Letting Go, Complacency, Being Phoenix…maybe

As I ponder creative themes and cultural issues associated with renewal, resurrection, destruction and complacency, my mind drifted to a pivotal legendary event that defined a generation of young Americans and the resulting overall American and world culture as those participants and other folks aged who never made it to upstate New York, and in my mind, established the bridge that  transitioned one singular event to the seminal birth of the current “culture wars.”

1969. 

Bethel, New York

A 30- year old established wholesale milk business called Yasgur Farms arranged the use of its land for a gathering to celebrate peace, love and music {by the owner Max Yasgur who was 49 at the time and passed away at 52 as a result of a heart attack.}

At the intersection of Hurd and West Shore Roads, Woodstock was birthed and was defined by the media as three days of unbridled recreational psychedelic substances, promiscuous sex, and music that changed the world and influenced the overall thinking of generations of young folks who saw change in the power of numbers and social justice activism.

Woodstock tried to renew and resurrect itself from the destructive ashes of rain, mud, traffic jams, and highway and road closures in 1994 in Saugerties, New York on Augusta Savage Road. And succumbed to the eventuality of ashes. 

Once again, the Woodstock funeral pyre gave way to a 1999 renewal marred by looting, sexual assault and mayhem that relegates it to not even a memorable footnote in cultural music history. 

And then once again, not content to stay mired in its ashes, it tried to renew and resurrect in celebration of a 50^th year anniversary…that moved from New York State to Maryland, and eventually died. It self-destructed. 

Now, at some point if we are honest, we all have been engulfed in Oldies but Goodies concerts, past the prime reunion tours, and tribute bands where we try to re-image and re-live our formers selves, the music, musicians and groups that shaped our younger sensibilities.  And there is the reality of renewal, resurrection, and surely destruction as the original players are not in the re-vamped bands or groups; solo artists can barely move on stage (and there are notable exceptions but that is fodder for another blog) and if we are honest, we also remember that those good times were emmeshed in tumultuous social and political upheavals. 

And out of the ashes of destruction comes the power of creativity, and a cadre of creatives who re-shape, initiate, broaden and strengthen past understandings as they readily re-inform our past cultural consciousness. These innovators  know how to capture historical nuances and moments and renew and resurrect prior socially accepted themes and morph those concepts into contemporary and vibrant “new waves.” Maybe they are cultural revisionists. Welcome… 

Lola Todman.

Lola Todman, photo provided

In the soon to be launched new aaduna edition, Todman will serve up her poetry, “Between,” “The Brown-Skinned Girl Van Morrison Never Wrote About,” and “Hair.” Once you read her work, the themes of this blog may provide appropriate connections to what was, and what is now, and how Ms. Todman comfortably fits within this complex creative resurrecting mix.

Lola was raised in New Jersey; attended boarding school in Michigan and is pursuing a college degree in Georgia. These American regional experiences have shaped her varied and unique understanding of Black-American girlhood, which she eloquently express in her work. She recognizes and emboldens the nuances of those times lived and that are part of her elders.

Lola Todman in the next issue of aaduna.

WATCH FOR aaduna's summer 2019 issue LAUNCHING SOON!

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