April 24, 2020 -- Cultural Content
Dear Friends,
After a few weeks of frenzied planning, last Friday we launched PPL’s new series, Adaptive Practices: Six Artists Redefine Isolation and Distraction , with part one of An Ode to Home , a two-part workshop by Becci Davis. Registration filled up quickly and we had a waiting list, so if you couldn’t make the event, or were unable to register in time, you can watch it here . (And there are still a few spots open for An Ode to Home, part two , this evening – read details and register here !) In discussing themes in her work, Becci talked about seeking and finding stories in in-between spaces, and she encouraged us to consider this question: what meaning can we make between one image and another, one memory and another, one history and another, as our mind’s eye seeks connection from one to the next?
 
On Monday, I was wearing my mask, taking a walk, and listening to Micah Salkind’s first mix in Hold the Portal Open , his week-long series of daily sonic offerings. As one bit of mesmerizing sound transformed and transitioned into the next, sometimes with a deliberate pause, sometimes almost imperceptibly, I suddenly recognized that Micah’s work, too, was guiding me to focus on the space between one moment and the next, one experience and the next. Thanks to his deft crafting, each element in the mix gained resonance and new meaning from its relationship with what came before and after, and it was in these moments of transition that my perception expanded to “hear” these new resonances.
 
Then on Wednesday night Laura Lamb Brown-Lavoie released the first kit in her Listen to It series of prompts, created to guide participants through a 12-hour period of receptive silence each night for a week. Even the first kit had a transformative effect on my night and morning, giving me a simple but mindful way to experience those first waking moments, to connect them to my sleep the night before and to the day dawning ahead. As I carried out her suggested ritual, I realized that once again a Creative Fellow had pointed me to transitional moments that I had previously been blind to, and that now seemed to hold so much potential for awareness and choice.
 
We’re all spending a lot of time realigning our notions of “then” and “now” now, in ways that feel new and strange; newer and stranger still is how to understand the notion of “next.” The experience of living in the moment right between the just-before and the just-after can be exhausting, in part because our attention can’t wander   but for that reason it can also be enlightening. As we navigate these days that seem to combine hypervigilance with a desire for amnesia, the events and activities that make up Adaptive Practices offer strategies for rethinking transitional moments, acknowledging the anxiety they create, but also the promise they hold – even if that promise is only that we can help ourselves and one another to be as open, resilient, and adaptive as possible in the weeks and months ahead.

Thanks again to our ever-more-inventive Creative Fellows , and to Events Coordinator Janaya Kizzie for making everything run as if by magic. And until we meet again, may you and yours be well, in every way.
 
In gratitude,

Christina Bevilacqua
Programs & Exhibitions Director

P.S. Despite being closed, PPL has activities going on in every department, for all ages. Click here  to see what's happening in Education, Children's, Info Services, Development and more!
April 17 - May 8: Join PPL Creative Fellows For

It’s not too late to register for events/activities already in progress, and new events/activities will start next week and go through Friday, May 8. You can choose communal gatherings via online platforms, offerings sent directly to you that can be activated at your convenience, or a bit of each. Pick one, pick several, drop in and out – we totally understand the need for flexibility, now more than ever! We do ask you to register, to ensure that gatherings don’t get hacked, and so that we can deliver prompts to you on schedule. Read more about the whole series and register here , and let us know what you think!
PPL and RI Historical Society Launch Rhode Island COVID-19 Archive

Your contributions needed to this digital archive!  Help us record stories, photographs, artwork, oral histories, social media and memories of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rhode Island and share this call for contributions with friends and family.

We are all living in an historic moment! Rhode Islanders let’s document this experience together. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your life? Share your experience with us at  RICovidArchive.org .