Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creatives

Creativity can be a powerful tool for “alleviating suffering and fighting injustice,” according to this graceful guide from children’s author Perkins (The Golden Necklace). She contends that those who make art participate in a kind of “just making” that benefits themselves (by expressing their emotions through their work); their audiences; and their communities (art can “shatter clichéd narratives that conceal the truth,” sparking activist movements). Perkins digs into reasons why creative people might refrain from making art, including a brutal commercial market that privileges those with more connections, qualifications, and social power, and self-critical inner voices. The practices she offers to overcome such obstacles include seeking mentors and developing sustainable rhythms of rest and work. The advice is backgrounded by the author’s valuable perspective as the daughter of Bengali immigrants. Throughout, she gives due to how embroidering, quilt making, and other forms of creative work practiced by women who, like her ancestors, “made beautiful things but didn’t dare to dream of art as a career,” can be a source of beauty and order amid hardship. Even those who’ve never picked up a pen or a paintbrush will be inspired. (May)