community as practice, not product
In this modern, hyper-fixated world that often glorifies independence in some way, I am contemplating what it means to be in community.
I’ve spent time within some (conscious) communities, circling spaces that speak the language of honesty and growth. Yet lately, I’ve felt a gap… a silence around the things that make me ache and scream, the topics that stir discomfort or shadow. As much as these spaces invite “radical” truth, I no longer feel safe or seen in the depth I’m craving. I’ve come to realise that some communities can only meet me for a season, to hold me for a while, but not for the descent I now need to make.
“Organising is to the community what spiritual practice is to the individual.”
― adrienne maree brown
Nurture and Nourish
Community cannot be a fixed structure. It’s a living organism. It demands the qualities of nature: to breathe, change, adjust, adapt and even lapse. Collaborative community-making asks that we show up as both the server and the one being served. It means co-creating spaces where everyone’s voice can contribute to the whole.
Collective care is nurtured and nourished, and trust is established through vulnerability. This is where creativity can become a language of connection. Because being resourceful (and creating access to resources) requires communal visioning and participation.
Community is not a shared house on the hill. Being in community is a living process that extends beyond the walls and boundaries, as it is constantly shaped by the people who are weaved within it - those holding and being held simultaneously. Community as practice means releasing the fantasy of pure-harmony and embracing the reality of relationship.
When we view community as a product, we focus on the outcomes: the performance. The pressure to produce can easily override the process, leaving little space for reflection, care, or transmutation. When we see community as practice, we make space for imperfection, dialogue, and slowing down. The focus shifts from “what are we making?” to “what are we learning together as we make?”
“In a fractal conception, I am a cell-sized unit of the human organism, and I have to use my life to leverage a shift in the system by how I am, as much as with the things I do. This means actually being in my life, and it means bringing my values into my daily decision making. Each day should be lived on purpose.”
― adrienne maree brown
Collaboration is a Dance
It’s not easy. Collaboration is a dance of trust, timing, and truth-telling. But in this process, something potent can unfold — a web of people who remember what it means to hold and be held by others… This process asks to listen more deeply, to notice our own patterns of control or avoidance, to value the unseen labour of holding space together.
It also reminds us that creativity itself is a communal act. It doesn’t happen in isolation, even when the work appears in that way. Every artwork, idea, or offering is shaped by the collective environments that hold and inspire it. It is birthed from a lived-experience.
Collaborative Art Workshop I participated in (Oct 2025)
Community in creative work isn’t something we build and curate once and then maintain… Rather, it’s something we practice continuously, through each collaboration, each conversation, each shared moment of connection. The more we practice, the more resilient and honest our (creative) ecosystems become.
“We are touching the future, reaching out across boundaries and post-apocalyptic conditions to touch each other, to call each other out as family, as beloveds. ‘All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.’ We are making ourselves vulnerable enough to be changed…”
― adrienne maree brown
Contemplation… Dreaming a Communal Vision
I can acknowledge all that I’ve resourced from the communities I’ve been part of — past and present. Each one has offered me something, even if only for a season. But I also recognise that I no longer want to remain in spaces that cause me ache, especially when I feel the collective energy is no longer aligned.
So, I’m seeking community more intentionally now — creating it slowly and quietly through art, process and my desire to connect with others who hold similar values. It feels natural for me to create and to serve - it’s how I express care and love. To nurture that, I’m grounding myself in a communal vision. One that is rooted in being in right relationship, and in contributing to the upliftment, empowerment, and liberation of my people.
