Host Nadine Nelson turned over a string of pink beads she was starting in her hands on Wednesday evening.
“I think it might be the end of the world,” she said, referring to the riots at the U.S. Capitol, so “I think I’m going to make a necklace and some earrings.” She wanted to “make something I can finish.”
Her guest, artist Lee Lee McKnight, was working on an altered book. It was the latest installment of Co Create, a series supported by the New Haven Free Public Library in partnership with MakeHaven.
The concept is simple: Each week, Nelson — chef and owner of Global Local Gourmet and the current creative in residence at the library — Zooms from her studio space, where she works on her art. Joining her is another artist, creating in their own space. As the description puts it, “you are invited to be a voyeur on both artist’s processes and also ask questions about your artistic and creative ventures. Creative engagement is an interactive and relational activity that creates community together.” Or as Nelson put it during her introduction, “different artists and creative approach work in a variety of ways and I think this is important. When you’re creative, there’s no straight line. A lot of times it might be a squiggly, it might be a spiral…. If you have dreams, inspirations, projects, share them with us. If you want feedback, ask. If you want space to create things into existence, this is a great place to be.”
This Wednesday featured McKnight, founder of community-focused organization Ladymade. As they began working on their projects, Nelson asked McKnight to explain the idea behind it.
Ladymade, McKnight explained, is “a community of creative ladies.” It began as “an idea in the back of my head.” of a co-working space for creative women. Co-working, she said, was “sort of trendy,” but in a deeper sense, it struck her as a “feminine approach to work.”
“Women don’t want to be alone in a room at 10 o’clock at night making art. We want to be surrounded by friends and people in the same business as us,” McKnight continued, as she worked on her book. “Any time women are in a room together, magical stuff happens that wouldn’t happen otherwise. We feed off of each others’ energy.”
There was precedent for this in sewing circles and mending circles. That sense of collaboration and camaraderie could be extended to art and entrepreneurship. She and friends began to organize events that let them get together and make things. Then the pandemic arrived. But the work they’d put in “launched the name and the idea of community.” During the pandemic, the community she started has been able to meet virtually. In October she organized Ladyfest, “an all-day Zoom fest,” she said. “I Marco Poloed all my friends and we just did it.”
Nelson asked what her goals for Ladymade were. “My grand vision is a true community of creative women who support each other,” McKnight said. “Women supporting women is more than a hashtag to us.” Before the pandemic, and even during it, she was interested in exploring “how it can happen in the real world, outside of capitalism and outside of the patriarchy.”
Nelson mentioned that she has also done virtual art dates with other women artists; she had one coming up this weekend. “We can’t meet in person but it’s nice to be on Zoom making our art and talking about our projects. Part of creating something is speaking it into existence. Having people that you can get support from and get ideas from is really important.” Both of them were part of a group that met daily for 20 minutes over Zoom; the first 10 minutes involved a short meditation, and the next 10, “everyone creates,” McKnight said. “You can feel alone, but then look up and see that 20 women are doing it at the same time.”
“In the middle of the day, when we’re so hectic and have to work, it’s a really nice reset,” Nelson said.
The two artists turned for a moment to what they were doing; Nelson was working on a beaded necklace, while McKnight continued with altering her book. The book, she said, began its existence as a cookbook called 500 Soups. Before McKnight got it, another artist had already started to alter it — for starters, changing its title to 500 Souls.
“In Jamaica every Saturday is soup day,” Nelson said. Her family is Jamaican, and on soup Saturdays, “I always could not stand that growing up.” She remembered being really hungry. “It had dumplings and starch in it, but it was like, ‘we’re drinking soup again,’” Nelson said, laughing. “My mom wasn’t playing short order cook. It was soup or nothing.” McKnight said that she and her family held a St. Patrick’s Day party in which her husband made soup to see if they could get their guests to literally sing for it. “We serve it to anyone who’s willing to perform at our party,” McKnight said. They, of course, are not having their party this year.
McKnight’s method for altering the book, she said, was “pretty impulsive. It’s very freeing — it’s whatever I’m going to do in the moment.” She tended to take her cues from words in the book that jumped out at her, but she proceeded with her ideas without fear. “If you really hate it, you can just rip it out, or paint over it,” she said of her own work. Nelson revealed that she similarly got her beads from jewelry she found at Goodwill. She took pieces home, broke them apart, and recombined them into new pieces.
