Everyday Creative People Dena Adriance

“Being stuck is an important part of the creative process – every great creative advance has been preceded by being stuck.



And it’s staying with that, and then suddenly you see it differently. You discover that… there are different forces at play here than what I thought, and there are different barriers, and some of the barriers that I was fighting against, they don’t even exist! They’re just a construct.”



Roger Nierenberg is a conductor who has enjoyed long tenures as Music Director of both The Jacksonville Symphony (Florida) and the Stamford Symphony (Connecticut). His conducting work has brought him to the podium of The London Philharmonic, The Residentie Orkest, The New Zealand Symphony, The National Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of cities across the US, and he has collaborated with musicians from more than one hundred orchestras around the world.



Roger is also the creator of The Music Paradigm, an interactive learning experience that brings teams into the orchestra rehearsal process to discover critical lessons about leadership and teamwork. Participants are seated directly amongst the orchestra musicians where they gain fresh understandings about the opportunities and challenges faced by their own organization. Over the past twenty years, Nierenberg has presented to hundreds of different organizations, from civic groups to Fortune 500 companies, in two dozen different countries. The lessons and experience of The Music Paradigm are shared in a narrative account through the book, Maestro: A Surprising Story about Leading By Listening.



To follow Roger, you can find him on Twitter @rogernierenberg or on Facebook at The Music Paradigm.

This week I got to interview a dear friend and a true renaissance soul, Kristin Richardson Jordan, about her work as a social justice poet and in particular her most recent book of poetry, Water and Light: Choose Love Now.



Kristin is a book printing poet, writer, teaching artist, whose work is driven by an activist spirit. She grew up in the historically black neighborhood of Harlem, New York, and draws a great source of inspiration from the deep roots of activism, community, and artistic excellence in this community.



She is the daughter of two physicians who worked extremely hard and overcame great obstacles to become minority physicians and who strive to serve their communities and help those underserved and underrepresented in health and science. Kristin graduated from Brown University in 2009 with a BA in Black Studies (“Africana”) and Literary Arts.



To learn more about Kristin and her work, you can check out her websites below:



* kristinrichardsonjordan.com: Kristin’s personal website* Pensup.com: the home of Kristin’s publishing company for “literary activists”

Photo credit: Stéphan Ballard



Kofi Oduro is a creative coder, creative engineer, thinker, poet, and performer living in Montreal, Quebec (my new hometown!).



In this week’s episode, we take a dive into computer science and finding creative fulfillment when you’re also a math geek. Kofi fills me in on the intersections of live coding, video, AI, spoken word poetry, music, and “algoraves,” an event where people dance to music created by algorithms. Turns out, math is at the foundation of pretty much everything we do.



Kofi uses Videography, Poetry and Creative Coding, to highlight the realms of the human performance and the human mind in social, internal, or even biological scenarios which we face in our everyday lives. You can check out his work at kofioduro.myportfolio.com and follow him on Instagram at Illest Preacha.

Ben Falcon paints custom bicycles, motorcycles, and more. Having felt constrained by the opportunities available to him as an architecture student, Ben sought out something that would enable him to do more hands-on work. He found it in custom painting.



In this week’s episode, Ben and I discuss how he stumbled upon this niche career, what he would do if he weren’t doing custom painting, and what it’s like to run a custom paint business in New York City.



Ben has worked with some of the finest bicycle frame builders in the world. After fine tuning his trade at the leading purveyors of custom at Seven Cycles outside of Boston, he moved out west to establish the state of the art wet paint department for Chris King in Portland, OR before ultimately landing in Brooklyn, NY, where he is currently devoting his talents to the paint enterprise at the Brooklyn-based Horse Cycles Paint.



To learn more about Ben’s work and follow along with his projects, check out benfalcon.com and find him on Instagram @benfalconpaint.

This week I caught up with Vessna Scheff, an emotive, abstract painter and musician living in Philadelphia. Vessna has the attitude of a perpetual student, and has jumped into her creative pursuits more than once with little to no formal training!



In this episode, Vessna shares her incredible journey to becoming a working artist, and the attitudes, approaches, and beautiful moments of magic that got her there.



Vessna combines sounds, movement and color to create encompassing performances. Her work is inspired by stories of social and personal revolution and resilience, and seeks to fully celebrate the small yet powerful moments of freedom we experience within struggles.



Utilizing water as a main tool of creation and source of inspiration, Scheff energizes large brushstrokes and mixed media to add depth and dimension to her works on paper. On stage, she merges sounds with colors in an empowering and colorful musical and visual performance.



To learn more about Vessna, see her paintings, and follow along with her work, you can visit her website vessnascheff.com, or follow her on Instagram @vessnascheff.

This week I chatted with artist, educator, consultant and coach Stephanie Simpson about the interplay between stress and creativity, and how to nourish and draw on the power of our full human selves.



Drawing on her background in movement, meditation, and psychology, Stephanie guides people to achieve their greatest potential by nurturing the connection between the mind, body, and spirit.



With a focus on helping people find their true balance and align with their authentic selves, Stephanie empowers them to live their lives unapologetically and to the fullest. An RYT-200 Hour Certified Yoga Instructor, Stephanie holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Emerson College and an MFA in Dance Performance/Choreography from Smith College. She is currently an MA degree candidate at Columbia University Teachers College in the Clinical Psychology program with an emphasis in Spirituality, Mind, Body and a focus in Organizational Change.



Stephanie presents and consults for businesses nationwide, bringing her expertise and passion for helping people thrive to audiences and organizations seeking to realize their fullest potential. Most recently, she launched her 21 Day Stress Management Program to help people redefine how they respond to stress. It comes with a cool guide to help you learn all kinds of stress management techniques that harness your creativity, awaken your body, and more!



You can learn more about her work at stephanie-simpson.com, and follow her on Facebook (Stephanie Simpson Coaching) or Instagram (Stephanie.e.Simpson).