FEEDING THE SNAKES: The necessity of finding your voice and creating your dance

FEEDING THE SNAKES. What ideas, feelings, dance moves, or way of being of yours is longing to be expressed? Do those dreams and longings reside in your belly, churning and disrupting your sleep or work day? What do you need to do to feed these snakes? What action should you take? (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

To discover your authentic self you must be willing to abandon yourself--to YOURSELF!  It is through the BELLY HOWL and DANCE--tending to the snakes writhing in the pit of your stomach--that your VOICE and natural GRACE is discovered!

Hallelujah Pilgrims for mentors who share their well-traveled paths with us and by doing so “light” our way to explore and develop our own journeys!

Currently, MOVING or DANCING is my “coffee with Hallelujah” or my 15 minutes of creativity every day even though I am a dedicated visual artist. As I experience “moving” with the Dancing Flowers for Peace, the Dance Church, the Atlanta Wave, or by myself, I am discovering my dancing mentors.

Today, I would like to blog about what I have just learned from Cynthia Winton-Henry in the beginning pages of her book Dance—The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice.

Why move? Why dance? Why sing? Here is my summary of Cynthia Winton-Henry’s “The Dancing Parable” or “Feeding the Snakes”:

It is a story about a woman who has a grumbling, churning stomach and cannot relieve herself of its pain or noise. While consulting a wise woman in her village, they both listen closely to her belly’s rumblings and are surprised to hear yellow-bellied snakes making demands to hear “their” song.

So…the troubled woman, determined to appease her disgruntled belly snakes, journeys to other villages, learns many songs and returns home without having found the song which would free her from the pain in her stomach.  The yellow bellied-snakes are not satisfied!

FEEDING THE SNAKES BY DANCING AND SINGING AUTHENTICALLY. Perhaps it takes the darkness of despair to thrust us into the magic of ourselves. When we have discovered that the resources available to us in the world are not enough to speak our truths, we must venture into the forest alone. It is there at this darkest, most fearful moment that we  fall into our true selves, and it is from this starting point, that we find many other ways to uniquely express ourselves.(Art by Hallelujah Truth)

After the woman discovers the same grumbling has begun in the belly of her oldest child, she rushes to the forest wailing, moaning, and thrashing about. During this outcry of duress, she discovers that each new movement and each new sound she makes with her voice pleases the snakes. They stop grumbling.  They are at peace.

From then on, as long as the woman attends to her snakes by singing and dancing in a way that is unique to her, the snakes stay quiet.

THE END (or beginning of dancing and singing)

There are some important take away ideas from this parable of feeding the snakes:

1) We all have a voice and a way of being that long to be heard, listened to, and expressed (the snakes).

2) When we ignore our inner voice and its natural expression outward, we harm our bodies (the snakes writhe in anguish).

3) Expressing our ideas in ways that follow traditional songs and dances does not satisfy our desire to experience our own authenticity (the snakes are not appeased).

4) We can trust our intuition joined with our life experiences to forge a “new” song and dance each moment, each day (the wailing, moaning, and thrashing worked for the woman because it was real).

And finally, the most important of all…

5) Who you are is good enough! What you have to say, sing, move or dance needs to be expressed; therefore,

BE SURE TO DO YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES OF CREATIVITY EVERY DAY. FEED YOUR SNAKES!

That’s coffee with Hallelujah! Soul blog with me and tell me what you will do today to feed your snakes? Will you dance or sing?

INVENTIVELY SPEAKING: Using language to propel me forward in a positive manner

BURKA MANDALA.  (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for different manners of speaking about our lives. There are some days dear SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIMS that I feel negative about my perceptions and subsequent portrayals of my life in art. 

In recent days I have aspired to complete art works of mine done during the GRACE of my fifteen minutes of creativity every day when my repeated mantra is 

NOT GOOD. 
NOT BAD. 
JUST IS.

My ambition? To submit to the Women's Caucus for Arts of Georgia for an exhibition entitled "Moving Toward Abstraction" and showing at the Clarkston campus of Perimeter College.

