Artistic Impulses this Summer in the North American Youth Section
The Youth Section in North America caught a heady wave of artistic fire this summer!
In Harlemville, New York, the artist scene around Free Columbia was thriving. In May, Free Columbia hosted an end-of-semester showcase of music, pottery, painting, fabrics, film, and more from its young artist residents. There were so many plays that one could not keep track of them all! NAYS created a Youth Section Initiative Fund, which received seven applications and distributed $1,600 to four, whose impact can be found documented on the North American Youth Section website later this summer. In July, the Youth Section in North America hosted a fundraiser to support more initiative and travel funds which made it possible for young people to get to where they needed to be and create what they envisioned. Please still donate what you can!
One exciting new project this summer was The Caravan, which was a traveling troupe of performing artists taking their new social sculpture, called The Living Room, on the road from July 8th in North Carolina to July 18th in New York, culminating at the Youth Section Fundraiser event at Free Columbia. The Caravan was born of the wish to uplift the imaginative heart of the general public for imagining more creative futures by hosting a space of hospitality in which music, drama, and circus could lift the spirit out of the ordinary and into worlds where magic was real and nothing remained mundane.
Another notable annual project was Brightmoor Makerfest, which held the promise of the beloved community this summer at the Brightmoor Makerspace. To quote their artistic stance: “Apathy, hopelessness, and depressing news is everywhere and we all need each other to reach through to a changed future. Art is a doorway, and artists are standing in it and walking through.” Several Youth Section members showed up throughout July and particularly for the Makerfest weekend, July 25–26th, to celebrate all the incredibly creative work that was going on in the Detroit scene initiated by Bart Eddy.
Lastly for now, the Youth Section’s Courage Conference took place in Sacramento, California, August 3–7, where 11 of the 12 sections of the School for Spiritual Science were represented and centered, the Youth Section being one of the twelve.
With inspiration in our hearts, we wished you an active, creative, and artistic summer, and hoped to see you at one of these fantastic meeting places! To stay in the loop, find our activity @youthsection.na in Instagram or visit our website to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.
