Julie Unplugged

Inspired by Literary Grannies: Z is for Zoe Akins

 

Zoe Akins, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who was also a revered poet and screen writer. She influenced many and is remembered by few

I first came to know Zoe Akins simply because her name started with the letter “Z”. Even today, years later after I first read of her I am barely scratching the surface of a woman who is a remarkable literary granny.

She is one of those women whose work has been woefully underappreciated.

 Listen to these credentials:

 She wrote forty plays, 17 of which were produced on Broadway. One won her a Pulitzer Prize. Astonishing to me is none of her plays have been revived on Broadway.

 She was a Pulitzer Prize winner for her play. The Old Maid, and adaptation of the novel by fellow Literary Granny Edith Wharton. It went on to become a movie starring Bette Davis. In watching the preview for the movie, one might be distracted by the vintage quality of performance, props and costumes, but the words Zoe wrote are timeless.

 

 Katharine Hepburn’s first Academy Award was won in a film written by Zoe Akins, Morning Glory in 1933.

 I would like to offer you inspiration today from one of her most famous poems,

I Am the Wind

I am the wind that wavers,
You are the certain land;
I am the shadow that passes
Over the sand.

I am the leaf that quivers,
You, the unshaken tree;
You are the stars that are steadfast,
I am the sea.

You are the light eternal-
Like a torch I shall die.
You are the surge of deep music,
I but a cry!

Questions for Contemplation:

 Would you consider yourself to be more like the wind or the certain land? What makes you make that assertion?

 Read the poem aloud and then make a list of examples from your life that fit the various lines. For example, when has your life been like a torch? When has it been like a light eternal? Jot your discoveries on a sheet of paper.

 Sentence starters:

 

I am the sea, the wind, the shadow - and I….

 You are…..

 Prompts for the end of the day and integration throughout the week:

 

Today I was the wind when I….

Today I was a surge of deep music when I….

Today I was steadfast when…

The quality I would most like to be in this poem is…..

 Tomorrow I would like to exemplify the quality of….

 

= = = =

 

This blog post is a part of April's Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Visit here daily in April to be inspired by literary grannies across time.

 

 

 

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 Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and

 

Julie Jordan Scott is at the Microphone writing a collaborative poem during a poetry performance

 

mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in Spring, 2015 and beyond. 

 

 

 

 To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

 

     Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 

 

 

   Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 

     Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

 

     Follow on Instagram

 

     And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

    © 2015

 

 

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Inspired by Literary Grannies: G is for Gabriela Mistral - Defending Rights & Writing Poetry

Inspired by Literary Grannies: Ina Coolbrith, Legend and Encourager of Legendary People

Literary Granny: Annis Boudinot Stockton - Siren Singer, Muse, Revolutionary

Portrait of Annis Boudinot Stockton hangingn in the Morven Museum and Gardens

 Siren songs written with quill pens and ink call to me in my travel planning: there is simply no other explanation. In the Fall my daughter, Katherine, happened along the Morven Museum and Garden in Princeton and saw an advertisement for the exhibit "Hail Specimen of Female Art!" and she knew it was something I would want to see.

Flash forward to last weekend and there we were in a space I knew nothing about at all.

"What is this place?" I asked Katherine.

"I don't know," she responded. "I just found it while I was walking home from work."

Our rental car came to a stop on a gravel parking area and we stepped into a cold, misty rain right into the welcoming home of an (unknown to me until then) Revolutionary Period Literary Granny. It was as if Annis was still in the house, waiting to greet us. 

The moment I looked at her portrait and read her handwriting, I knew I was in for a treat.

A life and heart changing treat!

I love seeing the handwriting of each Literary Granny. This is a letter from Annis Boudinot Stockton to George Washington.

There they were, copies of correspondance between Annis and General George Washington. "Richard Stockton, oh yes!" I remembered the name from the Princeton Battlefield.

Annis, proclaimed a muse by Washington and others, was a hostess, a patriot and a wrote poetry that documented the social and political underpinnings of the day.

Since I love visiting graves of literary grannies, I wanted to know if I could "see" Annis in the future at her grave. She must be buried with her "signer of the Declaration of Independence" husband in the Princeton Quaker Cemetery.

