The Caring Imagination

creating, producing and disseminating art with compassion

I had the idea for the Caring Imagination last year, when I was fruitlessly banging my head against the wall of artistic white male privilege. Eventually I realized that it was a waste of time. What could I do instead? I decided to focus on constructive ways to listen to and support creators and cultural workers who have been systematically excluded from the literary, small press, visual poetry canons. And to learn about ways to make and curate art with compassion and share what I learn with other creators and cultural workers.

Mado Reznik

Art Workers Work

As a publisher for over 20 years, first for Bywords.ca (est 2003) and then for AngelHousePress/DevilHouse (est 2007), I have always felt strongly that creators should be paid for their work. I had noticed that the expectation in the world I was in, namely the Canadian small press community and the larger visual poetry community was for people to give their work away for free, that somehow sharing one’s work or having it published is reward enough. That expecting money for one’s work was somehow tasteless and less artful.

As Caring Imagination advisor Jacqueline Valencia has written, "Many writers of colour struggle to get a foot in the door of the literary scene and do not have the privilege of giving away their time and labor for free." Jacqueline Valencia, Conceptualism in the Resistance, The Town Crier, Puritan Magazine, April, 2017.

This approach has created inequality in both print and online representation where women, non-binary, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ, low-income, mad, crip, neurodiverse and chronically ill creators are missing from the conversation. How many brilliant and exciting creators are we not hearing from because they can’t afford to practice their art or share their work? This haunts me.

Susanne Eules

Resources Towards A Caring Imagination

There were other things I noticed too. I saw writers on social media asking questions about where to find sensitivity readers, or how to make accessible sites or small press publishers asking how to source green printing products. I saw that there were indeed creators, publishers, curators and other cultural workers who cared about how their practice affected others. I thought it might be a good idea to try and compile resources to help those who want to consider others in their acts of creation, production and dissemination. Those who want to think about the planet as part of their work.

What I need to do as a creator, curator, publisher is to consider my work in terms of the world I am in living in, the people who are around me. I also need to know that I am not alone in this way of thinking and that other creators and cultural workers feel the same. I need to be part of a community of caring people with caring imaginations and see what we can create and build together. This can be inspiring and community-building. That’s the model of creativity that I need to focus on at a time when demagoguery and hate crimes, misogyny, transphobia, ableism, homophobia and racism are on the rise, causing harm and death, removing rights and making the world a dangerous place to live in. We need art more than ever, especially from those who have been and are being oppressed.

CaringImagation.com: Plans and Hopes

We launched the site CaringImagination.com last year at the end of the year and will steadily build it to add more resources. I will also commission how to guides that are specifically relevant to creators and cultural workers. I will put out a call for these guides later this spring.

I believe in the idea of constant improvement and learning. Creating, producing and disseminating work with compassion isn’t easy to figure out. It is a different way of thinking about art than patriarchal and colonialist models of publishing, for example. There is a lot to learn, but I am up to the task and perhaps you are too.

I welcome your ideas and suggestions always. I am driven by the importance of art as a compassionate and community building exercise. The site will build and become more informative and useful as time goes on, but the resources will never be absolute or one-way.

Gratitude

I thank our Caring Imagination advisors: Cat Chong, Jacqueline Valencia, Rae White, and Terri Witek for being part of TCI and for reading all of my e-mails and offering advice and affirmation.

I have a lot more to say about the amazing community that has supported the AngelHousePress Caring Imagination Crowd Funding Campaign this year and last: from the backers to the presses and journals to those who’ve shared the campaign and contributed to our publications, to those of you who’ve put up with all of these newsletter pieces day after day. I’m surprised any of you are left! Thank you! The next post will be the final newsletter post in the Caring Imagination Crowd Funding Campaign. And then…stay tuned for NationalPoetryMonth.ca, a celebration of poetry that transcends its geographical and genre borders.