poems on whatever parchment and using whatever stationary they found in their homes to be discovered years later.

Today, I write about the renaissance creative because the truth is I am, along with any and every other creative out there, a renaissance creative. There is always a renaissance happening. It’s already happening. With every new album and painting any creative body of work, we are constantly suggesting to the world new perspectives. In our tiny minds and feeble understandings, without the comprehensive grand picture of history from its beginning, and past our reality to the future, we cannot know. To me, its like trying to feel the earth turning on its axis at roughly 1000 miles per hour. In this single moment, you can’t feel it or even know it by any sensory confirmation. There is no wind, or humming; there is no vibration. The shelves in our homes aren’t falling over. However, we know that the earth’s rotation is in fact the case, when it completes its journey in orbit round the sun and we are saying , “Happy New Year!” to every friend and stranger. Somehow, then and only then, we know- because we lived and watched the days, all 365 of them pass by until they were finished, ushering in the next cycle. You know it after the first song, the next album and the third book release.

I write about the renaissance creative because it is a role of the human being that is a creative, that never ends. To renew. To rebirth. To Reinvent. We do this as partners in relationships, writing and rewriting our own stories amidst the many that exist in the world. We do this as professionals; for the lawyer defending the criminal and the innocent; the doctor treating the sick and injured; the teacher facilitating the learning of yet another generation. The world keeps spinning and making its journey around the sun again and again, and for as long as it does so, or until we figure out how to live eternally in our carbon sleeves, we have one shot and one shot alone to be ourselves in the coinciding out our particular consciousness in a time and by a name. As Jon Foreman sings, you must become who you are because it happens once in a lifetime.

The artist and the creative is always a social and cultural instigator for the usurping novel and new, a reminder of the realities of life in social commentary and a vicarious way to have this slow and yet fast moving ebb and flow of life expressed for themselves through someone else. The Emily’s are a good example of the point I’m trying to make. Emily Jane Bronte died before she knew that her book “Wuthering Heights” had sold more than 10 copies, let alone that it would forever be etched in the halls of literary classics. Emily Dickinson didn’t even share her written and scribbled poems and most likely died imagining that they would never be read or known. Today she is one of the most important figures in American poetry. These Emilys did one thing and one thing only. They didn’t just write some of the most renown poetry of the past couple of centuries (although their poetry actually is some of the most renown in history). They did not set out to be icons in the popular culture of the past two centuries or even intend to be an inspiration to poets and especially women to express and literally rebirth culture with the musings and realizations of their minds.

The one and only thing these women did was to discharge fully the duty to be themselves, to the end and very end of its possibility in their times and despite the hinderances of culture. Being a woman in the 18th and 19th Century was still only good for securing a good marriage. Thankfully, we now and eventually realize that that was not all a woman was good for. The Emilys didn’t wait for permission to be themselves- feminists, poets, human being full of perspective, imagination, whole and beautifully so. they woke up and chose to write because there were words to write. They didn’t confuse themselves with the boxes we must fit in to “be” and “do”. They had no business cards and probably gave those that asked the question, “What do you do?” variegating answers. They were just them; and to have the chance to do what they needed to do in discharging the duty to be wholly expressive through their art was life and living.

A few months ago, I wrote here about the confusion I was facing with who to “be”. Was I a mother? A stay at home mother? A lawyer? A commercial and Corporate one? A musician? A recording or Performing one? A creative? Creating what exactly? Both? All? It is only now and through all this past reading, that I realize I have been and already am. Yes. I am a dreamer. I listen to albums and in my head on road trips visualize entire movies as their soundtracks. I dream of accepting an Oscar for best original soundtrack to a movie and making the same speech the winners always make, punctualized by the “believe in your self” and ” You can do this to if I did” trope types. I am the strangest female in my opinion, so much that I am my own definition of non-binary. I am a woman, a wife and a mother. I am a lawyer. I am a writer. I am an instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. I have been asking who I am, all the while these statements have been as true as you read them written. I didn’t need to “be” because I already am. I don’t need to have the regular business card.

It would be nice to get some Oscars and Grammys. Super nice in fact. It would be kick-ass to have a legacy and be celebrated. It would be nice to actually earn some more from what I do, than whats currently coming in. But then who I am in those instances, would be dependent on those outcomes and so much more. I’d lose myself. I would not discharge the whole and full duty to responsibly be myself.

The renaissance creative must birth themselves again and again out of the mire of societal culture and personal expectations. Out of the boxes that make being a Ugandan creative seemingly “unrealistic.” It is the same thing I have to do. When in some way my existence and role and contribution to society is denied or bogged down in some way, I must scream that I “am”, and “be”, and “do” because I have a healthy set of lungs.

The renaissance creative makes the decision to be themselves, writing the blog posts even though only a few may read them- even though no one will read them. Making another album, even if only a handful listened to the first. Stay at home and become the stay at home mum with my son because it is my role to guide him through life, pausing that illustrious career dream as an advocate. In all this, just being myself.

I have had to come to this conclusion to keep on existing, otherwise once premised on a bunch of other things, their inconsistent conclusion is that I do not exist, or are not.

Well here I am.

Enough.

And so should you be too.

You are; and that isn’t predicated on anything else than the fact that you indeed are.