Art and more
Updated: May 3, 2021
Check out some of our members' creative works.
Aug, 2, 2020
Artwork by Rachel Hodgson, August, 2020
This art reflects on racism in America, that Black Lives Matter and the murder of George Floyd we witnessed online. It asks us to question the tactics deployed by many police departments against minorities vs the privilege white Americans have - when they are stopped by police.
Do your research! Read about defunding the police and how racism is embedded into our culture. There are many essays, books, podcasts, editorials and youtube posts by black authors and journalists who dive deeper into the shadow side of what it means to be an American. Here are some links to start exploring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BCScklTfs0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsfXn2BrBp8
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ta-nehisi-coates/
https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist-1
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4.13.20. Good advice for parents of young kids who are confused about the coronavirus. click below to hear Caitlin Szalay, a school psychologist for the Granite School District in Utah.
Home for Quarantine: Talking to Young Children about COVID-19
https://youtu.be/aK8GEFqwKxE
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4.4.20
Reached out to see how Cathy and Kirt are doing in Madrid, Spain. They both has Covid19.
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April, 2, 2020.
During this time of Covid 19 and staying in, there is time for reflection too. Here is Coronavirus news and art that has hope, and I believe, is worth sharing. Blessings, Tom Szalay
Click on this link to see a poem that has gone viral by Kitty O'Meara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2OyGj6eqE
From O - The Oprah Magazine, aritcle by Elena Nicolaou Mar 19, 2020
Kitty O'Meara is the poet laureate of the pandemic. Her untitled prose poem, which begins with the line, "And the people stayed home," has been shared countless times, on countless backgrounds, with countless fonts, since its first posting. It was most widely popularized by Deepak Chopra, and has since been shared by everyone from Bella Hadid to radio stations in Australia. The poem has become shorthand for a silver-linings perspective during the coronavirus outbreak—the hope that something good can come out of this collective state of "together, apart."
The poem begins with the evocative line: "And the people stayed home," and goes on to describe an idyllic version of the months to come. Through O'Meara's lens, the era of social distancing could be taken up by purposeful activity like meditation, exercise, and dancing, and result in a kind of global healing. The poem reads like a cross between a proverb, Instagram poem, and, if you're feeling optimistic, psychic prediction.
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
About Ogden UCC:
This little church as a cornerstone in the community. The congregation is spiritually diverse. Our members and visitors reflect our nation's cultural diversity and we welcome those who want to grow with us. We are rainbow affiliated, intellectually curious, artistically gifted, physically challenged, the list goes on. We all share a collaborative longing to build a welcoming place where we can find some peace of mind, solace for our soul and recharge our weariness in the constant rush of the modern world.