Why submit? Why show work? I have no desire to sell my personal art. I do hunger for community, one in which I meet like-minded souls (the same reason I blog about creativity). 

BUT  RIGHT NOW every piece of art I create makes me wrinkle my forehead. "IT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH." I think (This is not inventive thinking). 

I spend many hours hovering over my CREATION, longing to bring about the BIRTHING of a MIRACLE. I don't like my color choices (like the black and red image at the left), so I employ Photoshop to "invert" the image to transform the image into something OTHER and BETTER...something I didn't intend but which "happens" with computer software.

Therefore, I am in need of transformative thinking. How can I think INVENTIVELY (the language of the Artist Network Conference) and be MORE ME?

Let me step up to the task of speaking INVENTIVELY and propelling myself forward positively speaking!

Right now, my work is deepening both in meaning and in color. As I portray students that I have seen at the Language Institute at Georgia Tech in their burkas and hijabs, I fall into the mystery of BEING.

BURKA ME. Is the authentic self revealed through spontaneous color choices? Is it arbitrated through effort? Can a Photoshop program invert colors in a way that reflects more authenticity? Is meaning made in a random act or through intense effort?

I am the interpreter of world energy. I am the teller of stories. I tell stories of women who bridge cultures, share knowledge, and experience being themselves authentically in a new culture--even if that being is fraught with feeling strange, awkward, and transformative.

Speaking inventively, I am an artist who reads energy fields and takes dictation in form and color. I speak ME and I speak Other. And that IS.

IS enough. Do my negative feelings about what I create matter in comparison? I think not. Pilgrims, I create to BE and IS, is enough.

That's coffee with Hallelujah! Tell me what you think about speaking inventively! Do you think it is a valid way to move forward positively?

ONGOING JOURNEY TO THE AUTHENTIC SELF: CLIMBING THE TREE

I'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY.  The journey to authenticity is not always easy. Recently, I thought the route to being my genuine self was to reach for the low hanging fruit--the ripe apples hanging on the branches nearest me. Now, I've discovered, I am being called up into the top of the tree. How do I climb there? What new skills are being summoned? (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for AUTHENTICITY! Is it easy to be YOURSELF, to find YOUR CALLING? Why are you here on this Earth? What is your purpose?

For me to be FULLY ALIVE and LIVING MY VISION, I must answer the CALL of INNER SELF. I hear a voice summoning ME to go deeper for meaning, to live each day in MEANINGFUL ACTION. I am not an apple picker of low hanging fruit. Instead of harvesting the manifestation of my efforts, I need to journey up, out, into, away from and inside of DISCOVERY. 

Is it redundant to say "NEW DISCOVERY"? How can I be a TRUE PILGRIM? One who walks into the UNKNOWN? 

I don't know. I don't have the answer, but I see the TREE BEARING FRUIT and marvel at how high its branches are reaching into the HEAVENS. What lives in those SKY BRANCHES. I think I will be a SKYWALKER!

ONGOING JOURNEY TO THE AUTHENTIC SELF. What happens when one inverses one's life as I have this image? This drawing is the same as the one above. The only difference is that I inverted it in photoshop. Yet it appears to me to be quite different. I think fellow pilgrims, that the apple tree must look similarly different when one journeys from its bottom to its top, from its low fruit bearing branches to its heaven touching limbs! (Art by Hallelujah Truth)

JOYFUL ACCUMULATION OF 15 MINUTES OF CREATIVITY EVERY DAY: THE PUBLISHING OF MARIA THE HUTIA!

15 MINUTES OF JOYFULLY CREATING ELABORATED INTO AN ILLUSTRATED BOOK! Being present to myself each morning with my coffee resulted in a wonderful body of work: The Misadventures of Maria the Hutia! Both the hard book copy and the kindle copy are ready for sale, having published it on July 27, 2012! Hallelujah! (photo by Chiboogamoo)

Hallelujah Pilgrims! CREATING for 15 minutes a day over time accumulates a wealth of CREATIVITY! Having COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH each morning is my time for JOYFULLY drawing, painting, and positively acknowledging that MAGICAL part of MYSELF that resides in the MYSTERY!

