On Needing Community

Liesl Garner discusses the importance of community for writers, sharing her experiences at Rogue Fringe Festivals in Fresno and Ashland, Oregon. She found inspiration, growth, and support among fellow artists. Despite challenges like COVID, she remains committed to fostering community through online platforms like School of Community, Holding Orbit podcast, and Instagram. Liesl highlights the power of sharing personal stories through poetry and the impact of community on her creative journey. Hi, I'm Liesl Garner and this is Holding Orbit, a podcast about writing and staying close to the work. Tonight I want to talk about why community matters so much to me as a writer. I didn't always write alone. I used to have community. I mean, I found it late. I think I was 36 or 39, 39, I think, before I found the Rogue Fringe Festival in Fresno. And it is part of an international fringe festival network all around the world. Of course, that's what international means. But it is also the biggest fringe festival west of the Mississippi. So Fresno gets a bad rap sometimes, but you know what? Their art community is solid. And people come from all over the world to perform at the Rogue Fringe Festival in Fresno. So we lived there and I signed up to do a poetry show. It was my first one-woman show. And I compiled my poems that I'd been writing for years, but I'd never done anything with them. And got my first standing ovation. Walked on air. Also met all these amazing artists. So a fringe festival is just everything. I mean, there's dancers. There's performers. There's storytellers and magicians. I mean, any number of things, right? And some incredible, incredible performers. Just being with them. Just being in that room. Just being in that crowd. I don't know. There's something about being with other artists that's so rich. Anyway, I was standing in line with one of the artists that I really admired. And we were talking. And he asked if I'd ever read The Artist's Way. And I never had. I'd never heard of it. And I read it, The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. And I cried all the way through it. And I underlined things. And I highlighted things. And I wrote in the margins. Because she was talking directly to me. Any artist needs to read that book. But it was the first, after reading that, it was the first time I was able to say that I am an artist. Not a wannabe. Not an aspiring. Not an aspiring writer or an aspiring poet. I am a poet. I can say that with authority. Because I write. And I write poetry. That's what I do. So, and then we moved to Oregon. We had little kids. We started hobby farming. We had animals. We had a huge garden. It was kind of crazy and lots of fun. So much fun. And then I, one year for Christmas, one of my sons, we have four boys, one of my sons made me for Christmas a diorama of an open mic. He knew that I had performed when we were in Fresno. He knew it had been a couple of years. And something in his artist heart knew that my artist heart needed community. So we made this diorama. And it was like little chairs and a stage and a microphone and you could move the people. You know, there were people in the chairs and you could move them and put them up there. And I opened the box and burst into tears. And he's this little kid. He was like eight or ten or something. And he's like, oh, no, what did I do? And I'm like, no. It was like a soul gift, like a gift directly to my soul. And he was like, Mom, you need to find an open mic. And so what I found was in Ashland, Oregon, about an hour away, and they had once a month, it was the Rogue Poetry Slam. So two rogues I've gotten to be a part of now, one in Fresno and one in Ashland, Oregon. The Rogue Poetry Slam was run by a guy named Tipo. And he was a veteran. He was like a grandpa to all of us. He encouraged artists like nobody's business. He and one of the other poets that were there, singer, songwriter, musician, would kind of read his lyrics for the Poetry Slam. And, oh, my gosh, it was amazing. It was amazing. Still is amazing. But they dubbed me the mom poet. And I was really proud of that. And it's not like I wrote cutesy stuff about my kids. I was writing, you know, I was writing, I don't know. I don't know. But it seemed to resonate with people. I started getting better. I learned from the other poets that were there. I learned. I listened. I modeled. I tried out new things and got better and started winning. Won a couple times. It was really fun. Then I got to be the Slam master at one point. And my girlfriend actually told me, she goes, you definitely need a T-shirt that says Slam master on it. And I kind of do want one, but also I know people would take it the wrong way, and I don't know. But anyway, people in the Slam poetry world would know. It's a very small world. But then COVID happened. And we're all stuck at home and we all learned to get on Zoom calls. And it wasn't fabulous. But you know what? I'm totally down for it if it's for writers. So I get together on Zoom and have community. I'm totally down for it. So sorry, I've lost my place. La, la, la. Oh, so then I started a school. I found school, which is their mission is to help 1 billion people find community. And started a writers group there, holding Orbit for writers. And so the way I kind of see it growing or, you know, I don't know, the way it kind of feels to me right now is that Instagram is kind of the front porch, kind of little hellos and small connections. The podcast is the signal, kind of the voice calling out saying, hey, anybody else out there want community? Anybody else want to talk about writing and what you're doing and what you're working on? And school is like the living room where we actually sit down and talk. Social media, we like to show finished things or, I mean, I know people get silly and crazy and people get pretty real. But here we can talk about what we're doing. Like what's working, what's not working? What are you struggling with, you know? This week I got to go to a speakeasy. I got to be back in a room full of artists. It was incredible. And I got to tell you, there's something, I mean, every month when I would go to the slam or any time that I go to an event, a speakeasy or something, there's always nerves. Like I'm excited. I'm so excited to see the other artists perform. I can't wait to hear what they say, what they're going to bring. I'm scared, nervous, you know, jittery. But I'm also super excited. And then I get there and, you know, sometimes people will bring funny and everyone's cracking up, you know. And then sometimes someone will bring something and we're all crying, you know. And sometimes it's so poignant that there's this hush over the crowd after the performer stops speaking. And before the applause, it's like we want to give it a moment because it's so tender, you know. You don't want to just rush into clapping. Oh, so good. So good. So I do want to talk about what I'm working on just because if we're going to be in community, rubbing shoulders, iron sharpens iron. You know, what are you working on? What are you committing to work on? Last week I committed to working on something about my mother. And it was kind of big. And I will tell you that after we recorded last week, I stayed up till 3 working on a poem for my mom. I just started writing. And it turned out really, really cool. It turned out like it's the beginning of something, like it's what I needed to say. It took a lot out of me. So I guess I will be honest and say I did not write every single day this week. I don't have word counts for every single day this week because I am also a working artist. So I go to work. But luckily I get to lock the door at 5 and come home. I'm babbling. But I'm just letting you know that I did do the thing I said I was going to do. I wrote about my mom. It was powerful. I shared it with her. And one of the cool things that happened was after I shared it with her, first I was sharing, I don't know, I'll stop, I'm sorry. It resonated with her. It resonated with me. And it resonated with the people at the CTC. So it feels like I did some good work. And with that, I'm going to just kind of bring it back to if you're craving this too, if you write and you're posting things on Instagram and you're wanting to build community but actually want to talk to people, let's cozy up. This is Holding Orbit. I'm glad you're here. Let's stay close to the work. See you next week.