Saturday, February 7, 2015

The Raw Fiction Story, or Why the hard questions can't be answered with the intellect and Other tales from the universe

Raw Fiction 2015 is underway. The group has met twice, they're working on their vision and they're reading, writing and thinking critically. It's amazing.

I've also thrown an initial fundraiser - and I reached my fundraising goal. The event was beautiful and videos are up on my youtube channel. The photographs from the event are also beautiful and they are up on the website. Today, I registered my receipts from this year into an excel document. I'm organized and productive.

I love doing this and I love the positive feedback I get from just about everyone who hears about Raw Fiction or comes out and supports an event.

And now we come to impending questions: Should Raw Fiction continue and grow? If Raw Fiction continues does it inevitably have to grow? If I don't want Raw Fiction to grow then should I continue it? Am I obligated, as the originator of the vision, to see to it that Raw Fiction becomes a fixture in the community?

Raw Fiction was created in reaction to the rapid gentrification of Brooklyn, a frustration at my inability to get the kind of job I'd love, and a frustration that the kind of job I'd actually really love didn't even exist within non-profit structures. Raw Fiction became a vision that I latched onto as a way to evade the anxieties of existence in this hyper-developed world. Raw Fiction got me through a very rough patch in life and has become an enormous networking tool. I love meeting like minds, however, I resist the definition of networking as a form of ladder climbing.

Recently, I started an application with the end goal of becoming a social entrepreneur. On the one hand, I am thrilled by the possibility of turning Raw Fiction into my form of income. To do it full time, to live off the passion that sustains me … On the other hand, I am daunted by what a successful future could turn my unadulterated grassroots project into.

And then there's the even bigger question: How do I know what kind of autonomy I can maintain over language for grantors if I never even try? How can I resist an opportunity to turn a passion into a career?

Would I stay passionate about the passion if it became my career?

What about my literary pursuits - my own writing? My own desires to live abroad, study languages, flex my imagination into boundless unknowns…

Can Raw Fiction exist as a hobby? Can it be supported primarily by a reading series that brings in a couple of hundred dollars per event? Is that sustainable for me?

Is becoming a nonprofit director sustainable for me?

What is sustainability in this hyper-technological world?

I thought writing here would help me solve the conundrum: to establish or to remain grassroots. But I think this is a question for the universe.

The hard questions can't be answered with the intellect, we must leave the future to chance.

1 comment:

  1. Follow your heart and intuition, what more can you do?
    (And when you launch here in Glasgow, Scotland we can call it Braw Fiction!)
    Egon x

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