DR. RONALD SHAKLEE, MUSICIAN AND WRITER. How fascinating is the world we live in! Although I have never met Professor Ron Shaklee in person, I have collaborated with him to produce The Misadventures of Maria the Hutia!

What happens when you take HALLELUJAH and her morning doses of “coffee” (code word for CREATIVITY) and introduce her to a geography professor, Ron Shaklee, from Youngstown State University who happens to also honor his CREATIVITY by making music and writing fiction? Over time because of our shared concern for the conservation of the natural environment—in this case the Bahamas—we make a book together! Yes, THE MISADVENTURES OF MARIA THE HUTIA!

Today, I want to applaud Professor Shaklee, FELLOW CREATIVE SPIRIT and COLLABORATOR, who this past spring decided to move our collaboration—his story and my 30 images—to CreateSpace.com so that we could self publish our book! On the last Friday night in the month of July 2012, he and I approved the “proof” copy of the book discussing over Skype (since he lives in Ohio and I live in Georgia). Within minutes, he pushed the button and The Misadventures of Maria the Hutia was officially published on July 27, 2012. HURRAY! HALLELUJAH!

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE! If you want to buy some of my artwork, you can do it by purchasing this book either as a real book or for kindle. 10 percent of the profits go to San Salvador's Living Jewels Foundation.

My message to you DEAR CREATIVE SOULS is this: Give yourself permission to SPEAK THE TRUTH of your SPIRIT, your HEART, your SOUL, whatever you call that AUTHENTICITY that dwells within you. If you practice COFFEE with YOUR HALLELUJAH, you will discover all kinds of things you would have never imagined.

For now, my COFFEE with HALLELUJAH has resulted in the successful publishing of this beautiful book! And much much more in terms of EXPERIENCING the SWEETNESS of a LIFE lived CREATIVELY!

What action will you take today to speak YOUR TRUTH? Soul blog with me at Coffee with Hallelujah!

HOME AT LAST! Maria the Hutia's story is everyone's story! She gets lost, separated from her home and the familiar. She is frightened but manages to succeed on her JOURNEY. Maria learns new things, makes unusual friends and then finds her way home! Ron and I have brought the book HOME AT LAST! We hope you will take the book into your home too! Have fun reading!

ENLARGING ONE'S BEING THROUGH THE ACT OF CREATING: THE MAP OF MARIA THE HUTIA'S MISADVENTURE

Hallelujah for the CREATIVE PROCESS and the empowerment that accompanies the JOURNEY we call LIFE. Whenever we are authentically engaged in expressing the TRUTH within ourselves, we are enlarged. And our LARGESSE impacts others positively! Today, I am celebrating my own ENLARGEMENT resulting from my 15 minutes of creativity every day! 

ENLARGEMENT. EMPOWERMENT. A MAGNIFICENT WAY OF BEING. In this photo, I am holding an enlargement of my map of Maria's journey that I created for the children's book, "The Misadventures of Maria the Hutia," by Ron Shaklee.  The original map is 14" x 15" and this blueprint enlargement is 36" x 40".  This enlargement expresses my elation at completing the illustrations for this project with Ron and excitement at seeing the book go to press!

As the book, "The Misadventures of Maria the Hutia," goes to press, I have succeeded in completing a four year project! Ron Shaklee, Maria's author, musician, professor, geographer, has worked long hours getting the manuscript-- with 30 plus illustrations of mine--ready to be published. We are ready to give birth! And yours truly, Hallelujah Truth, is manifesting 4 years of plunging into morning creativity!