She isn't buried there.

She spent her later days not in the comfort of her Morven home which her son inherited, she lived with one daughter and son-in-law and was buried in Philadelphia in the family plot of another son-in-law, Dr. Benjamin Bush.

I reported this to my twenty-first century feminist seminarian daughter who said, "How strange!" Well, it wasn't for the time.

Even as a literary celebrity and cherished member of the elite she was still merely a widow and therefore a "responsibility" of men rather than revered.

I can almost hear the daughters tittering "What shall we do with mother?" while the husbands shook their heads and bickered over where to put her that was the least inconvenient never even considering the possibility of sending her body on a days journey back to Princeton.

We'll never know what actually happened, but no matter what occurred it makes me sad nonetheless.

Even bittersweet, there is a joy in knowing another Literary Granny.

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people's creative lives. 

  Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram

  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

  © 2014

Stuck No More: Inspiration for Your Blogging, Writing & Creativity - "Hope is the thing with....

Each day, a quote, an image, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for  Your Blogging, Writing & Creative Inspiration in order to increase your creative thinking as well as your personal and soulful  development.

Quote

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson

I remember the first time I came across these words. I read them and something clicked.

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul…….”

Hope doesn’t need language or word explanations, she simply sings and sings and sings, unceasingly.

Today is one of those days where I need to be reminded of this.

What about you?

Questions:

What bird would you imagine being your symbol of hope and why is that? In your personal life, your business life, your family life, whatever fits – tell us about your hope feathers.

What do you feel, physically, when you allow hope to overtake your body?

Lists:

List 5 to 10 things you are hopeful for right now –

List 5 to 10 things you were hopeful for in the last ten years. Pick one and write the “what happened.”

Bonus: Use the top list to ask questions and play with intention.

Traditional Writing Prompts:

When I think of hope, I think…..

Somehow, the thought of birds and feathers and hope and soul and singing singing singing makes me…..

 >> ---<<

One helpful strategy is to read the quote, questions, prompt and list and not to "take them on" all at once, but to allow them to simmer in the back of your mind throughout the day. Sure, you may "write" one immediately, but don't call it "done" until you have allowed your powerful subconscious mind to bring up some unexpected responses for your conscious mind to create within.

Remember, though - there are no rights and wrongs, there is only showing up for your life and your creativity. Brava for being here!!

This Blog Series was created to increase your creative thinking process as well as inspire writing and ideas to take form that may not have taken form without these specific quotes, questions and prompts. If you find them helpful, I hope you will pass them along to friends as well.

I’m so glad you are here, reading and creating.

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

 Follow on Instagram 

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 © 2013 - Julie Jordan Scott - all rights reserved.

 

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Inspiration for Your Blogging, Writing & Creativity: from Thoreau - "We need the tonic of the wilderness."

Happiness is Finding that Just Right Technique

 

This is how I've wanted my photo layering to look for eons!

Something very exciting happened!!

 

After many attempts to get some of my photos layered in the way I like them to be or inserted into collages or mixed media pieces, I finally found a method that gives me the effect I want. I literally wanted to jump up and down and have a big hug fest with Virginia Woolf, her sisters and TS Elliot but I thought since they are all long dead that wouldn’t work out.

Here is the stalled mixed media piece I’ve been working on, wondering why TS Elliot of all people would be the “star” of one of my works. I started this in July, I believe – it was a long time ago. The layers of paints tell me. The color of the deepest layer is “Oildale building” or something like that. I know it has Oildale in the title.

 

Here is a close up. I love how the words "writing" and "blood" show up clearly. Those are from one of T.S. Elliot's writings.

It was one of the recycled paints I got for free last summer. At last point they were specializing in not such wonderful shades of… primarily beige.

 

Anyway – now that I was able to try the trick of printing on tissue paper and then affixing the tissue paper with mod podge (I’m also going to experience with some other mediums as well) I can’t believe the perfection in the result.

I edited this photo first, I cranked up the contrast which I think will help a lot with black and white photos. I love the crispness and the simultaneously gritty effect it has.

I made progress on several other pieces, but this was by far the most exciting in probably about a week. Today I plan to add a photo of Edna St. Vincent Millay and perhaps a shot of Steepletop, her estate in Upstate New York which I visited last April.

Thank you for reading! I can’t wait to celebrate with you!

<< --->>

You may still join Art Every Day Month - Leah Piken Kolidas has been inspiring many of us for years! Check it out -

 

 

 

 

 

 Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

 

 Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot     

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

  Follow on Instagram

  And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

   © 2013 - Julie Jordan Scott - all rights reserved.

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Collage: Mixing Up an Artform with Soulfulness, Literature, the Women's Movement & Laughter

I spent my afternoon at a Soul Collage retreat which was both restful, refreshing and inspiring. I knew my intention was to focus on honoring women whose presence on the planet has influenced me both creatively and also as a woman overall.

Here are the outcomes, including a little collage humor at the bottom.

I included information for you in the captions, in case you are curious who some of these women were/are. Can you see which collage has a pointillism version of me within it?

 

Home & Hearth, Suffragists - Millworkers... You and I are all a part of the Women's Movement

I was concerned my painting of a woman's unclothed torso might get me "in trouble" with online censorship. So far, so good. I posted this on instagram as a test. No problems yet at all!

 

We love our Literary Grannies: still have edits to do on Anais collage and Vincent collage... oh, for realistic red hair...

I am a writer who respects my writing lineage. Too many literary studies only focus upon the male side of our creative lineage. One of my aims is to bring our Literary Grannies back into our consciousness. I'm Vincent's hair looks ridiculous, but I wanted to bring out that famous black and white photo of her with the magnolias. I learned last Spring that this particular magnolia breed was planted as far north as possible - in Upstate New York and Western Massachusetts - by landscape architect Frederick Olmstead who designed Central Park in New York City and other notable places. Now you know the amount of (not very useful) facts rumbling about my head!

 

 

Be alert for Billboard Man - Coming to Save an Artform in Your City!

This is an example of my flavor of art humor. I collaged my friend, Cameron Brian, into a broken billboard frame I photographed a while ago. I didn't know how or where I would use that photo and while collaging I couldn't help myself. :~)

What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?

>> -----<<

You may still join Art Every Day Month - Leah Piken Kolidas has been inspiring many of us for years! Check it out -

 

 

>> -----<<

This is me, writing in a Baltimore Park. I am sitting across the street from an apartment building where Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald once lived.

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

  Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

© 2013

 

For Your Writing & Creative Inspiration: A Quote, Question, Prompt & More

 

Each day, a quote, an image, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for  Your Writing & Creative Inspiration in order to increase your creative thinking as well as your personal and soulful  development.

The most helpful strategy is to read the quote, questions, prompt and list and not to "take them on" all at once, but to allow them to simmer in the back of your mind throughout the day. Sure, you may "write" one immediately, but don't call it "done" until you have allowed your powerful subconscious mind to bring up some unexpected responses for your conscious mind to create within.

Quote:

"And if many sayings of the wise teach of submission I will not submit, but with a spirit unreconciled flash an unquenched defiance to the stars."

Adelaide Crapsey, inventor of the American Cinquain poetry form

Questions:

When have you flashed unquenched defiance to anyone? What happened?

What are you currently submitting to that you don't want to submit to anymore?

Prompts:

I will keep what the "wise" teach me when....

I will defy what the "wise" teach me when....

List:

Make a list of at least ten teachings you are happy to embrace and pass along.

Make a list of at least ten teachings you will openly defy and pass along your defiance.

Make a list of ways to add constructive energy to the sometimes perceived as negative energy of defiance.

 

>> -- <<

This Blog Series was created to increase your creative thinking process as well as inspire writing and ideas to take form that may not have taken form without these specific quotes, questions and prompts. If you find them helpful, I hope you will pass them along to friends as well.

I’m so glad you are here, reading and creating.

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

 Follow on Instagram 

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 Welcome to my elevent post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Your Writing & Creative Inspiration! Word-Love to YOU!

© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

For Your Writing & Creative Inspiration: Alice Walker Quote + Questions + A Prompt

Each day, a quote, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for your personal and creative development. Enjoy!