“January is about slowing down, seeing what comes, and exploring my word of the year,” McKnight said. That word, as it turned out, was “reset.” She had already made an altered book about it. McKnight has been setting a yearly word for herself for six years. “The word just comes to me at some point. You get to know the process,” she said. Nelson said that, similarly, she has a song that becomes a theme for her year. In choosing it, she said, “I let serendipity happen and see what arises.”
A question came from a viewer on Facebook: Did Nelson and McKnight have any arts that were passed down to them from their elders? For Nelson, it was cooking and gardening. “I have been sewing, but they didn’t teach me how to sew,” she said. “With my daughter I like to do domestic arts like cooking and foraging.” They have also started going to MakeHaven to sew. “I like fabric a lot, and texture on clothes,” Nelson said.
“My family passed down storytelling, writing, and music,” McKnight said. “I’m excited to see that both of my kids love words and love music…. I feel like kids are going to gravitate toward the forms of expression” that are in the house. “We do music all the time, so of course they love it.” She paused. “Though maybe they’ll rebel against it,” she said with a laugh.
They both continued to work on their pieces. McKnight talked about growing up in Arkansas and meeting her husband in Boston before they moved to the New Haven area. Nelson talked about going to college in Boston as well, before returning to the area.
“I love New Haven,” McKnight said. “I feel like it has this creative spirit that just hangs around in the air…. There seems to be a lot of support for artists in this area, both at the community level and from organizations. It feels much more community-based to me. Though maybe I’m into community so that’s what I’m noticing.”
Nelson asked McKnight about pizza. “It’s a controversial question and I like to agitate,” she said. McKnight demurred, but Nelson pressed on. “There’s a hometown favorite, and a favorite for people who don’t’ have any taste,” she joked. That was when McKnight revealed that she wasn’t a big pizza fan. Nelson feigned shock.
Nelson declared that her necklace was coming together, but “looks like it’s not going to have a pendant, because I don’t want to take the stuff off,” she said, with a laugh. Besides, she liked it as it was, thanks to the quality of the beads. “So much of the old clothes and old furniture, it’s so much better made. It’s the same with the beads. The beads are so pretty,” she said.
She then asked McKnight what 2021 might have to offer in being creative.
“Art is so important during times of healing, and I think some amazing stuff is going to come out of everything that’s going around,” McKnight said. “We turn to art, to creativity, to curiosity. To breaking a cycle that’s been going on for so long. We don’t have a path. We’re making it up as we go along. So creativity and curiosity is critical.”
As the pandemic lifts, she said, “I hope it doesn’t go back to normal. I hope these systems being shaken up — I hope whoever’s in control realizes that it wasn’t really working.”
Nelson held up her work for McKnight to admire. “I think I might have finished earrings today,” she said. “I haven’t made jewelry in a while so I’m feeling inspired.” She then broke out a pack of cards to give McKnight a card reading. McKnight was game, and they had fun with it. She drew a card emblazoned with the image of a wanderer. It signified McKnight’s openness to new experiences. “Once you get your bearings you’ll find a way to thrive,” Nelson said. “There is wanderlust in your soul. You’re supposed to feel this way. There is an adventure that is meant for just you.”
Nelson then asked:: “Why do you feel like you got that card?”
“It’s perfect for my overall personality. And I think it goes really well with my word of the year,” McKnight said. “I’m on a journey. It’s the same journey, but it’s going back mentally, with a more open mind. The idea of resetting old habits or old stories. And it goes really well with Ladymade, because I have no idea where it’s going. But it’s not scary.” She was ready for what was coming next.
Co Create continues with Katalina Riegelmann, fitness trainer and owner of Katalina’s Bakery, on Jan. 13; James Estrada, founder of Dreaming Collective, a collaborative, distributed research and art studio, on Jan. 20; and Lani Asuncion, who works in video, sculpture, performance, and digital storytelling that explores the sociopolitics of community, on Jan. 27. Check the New Haven Free Public Library’s calendar for further details on this and other programming.