What it means to be "A Creative" in a Caribbean setting.

You've found your creative groove, established your rhythm and you're well on your way to big dreams, high hopes and a one way ticket out of a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. Then reality kicks in your door, blasts a spotlight on you and then not-so-gently reminds you that you're "Just A Creative!". Like with any other career path, this umbrella term attracts polarizing opinions, but never has there been such complete disdain towards an industry like there is towards the "creative sector". Disdain that comes unfortunately but ironically from societies that rely heavily on its "creatives" and "creative thinkers" to immortalize its own heritage, culture, history and story.

You are the unwilling hero.

With the stage set since time immemorial, artists from across all of the disciplines through time have encountered a similar fate wherever they may have been on the globe and wherever they may have been in their careers. Respect and honor towards history's most impactful artists and their works of the eons gone by, usually and unfortunately occurred posthumously. And the Caribbean has only adopted and amplified this ghastly philosophy, further creating societies with no sense of acceptance of their true creative identity and promoting dissonance within those pursuing a career as "A Creative". It's evident through the endless drive to dissuade creatives away from creativity as a profession, while eagerly anticipating the next hot recreational product baked by brilliant creative minds. It could easily be regarded as a contradiction, but there may be more to the psychology behind why creatives tend to get the crappy end of the Academic, Corporate and Social sticks.

Child's Play? or Creative Power on Display?

A running theme across many Caribbean societies is that a successful career demands that one's ambitions be aligned with that of Engineering, Medicine, Law or Politics. But with saturated industries at a local level, coupled with an increasing demand for entertainment and communications based audio-visual-sensory experiences, a gap is created when those who would be responsible for creating the latter, encounter overwhelming levels of condescension and set backs to the extent that their ambitions are chalked up to merely "Child's Play". While art in its elementary form, at our elementary stage in life once held a fleeting meaning, a career in the Arts or any arm of the creative sector is a display of mastery over the often intangible and evasive philosophical concepts, made manifest through a number of channels. Immortalized and made timeless. Often unchanging.

How great is the task?

Our Place in society. How we survive.

As Creatives we walk a very fine line between genius and insanity while existing in societies where we, by our very nature, reflect the wonder, the beauty and even the pain of the complex world around us. As we find ourselves participating in and observing everyday life, we draw from our own experiences and sometimes we’re compelled by the stories of another, all raw material for our limitless, timeless expressions. Our creations and ideological perspectives have the power to inspire, provoke thought and evoke layers of emotions in ways that other forms of expression typically cannot. On the surface this may feel like a gift, having the means of interpreting and expression. However this comes with its own set of challenges especially when faced with the harsh realities of the world. 

Financial Instability, Disproportionate Criticism and Rejection, Balancing Creativity and Commercial Success, and  Mental Health Struggles are all challenges we have at some point become intimately familiar with. While these things aren’t specific to creatives, the unmoving fact about life is that we ALL have and will, face these challenges. Creative or Not. But as creatives, it's the ability to navigate the daily challenges while converting the energies into ideas, that makes us special. What makes us Unique is our ability to find rhyme and reason while existing under varying conditions and circumstances, but ultimately fulfilling our purpose. What takes us over the extraordinary line, is our ability to share our visions, ideas, thoughts and perspectives on the world that we all share. The dependence on creatives to be the ones to put the proverbial “pen to paper”, rendering or weaving a tapestry of the human experience is immense, while simultaneously hypocritical. Quite frankly, a lot of the challenges creatives face while conjuring these neatly packaged and curated experiences are often because we are creatives by choice. The deliberate, calculated and collective voice against creativity as a whole, reads like a double ended command. “GO and STOP” being beaten into us at the very same time. 

How far will you go?

In the Caribbean, our collective culture promotes having an idealist view of our rich, diverse histories. Prompting the youth from very early to embrace the elements that make up “our story” when a lot of it was actually preserved through creativity, whether literature, dance, song or Art.  From hairstyles to fashion to musical instruments, creatives have been a key driving force behind the proud identities that the various Caribbean Islands hold, and have influenced the world over with their connection to the abstract realm.  

Ultimately, we have to create within ourselves a measure of comfort and assurance that our existence is defined by our ability to blossom and thrive in any and every environment. Whether we become the channels for voices against oppression, or use our manifestations to inspire a new wave of hope and love where darkness seems to reign, this is our calling. While we are alive, we might happen to catch a glimpse of our impact on this world, but only when the job is complete and the “race” is finished would the full picture be finally painted. Building strong support systems along the way allows you to embrace your failures, shortcomings and areas that need growth. This will undeniably allow for greater clarity, reduced brain fog and puts a gap between you and the looming gray cloud over your head. A constant rainstorm cheered on by a wider society that mocks the creative, in an attempt to chorale the masses to conformity. Its then and only then, do the masses look around in the sea of sameness asking for different. Then here we stand, daring to be different, embodying the essence of going against the grain.

Creativity flows through us, like life flows through all living things. Life and nature is the evidence of the greatest Creative to ever exist, and we should persist in that purpose as our calling.

Be prepared to fight for your purpose.