'Stay Brave' with Claire Longtin North
‘Stay Brave’ is an interview series by woman-identifying creatives for woman-identifying creatives to inspire bravery in the creative life. [Created and curated by Leah Umansky]
How do you interpret the phrase, "Stay Brave?"
Who am I in any given moment in my core, and how do I bring that to Our World in all its fullness, richness, and truth? With misogyny unleashed with such virulence, to Stay Brave feels like a monumental challenge, and it's one I have to reach out and accept, with intention and will. Every day, upon getting out of bed, I must put my Goddess Feet on my Mother, Our Earth, and stay the course and intention as an Elder Wise Woman in my small community.
As a woman-identifying writer, what are the ways that you “stay brave” in your life?
I keep at it, even when I can’t. Writing is always with me, somehow, some way. It’s what I came to this life to share. When I get out of bed in the morning, or even in the middle of the night, the first thing I see are my bookshelves. I feel the love and solidarity of all the writers who have gone before me, ready for me to take my place on the shelves. Yesterday I came across a YouTube of Ursula K. Le Guin receiving an award, and how prophetic and revolutionary her words were in her speech. I keep my eyes and heart open for allies. And I remind myself every day of what my first acting teacher, Bob Alexander of Arena Stage, told me to do: "Stay Inspired.” To me, that’s the foundation for Staying Brave.
Who is someone in your life who models “staying brave” for you?
My late, beloved friend, colleague, mentor, Tarot teacher and writing advisor, Rachel Pollack; Bernie Sanders; Becca Balint; Pema Chödrön; Nancy Blair; Ruth Stone; Bianca Stone; Ben Pease; Walter Stone; Mary-Elena Carr; Leah Umansky; Barbara Ungar; Stuart Bartow; Paula Chaffee Scardamalia; Mary K. Greer; Claudia Rankine; Patricia Smith; Joy Harjo; Audre Lord; June Jordan; Shanta Lee; Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill; Doireann Ní Ghríofa; Kerri Ní Dochartaigh; Michael Longley; Padraig Ó Tuama; Maria Popova; Krista Tippett; John O’Donohue; Walt Whitman; all my theatre friends, my writing friends, they are legion…lately, I’ve been drawn to the Christian Mystics: Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila.
What writers, artists, and/or musicians do you look to to foster a sense of “bravery?”
See the above! And all the protest singers, Elly Stone, Pete Seeger, John McCutcheon, The Poozies, Shaun Davey, Rita Connolly, Rhiannon Giddens. Photographers in the frontlines of wars, famines, protests.
What’s a piece of advice you would pass on to your younger self about “staying brave?” What’s something you know now, that you didn’t know in the past?
I know now that my feelings are like blood, they flow through me, and will change on a breath! I remember my NYC therapist telling me this, because I lived as if my feelings of abandonment, grief, humiliation, shame, etc., were going to annihilate me the moment I felt them, and be with me forever! And that "Life goes on." Even when you feel so broken that you can't believe it will, when you are outraged the Sun had the audacity to still come up in the face of your loss. And my first therapist and mentor gave me a life-changing piece of advice one day as I was railing about my parents, etc: "Leave them to God." I started then to see I didn't have to fix everything...and I've also found bravery keeps renewing itself, there's no limit.
Can you remember a time in your life where you realized your own bravery? How did you use it to propel you forward?
At my age, there have been a few, I'm glad to say! Getting divorced (twice), moving to Ireland, pursuing a theatre career, moving to NYC, beginning and completing the Spiritual Science Ordination Studies and Program, starting The North Light Center to further continue the Spiritual Science Ordination Program, moving to Vermont -- every time I have engaged in a risk and have taken on learning something new, it's like a strong current carrying me forward, through, over, and around the white water rapids, rip tides, and tsunamis of life.
What do you do when you aren’t feeling brave? What inspires you or motivates you?
I take a moment, breathe, recite my mantra or a prayer or affirmation, and remember how many people may be feeling a similar way; I remember I am not alone, there is Guidance all around me. I give myself some love and compassion -- and when I can, I love to cook something and share it with friends! Being in nature also helps, especially taking a few moments outside at night and looking at the stars, reminding myself I am a part of Infinite Love and Beauty that keeps on creating Itself...
In what ways would you like to be more brave in your creative life?
I want to stop procrastinating about submitting my writing. I want to stop sacrificing my creative life to service, and make my creative life the service. I want to keep affirming I am here in this life to CREATE.
What is your proudest moment of bravery?
I had barely been ordained as a Minister of Spiritual Science when my Mother died, and I delivered her eulogy on the altar of the Catholic Church in Bryn Mawr, PA where I had been baptized, received First Holy Communion, been Confirmed, and was married for the first time — there I was, stepping up as an ordained woman. I talked about my Mother's alcoholism and the effect it had on our family -- very daunting, as there was such denial in the family and hostility about telling the truth about this great, grievous generational wounding that kept on going, unchecked by truth. At my age (I know, I keep saying that, but experiences just keep happening) there have been a few proud, brave moments, but that's the one that came to me when I read this question!
What are you currently working on?
I'm working on "working on" getting my manuscripts together! Mortality is quite real at 72, when your life-long friends who are a few years younger die. I would like to do a chapbook of my own poetry through The Ruth Stone House, a volume of my Irish/English translations of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill's poetry, and see what can happen with my magical realism novel I wrote as my thesis for my MFA. Too much writing lying fallow that needs to be out in Our World!
Thank you, Claire!
Claire North is 72 years old, and has been a Minister of Spiritual Science for 33 years. Her Ministry has taken the forms of being a ceremonialist and ritualist, teacher, and counselor. These days, she’s introducing herself as a writer first, and then a Minister! She’s facilitated Poetry groups and events in Vermont and NYS since the early oughts, holds an MFA in Creating Writing from Goddard College, and has attended the Bread Loaf Translators' Conference in June 2024, where she read from and worked on translating Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill's poetry from Irish to English. She continues to write and officiate all kinds of ceremonies for all kinds of people. One way she delivers counsel is through Tarot readings, which offer people a mirror of the answers they hold within through the language of symbology. She loves the art of translation, especially with Poetry. She has been fortunate to have lived in exciting places, and loves the gift of having a flow of creative, magical people in her life.
Leah Umansky is a poet, writer, curator, writing coach, artist and teacher. Her new collection of poems is OF TYRANT out now with Word Works Books. She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work can be found in such places as PBS’ ‘Story in the Public Square,’ The New York Times, POETRY, Bennington Review, American Poetry Review, The Slowdown Podcast, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day and elsewhere. She is a writing coach who has taught workshops to all ages at such places as Poets House, Hudson Valley Writers Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering and elsewhere. She is working on a fourth collection of poems ORDINARY SPLENDOR, on wonder, joy and love and a hybrid-memoir on infertility in the eye of a global pandemic, DELICATE MACHINE. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.
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