“There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now okay to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.” – Tammy Baldwin, first openly gay Senator in the United States

The people within our community are so supportive and so caring and so loving, most of the time towards people they don’t even know… we are more than a community — we are a family.” — Courtney Carola, Have Some Pride: A Collection of LGBTQ+ Inspired Poetry

There is so much to be said about Pride this year that I simply do not have the words. Instead, I’ll let others speak for me. Some of these poems are heartbreaking, others inspiring, others simply relatable but they are all beautiful and unique.

I remember sitting in my car one afternoon after a long day, not rushing to go anywhere, just sitting there in silence. And in that moment, I had a realization that stopped me cold:

I don’t actually know if I’m making decisions for me… or for who I think I’m supposed to be.

“If we aren’t intersectional, some of us, the most vulnerable, are going to fall through the cracks” - Kimberlé Crenshaw, American legal academic, civil rights advocate, and critical race theory scholar 

“I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything – other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world’s otherness is antidote to confusion – that standing within this otherness – the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books – can re-dignify the worst-stung heart.” - Mary Oliver

There was a time in my life when I thought I was confident. It took time to build that but I felt I had reached it. I could speak in front of a room. I could articulate ideas clearly. I could advocate for others. I could even challenge injustice when it felt necessary.

But privately? I didn’t trust myself.

“We have to remain visible. They have to see us, they have to know that we’re not going [nowhere], that we’ve been here ever since God made man and woman, and they have to get over it.” - Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, author/activist/community organizer

Sitting down to write this month’s article felt like a heavy, reflective lift for me. For a long time—and, if I’m honest, still sometimes today—I allowed my feelings to guide my actions. As you might imagine, that led to more than a few missteps. Okay… a lot of them.

Humans have been making art since before recorded history. It’s in our nature. Our methods and mediums have changed, but what we make art about hasn’t changed much: things we see, things we dream, things we feel. And right now, a lot of people are feeling a lot of things. Making art can feel trivial when there are so many disastrous events happening all around us. But I think that trying times are when art becomes especially important. Here are some tips to help you keep creating: