23 November 2012

Work to Do in Holly Springs

I'm searching files for a Project Timeline template used by Landmark Education. If you took a stroll through my mind, you'd see lots of gorgeous, sexy, exciting Ideas lying around a pool admiring their own reflections. If you perched as the proverbial fly on the wall of my bedroom (because that's where you'll find me 80% of the time when I'm at home), you'd likely fly away after a day because I don't look like I'm doing anything.

I'm playing computer games and reading and playing guitar and piano and writing and baking artisan loaves (and, today, a chocolate bourbon pecan pie) and hosting CouchSurfing.org guests. I'm also smoking cigarettes and growing compost and raking the yard and collecting trash from the entrance to Johnson Park. And retrieving mail and showering and sleeping. 

But I'm not engaging with the sexy ideas and moving them from latent to active.

And I'm feeling called to engage. Hence the Project Timeline template. We used it in a seminar I took with Landmark. It was a useful tool that supported me through the steps of turning Idea into Project. And completing it.

"The Idea" by Latent Vision
I want to do a "community story play" (as developed by Jo Carson) here in Holly Springs. Two of the motivations stirring me are

- - the work feels like a constructive "next step" for me artistically, flowing naturally from what I've been doing the last 14 years. It combines performance and teaching generally; more specifically, it relates to recent exploration of solo performance work and improv playshop facilitation with diverse populations.

- -there is what I call "prelim work" to be done in Holly Springs before Chrysalis HS can thrive. It has to do, in my opinion, with the stranglehold that religion and race have on local culture. Storytelling is a way for the people to resuscitate themselves and their town.

Chrysalis cannot succeed in Holly Springs as it is.

In July, The "Holly Springs Plan" was drafted. The Plan is "overseen" by "a planning advisory committee, the planning commission and, ultimately, the Mayor and Board of Aldermen". The mission statement of the Plan is somewhat vague (and needs editing) 
The City of Holly Springs will develop as a growing, united and economically thriving community which [aggressively] facilitates the health, safety and wellbeing of its citizens. Recognizing the value of its all its assets, with citizens being the most important, we will pursue a balanced approach to the future by protecting our natural environment, promoting a quality townscape, pursuing the preservation of its all its history, cultivating local business talents and encouraging arts and cultural concerns. The City will
pursue this mission through the implementation of [progressive] public planning policies, strategic community development initiatives and complementary partnerships with like minded organizations. 

Still, the boldface items suggest Chrysalis could find a seat at the table. (Among the steps to be plotted on my Project Timeline worksheet, "Determine current status of the HS Plan."

Now, where did I file that template?