Thanks to a fellow ACNer, Elise Helfer, I learned about Kinko's blueprint enlarger! I am happily blown away by the way my black-and-white pen and ink image looks on this large scale. Last night, I brought this ENLARGEMENT to the quarter completion meeting of the Artist Conference Network. I answered a series of questions about my work, investigating my own authority on the matter. This is what I proclaimed:

The Maria the Hutia project helped me break down barriers between my everyday life of being an ESL teacher at Georgia Tech and the world of imagination. These two realms are not separate for me any more. The duration of this project and the creative practice I ensued succeeded in establishing a magnificent continuous flow of being. My life is not divided now. I am what I am--A SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM in all aspects of my life. I seek TRUTH and AUTHENTICITY.

Celebrate with me today my fellow SOJOURNERS! Howl your TRUTH, and please have some of my AUTHENTICITY! Life is a PARTY with many tasty morsels and large decorated cakes! Clowns and giraffes too, as well as conga dancing and tango! HURRAY for LIFE'S CELEBRATIONS!

That's a party for Coffee with Hallelujah! Soul Blog with me and share your celebrations!

IN MEMORY OF BEVERLY CASSELL

At the Artist Conference Network (ACN) completion meeting last night, we remembered Beverly Cassell, founder of ACN, who died on June 10, 2012. It was the first completion meeting of ours since she died, and we grieve for the loss of such a great generous spirit who has impacted so many creative lives. Her work will continue to generate imagination and joy. Thank you Beverly. Rest in Peace.

REAL TALK, REEL TALK: A LESSON ON AUTHENTICALLY CULTIVATING ONESELF CREATIVELY AND INTELLECTUALLY (Written from the perspective of a film mentee)

REAL HALLELUJAH TRUTH WITH REAL SPENCER MOON. In March 2012, I got my signed copy of Spencer's memoir, Reel Talk: A Cinemoir, at the Pine Lake Art Salon in Pine Lake, Georgia (and blogged about it here). It wasn't until the end of May that I got a chance to read it, and when I did, I was elated, surprised, challenged, and changed. Most of all, I was deeply impressed by Spencer's heartfelt authenticity. 

Hallelujah for BEING REAL, for honoring the AUTHENTIC SELF and being a CREATIVE SOUL! Spencer Moon courageously accomplishes this worthy objective of AUTHENTICITY and CREATIVITY in his memoir, Reel Talk: A Cinemoir. In 331 pages (with an additional 50 pages in appendices) Spencer interweaves his creative JOURNEY with history, cinema, music, civil rights activism, and the cultural shifts he experienced as an African American man living in Detroit, San Francisco, and Atlanta from the 60’s to the present.

SPENCER MOON AT AGE NINE. Born in Talladega, Alabama in 1948, Spencer was raised by his single mother in Detroit and then went to college at Wayne State University. (Early photos of Spencer Moon are taking from the Facebook page he has established for Reel Talk.)

One thing is very clear when reading Spencer Moon’s PILGRIMAGE—he is a serious SEEKER, one who is unafraid of grappling with the UNKNOWN. His voracious appetite for ideas seems to only compete with his love of humanity. In his memoir, Spencer inserts synopses of the movies he is seeing at each stage of his development. As each page turns, the reader begins to see how his analytical mastications of the movies are fodder that fuels his SENSIBILITIES and AESTHETICS and makes him the man he is. 

1976 SPENCER MOON. A 26-year-old Spencer (center) with Antioch University film classmates in San Francisco.

Having thoroughly explored the African American experience through cinema in the writing of his first two books, Reel Black Talk: A Sourcebook of 50 American Filmmakers and Blacks in Hollywood: Five Favorable Years in Film & Television, in his third book, Reel Talk: A Cinemoir, Spencer allows the reader to see how his extensive and eclectic cinemagraphic experiences have resulted in his becoming a citizen of the world, making him a man who sees beyond the filters of his own race, gender, nationality, and socio-economic background. Spencer Moon is definitely a SPIRITUAL ART PILGRIM on a magnificent “LUNAR” JOURNEY.

1982 NATIONAL BLACK MEDIA COALITION/WESTERN REGION MEDIA CONFERENCE. Spencer, who is sitting to the left of the woman speaking, was active in organizations supporting and advancing Black media.