Alice Walker, a prolific writer if ever I read one, has a poem I never found until today. It was written some time before 1990 which tells me she didn't follow the declaration she boldly gave to Poetry.

Thank goodness for the rest of us. It is something to think about, though, when we may have the desire to make such a declaration to any task that we believe once called us.

Quote: "I said to poetry, 'I'm finished with you." Alice Walker

Questions: Have you ever declared you were finished with something when you knew you really weren't? What did you do with or about it?

Is there something you quit that you want to begin again? What's stopping you?

Prompt:  I thought was finished with _____, but I wasn't..........

 

Welcome to my seventh post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Your Writing & Creative Inspiration! Word-Love to YOU!

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

For Your Writing and Creative Inspiration, "Books, books!" Edith Nesbit

Each day, a quote, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for your personal and creative development. Enjoy!

 

"Books! books! the only thing in life I find not wholly vain.

 Books in my hands - books in my heart enshrined -

Books in my brain."

Edith Nesbitt

 

Questions:

What are some books that are 'enshrined in your heart?

What are some books living in your brain, waiting to be birthed?

Prompt: In order to bring life to my books I will.....

 

>> -- <<

Welcome to my fourth post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Your Writing & Creative Inspiration! Word-Love to YOU!

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

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For Your Writing & Creative Inspiration: "It is all you need," Sandra McPherson

Each day, a quote, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for your personal and creative development. Enjoy!

"It is all you need, somewhere to look, to turn away from, somewhere you can't see yourself."

Sandra McPherson from the poem, "All You Need" in her collection, Elegies for the Hot Season

 

Questions:

What do you need to write or create?

How is your creative self involved in what you produce - do you spend too much time on your "stuff", too little or just write? Comment on that -

What are some activities that cause you to feel self conscious?

List:

Make a list of three to five times in your life you felt embarrassed -

Make a list of three to five times you were the center of attention -

Make a list: what do you need to be your most creative & productive?

Prompt:

All I need when I write or create is.......

= = = = = = =

Welcome to my third post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Your Writing & Creative Inspiration! Word-Love to YOU!

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Creative Life Coach, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!

 

Related articles

For Your Writing & Inspiration Daily: Quote + Prompt + Question

Crack Open Your Inspiration Wherever and Whenever and However You Find Yourself.

For Your Writing & Inspiration Daily: Quote + Prompt + Question: Margaret Fuller's Candle

Each day, a quote, several questions and a writing prompt are offered to you to use for your personal and creative development. Enjoy!

This series was created with you in mind: you who blog, you who are busy juggling activities, you who rarely get a moment to simply "be" with yourself.

Please read the quote, prompt, questions and list suggestions over once and then go about your day. Your subconscious mind will be stirring up different responses.

Later in the day - take five minutes with the prompt or a question or a list and see what flows. You may write, you may talk to a friend, you may create visual art, a poem, a song: do what you feel most compelled to do.

You may spend more than five minutes, but please in some way allow yourself the time to be inspired in some way.

Allow yourself to be surprised.

Quote:

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candle in it."

Margaret Fuller

Questions:

In what subjects are you the most knowledgeable?

What are some ways you may light others candles with your knowledge?

Who has let you light a candle in their knowledge?

Lists:

Make a list of times you were inspired this week. Bonus: Use this later to create something.

Make a list of topics people ask you advice about most often. Do they ask you "How do you do it all?" Do they ask you, "How do you keep peace in your home? Workplace?" Do they ask, "What should I do to solve.... list a situation or problem....?

Writing prompts:

 

I am the most "lit up" by.....

 

As _____ let me light my candle in his/her knowledge of ________, let me light candles for others in my knowledge of ___________ in these ways:

 

 

= = = = = = =

Welcome to my second post (of 31!) for the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. Watch here for Your Writing & Creative Inspiration! Word-Love to YOU!

Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

© 2013 by Julie Jordan Scott

 

Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Creative Life Coach, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.

Please stay in touch: Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot    

 Be sure to "Like" WritingCampwithJJS on Facebook. (Thank you!)

Follow on Instagram

And naturally, on Pinterest, too!