Cultural Creatives on Creativity

I’m Laura Faeth, author of I Found All the Parts: Healing the Soul through Rock ‘n’ Roll. In 2002, a  spiritual awakening with rock music launched me on a totally unexpected journey of self-discovery. I tapped into an unknown pool of intuition, inspiration, and more than anything else, an insatiable desire to write. I wanted to relay the concepts and discoveries I was making with words and share my insights with the world.

In 2005, I came across a book titled  The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (Harmony Books, NY), by sociologist Paul H. Ray. It described my spiritual connection and creative impulse to a tee. Ray claims to have found that 50 million adult Americans (slightly over one quarter of the adult population in 2000) can be identified as belonging to this group.

So who are these Cultural Creatives? According to the Wisdom University website,

“Cultural Creatives are people who are deeply spiritual without being dogmatically religious, and who enjoy technology and economic prosperity but not at the cost of the environment or community. They understand the world holistically and are deeply committed to non-ideological politics that emphasize practical solutions.”

Cultural Creatives tend to embrace change, feel a deep connection to the earth and environment, and want their work to have meaning and contribute to the upliftment of society.  The creators of the ground-breaking movie What the Bleep Do We Know? used the Cultural Creatives for their business model.  The movie helped me realize that this group can become powerful agents of change if we realize our untapped potential and unite together for a common cause.  Many Cultural Creatives’ views are very different from mainstream society, which generates feelings of not fitting in, their voices not heard. Well, let’s change that!

Audacious Creativity

I recently contributed to an anthology entitled Audacious Creativity. Editor and author Stephanie Gunning asked people from a wide variety of backgrounds to write about the creative process.  As I read through the other essays, I could see a part of myself reflected in the teachings  and examples.  Whether the topic was creating wealth or raising children, each author examined creativity from a spiritual perspective.  These are the kind of people I resonate with. These are the Cultural Creatives.  I found myself wanting to email each contributor and pick their brain about what they’ve learned on their creative journey.

I’ve been brainstorming ideas on how to create a blog featuring artists, musicians, writers, alternative healers…anyone who feels a need to express themselves or approach their work from a cultural creative perspective. This blog is what I’ve been inspired to create. 

I’m sending a list of  20 questions to all of the contributors to Audacious Creativity which prompts them to share insights about the creative process, and how they sense their work impacts society. In the upcoming weeks and months, I’ll post their responses and begin to assemble a real-life profile of cultural creatives and their visions.

Hopefully many of the Audacious Creativity authors will respond to the questionnaire, but after posting their answers, I’d like to open the questions up to anyone who feels they are a cultural creative.  If you resonate with the cultural creative description, check out the “20 Questions” on the Cultural Creatives Questions page, and email me at laura@soundofyoursoul.com for more info about how to contribute to the blog.