What a privilege it is to peer into someone else’s life and to learn from their unique individual experiences. Spencer opens up his complex intellectual JOURNEY as honestly as he can for his fellow humans’ curious perusal. After reading his book, I am overwhelmed by his veracity and vulnerability. What am I to do with his pulsing heart that he has placed squarely in my hands? How often does someone offer you their TRUTHFULNESS (This honest expression is definitely the goal of yours truly, Hallelujah Truth)? Interestingly, the AUTHENTICITY of his “cinemoir” has generated more questions than I had before I started reading Reel Talk!

 Here are some of them:

1. After having met Spencer in 2009 and reading almost 400 pages of his memoir, I am still left asking, who is Spencer Moon, past, present, and future? Is it possible to grasp an understanding of a complex human being?

2. How can I learn to be more analytical on a social, political, and cultural level when viewing movies? Do I need some kind of structure?

3. How can I get a better understanding of African American cinema? How would that understanding change my perception and relationships of the African Americans I encounter every day here in Atlanta? Or alter my overall comprehension of American culture at large?

4. What movies have been the building blocks of my intellectual and aesthetic foundations? Can I name them and explain their influence?

5. How has the way race and gender is portrayed in the movies impacted what I—a blue-eyed blonde female—think and do?

Those are just some of the questions Spencer’s book has generated, but let’s look at what I do know about Spencer RIGHT NOW after having read his memoir, Reel Talk: A Cinemoir: I know that I trust this man completely. He is sincere, compassionate, and passionate. He backs up what he says with powerful authority.

And I am learning this Spencer’s AUTHENTICITY as his story moves into my own. Read on…

SPENCER MOON AND HALLELUJAH TRUTH: FROM FELLOW ACNers to MENTOR AND MENTEE

IN THE BEGINNING was the Artist Conference Network (ACN), a coaching community for the arts. I met Spencer Moon when he joined our Atlanta ACN group in 2009. I had been a member since 2002. In this supportive network for artists, we establish goals which drive our creative work.

As a visual artist, my goal at the time Spencer entered our group was to create my art joyfully and naturally with the ease of a “cat napping.” I had grown tired of working “hard” at drawing and painting and wanted to see what it was like to make art resulting from my morning meditations free from judgment and full of acceptance. My mantra became: NOT GOOD. NOT BAD. JUST IS. In conjunction with this goal of effortlessly making art, I developed my ideas about 15 minutes of creativity every day--NO MATTER WHAT—which gave birth to this blog, Coffee With Hallelujah.  

Spencer’s ACN goal was to complete the first draft of Reel Talk: A Cinemoir, which he accomplished in less than two ACN years, which are divided into three goal periods. Then he left us with the theme song, "Happy Trails," from Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and his perfect attendance record of ACN meetings, and he was gone from our coaching community.

IN THE MIDDLE, I saw little of Spencer. He came to art openings to support ACN members including me, and he attended some ACN completion meetings bringing potential new members. But what lingered with me was Spencer’s statement about my art after I had shown it at one of our ACN meetings when he was still a member:

“You should make a movie of your work.”

I found what Spencer said intriguing yet did not pursue what he meant. I let it drop. At the time, you could say, “I didn’t know WHO was talking to me.”

HALLELUJAH TRUTH PRESENTING WORK (MARCH 2012). In my typical fashion when I show my art, I control the amount of time that viewers can spend looking at my work. I like playing around with "ownership" of my images. I don't make the work in order to be applauded or condemned. Instead, I engage in the process of creating the images and sharing them with others in a way to give the the ESSENCE of my SOUL rather than the product emanating from it.

THE LINE UP.  I chose six random pads of watercolors from my morning meditations of Coffee with Hallelujah and presented them at the ACN conference weekend. Here, fellow ACNers dutifully prepare to "flip" at my command!

FLIP.

FLIP.

FLIP.

FLIP.

FLIP.

FLIP.

WELL YOU GET THE IDEA.  I assumed that Spencer had seen the cinemagraphic possibilities for my work through this kind of presentation at other ACN meetings when I had shown my work. I don't know for sure and will have to ask him.

AT THE END OF THE MIDDLE, just as Spencer had supported me and the exhibition of my work, when he was invited to read his newly published autobiography, Reel Talk: A Cinemoir, at the Pine Lake Art Salon, in March 2012, I was there to applaud his accomplishment and get a signed copy. In addition, I decided to blog about this celebratory event, which had me digging more into Spencer’s life and body of work. This task was made easy because in preparation for the release of Reel Talk: A Cinemoir, he had established a website and Facebook page.

In our exchanges surrounding my blog entry about the debut of Reel Talk, Spencer once again encouraged me to make a movie. He emphasized, “You have a facility with images and words. That’s what movies are made from.” These words echoed in my head!

THE END (AND THE BEGINNING OF BEING A FILM MENTEE). The end of March 2012 brought our Atlanta ACN weekend. This is the time of year that we ACN members dig deep and come up with new visions that stir up new CREATIVE goals. With an intake of breath and great courage, I took on the goal of making a HALLELUJAH TRUTH MOVIE. Soon thereafter, I contacted Spencer to inform him of my goal of making a Hallelujah Truth movie and asked him to help me. At our first arranged phone call, he asked me to get out a pen and paper so that he could give me the first two of ten lessons to make a movie…

With JOYFUL GLEE, I discovered that I had miraculously found a MENTOR in SPENCER MOON! This is the BEGINNING of another JOURNEY for Hallelujah and she has found another PILGRIM to SOJOURN with! He is AUTHENTIC and CERTAIN that I can make a film, far more than I am….Hallelujah for taking CREATIVE SOULS into the unknown!

That’s Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me about your JOURNEY and who you are TRAVELING with. What unknowns do you want to EXPLORE! Let’s celebrate and share!

FLOWER POWER MOUTH: JOURNEYING INTO AUTHENTICALLY SAYING WHAT I WANT !

FLOWER POWER MOUTH (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah FELLOW PILGRIMS! Hallelujah for our INDIVIDUALITY and SAYING what we BELIEVE! Is that an easy process--SPEAKING HEART? HA-HA-HO-HO-HO (see more about Laughter Yoga)! I belly laugh, not mockingly, but with an appreciation for the challenge of speaking authentically. I am especially interested in what occurs in the JOURNEY of SPOKEN HEART--how one step leads to another step, and all of those steps accumulate into a distance deeper into SELF and an outward communication of that SELF to the WORLD!

COMMUNICATING SELF. Speaking from my belly--MIND and SOUL united!

In order to CREATE a pathway for my FLOWER POWER MOUTH JOURNEY, I have created a goal with the aide of my dear friend and creativity coach, Lesly Fredman. My chosen goal for myself right now is SOFTENING. In my quest to establish my own unique voice, I have long been curious about how to cultivate a deeper voice, a belly voice, one that resonates with ALL MY BEING! Years of recording my voice as an interviewer and then language instructor has made me very well aware of my high pitch strained voice. 


Along with Lesly's guidance I am having fun SOFTENING my shoulders, letting them fall down gracefully, departing from the heights where they are well acquainted with my ears! Breathing from the belly challenges all manner of my BEING! I want to lift my shoulders--instead, I am coached to hold my stomach and to let the gentler rise and fall of my abdomen BE the LIFE FORCE that informs my voice. Simultaneously, I am lengthening my body horizontally, with my shoulders expanding. It is there at my CENTER, that I have succeeded in creating a WELCOMING SPACE from which my deeper more AUTHENTIC voice can be generated!

IN MY BELLY. As I soften, relaxing into my being, I find a CREATIVE SPIRIT, both familiar and unknown.

So dear SOJOURNER, I am reorganizing my body and becoming more aware how my body communicates. I love that my SOUL "work" is to relax, soften, and stretch! I am expecting a SOUL SHIFT and then other exciting events and exchanges to occur! One step, leads to another, and the JOURNEY of the SOUL is so exciting! 


SOUL BLOG with me Hallelujah Truth, and tell me about your VOICE! Where are you on your journey of speaking authentically and from your belly? 

