SAIIER 2018:My Creative Satsang

Mother's Photographs		Stewardship for New Emergence
My Creative Satsang

“My Creative Satsang” is an educational and cultural project born during the summer of 2017. It is a project for individual and collective investigation of the creative heritage as yet unknown in us. So far the project has been mainly focused on creative writing, but is also planning to manifest theatrical productions and wide-ranging creative and artistic collaborations in the future.

Description of project:

Author::Francesca is the creator and leader of the project. The activities during the year were:

• Creative writing classes.
• Creative writing playgrounds.
• Savita’s Rani solo “R.I.P.” performance at CRIPA (promoted by My Creative Satsang).
• “My Creative Writing” newspaper (We came out with issue 0 and issue 1).
• Interviews with performance artists, which will be put online.
• A future collaboration with Auroville Radio on the theme of creative processes in the arts
• Participation in “Auroville Art for Land” fundraiser at Unity Pavilion.
• Participation in the DRIFT independent theatre festival in Dharamsala with a creative writing playground.

Outcomes:

Many different people have gone through the Monday creative writing class experience or the playgrounds. Many cultural events were created – more than I expected. I went through all this with the freshness of a new experience. With ingenuity and the help of a Force that organized everything despite the fact that I had never been a creative guide before.

Some of the people who attended my groups now are writing their first book. It makes me happy to know that the work done together is giving real results. Working in groups with other people to unlock creative potentials has a strengthening effect. The atmosphere that the group creates is tangible, and has a positive effect on most of the participants.

When the adventure of “My Creative Satsang” began, it had another name. The project then went through different phases, tests, adaptations. It is still in a continuous process of identity formation. Personally, after a year of experience of groups and teachings I am now beginning to have clearer ideas and the project itself is becoming more concrete. But My Creative Satsang is not just about writing. It deals with education, promotion of cultural events and theatrical productions.

Reflections:

This work has beautifully put me in contact with the true part of all the people that crossed my experience. We connected deeply on a meaningful level.

The challenging part was that all this was totally new for me. As an artist, I have always been attracted to the path of personal research. But theatre apart, I have never guided other people to connect themselves to their creative being. Not on this level. That was beautiful and sometimes scary. And I always had the support of sudden inspiration to guide the groups in the quest of their unknown creativity. So I learnt really a lot and I am sure I am not completely aware of all the implications of this experience yet. It will take some time.

Conclusion:

The coming working year is pretty challenging. My Creative Satsang will offer a range of educational activities which are varied and new in Auroville, in line with what was begun this year.