SPENCER MOON'S LIFE TOLD IN REFLECTION OF FILM--REEL TALK: A CINEMOIR

MANDALA AND FILM SPOOL. How fitting for the cover of Spencer Moon's  autobiography to brandish both a mandala, a symbol of the self and universal truths, and a wheel of film! By integrating these two images, he has created a new symbol, one that magnificently expresses his life and the content of his newest book. 

Hallelujah for the CREATIVE LIFE and the way the CREATIVE SPARK manifests in an individual's life! At this moment, I am celebrating Spencer Moon, a man I met and worked with in my Artist Conference Network (ACN)group here in Atlanta in 2009. He joined our coaching community for the arts to support the writing of his autobiography, "Reel Talk: A Cinemoir,"  published in 2011. How marvelous is the term "cinemoir"! It succeeds in reflecting Spencer's  40 years  of working in the media (cine) and his individual perceptions and experience with that media (moir). 


Spencer is not new to the writing of books. In 1997, he published "Reel Black Talk: A Sourcebook of 50 American Filmmakers (which can be purchased here). 

REEL BLACK TALK. In this book Spencer documents the historic contributions of African American directors and producers to cinema. 

And before "Reel Black Talk," he co-authored with George Hill, "Blacks in Hollywood: Five Favorable Years 1987-1991."

SADLY OUT OF PRINT...

For me, Hallelujah Truth, as I celebrate Spencer's CREATIVITY and the completion of his autobiography, "Reel Talk," I would like to briefly reflect about what I have appreciated and learned from him as a FELLOW SOUL PILGRIM. First of all, it was such a joy to meet Spencer in the spring of 2009 and share in the creative coaching community with him. He embraced the ACN process with such devotion and commitment, it was inspirational to us all. I believe he had perfect attendance to all the meetings (He will be able to tell me if I am correct about this or not.)!

This past Sunday, March 4, 2012, when I went to the Pine Lake Art Salon to hear Spencer read from his newly published "Reel Talk: A Cinemoir," I was both surprised and pleased that he opened with the "vision" he developed working in ACN:

"I am a fountain of understanding with empathy for discovery who values the diversity of life." 

Our ACN visions--like Spencer's here--are mysterious, and I don't expect you dear pilgrim to fully grasp how we ACNer's use them in propelling us forward in our creative endeavors.  But I know how meaningful and wildly invigorating these words were for Spencer when he gave birth to them in our presence. It means so much to me that this vision is what opens up Spencer's autobiography.

ESTABLISHING BACKGROUND FOR "REEL TALK": At the Pine Lake Art Salon, before Spencer Moon introduced his recently published autobiography, "Reel Talk," he explained his 40 years of producing, interviewing, teaching and writing about the media. In this picture, he is holding the book, "Blacks in Hollywood: Five Favorable Years. 1987-1991."  It is his first book, that he co-authored with George Hill, PhD, in 1992. He and George co-wrote freelance articles together first.

 As a fellow ACNer, one of the things I greatly cherished about Spencer were his poetic "love notes," that he wrote me at the completion of showing work at our meetings. His words of acknowledgments displayed his keen listening abilities, gentle and inquisitive observations about my visual work, and a love of language. Each one seemed like an extended haiku!

If you want to learn more about Spencer, go to his short biography on his website or "like" his book, "Reel Talk--A Cinemoir," on Facebook. 

That's Coffee with Hallelujah dear FELLOW SOUL BLOGGER. Soul blog with me and tell me about what you are doing today to keep your spark of creativity burning.

"REEL TALK" READING AND BOOK SIGNING. On Sunday, March 4, 2012, Spencer Moon read at the Pine Lake Art Salon, in Pine Lake, Georgia. Here, I happily hold my own signed copy of "Reel Talk". Spencer, in his quiet but firm way, has told me he would really appreciate my writing him once I have finished reading "Reel Talk" and telling him honestly what I think. He is being true to his vision. He really listens with understanding and empathy and truly appreciates the diversity of life! Hallelujah!