The Makeshifters Dr. Vivian Nix-Early

The Makeshifters column is an acknowledgement of the Black women in our communities through-out the African Diaspora that continue to “make-do” and make a way out of a host of circumstances. As the writer Kimber Thomas quotes in her essay, Makeshifting: Black Women and Resilient Creativity in the Rural South, “Makeshifting requires patching and piecing, and also requires Black women to view objects as multifunctional; that is, objects meant for one domain will almost always overlap with or be utilized for another ” In honor of the women that have been creative with little and good stewards of a lot, we dedicate this column to the culturally taught Makeshifters of our society. In this issue, NeFesha interviewed her graduate school professor, Dr. Vivian Nix-Early, to glean from her wisdom as an educator, artist, and all-around beautiful woman. She is a true Makeshifter and has taught many individuals how to take the power of artmaking to change the world that we live in.

We start this conversation with Dr V answering the question that is the subtitle of her blog, “How Did I Get Here?”

I would describe myself as an eternal optimist with a lot of hope for the world and for myself. Other people have described me as creative, dependable, a bit of a perfectionist, which my current art making has really helped me let go of. I guess fairly intelligent and loyal to friends, a little O.C.D., obsessive compulsive, about commitments that I and other people make. I really, think that people need to show up when they say that they are show up in a lot of ways, not just physically, but show up when you make commitments and make promises And so, I'm a little obsessive about trying to do that myself. I'm a pretty spiritual person as well I believe believe in, the Divine, the divine universe, divine intervention, and in a God that's a creator God, that's bigger than us

I took piano lessons from a young child because my father believed that you were not truly a whole person and full citizen unless you understood and engaged in the arts. He played the violin, so my sister did as well. My mother played piano, and so we took piano lessons And long story short, I took up flute as my primary instrument when I got into elementary school and had some real champions for my flute playing.

In my elementary school, one of my teachers heard me play piano and decided that I was good enough to go to this national competition in New York Now, I grew up in a very small little town The piano teacher lived on the next block, a very working-class neighborhood, and you don't even hear of these kinds of things

And so, he was introducing me to a larger world We went to this New York competition and, my church choir director rehearsed me on this song that everybody in the competition had to play Some classical piece. And so, I rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed and went up to New York with my teacher.

And we landed in this huge panel of judges to play this song. And when I heard the first couple of people play the song, I said to myself, oh my gosh, I must have rehearsed the wrong song.

They were playing it at such a rapid pace that I didn't even recognize it So, it dawned on me, “oh my goodness, I rehearsed it all wrong. I'll never be able to play the notes that quickly, blah, blah, blah.” And so, you know, I kind of said that to my teacher and he said, “no, you'll do fine.” So, when they called my name, I of course went up and played the song as fast as I could. Got in all the notes, maybe missed a couple, but you know, he said, “You may not win, but this was really an important step. And you got

Philadelphia Junior High Band and then all city orchestra.

But I had somewhat of the same kinds of experiences, with all-city Elementary band rather, and All City Junior High Band. I was sitting maybe 12th or 15th chair in the flute section. I was toward the back And there was this passage that he was disgusted that none of the flutes were playing I think it was the Prelude to Act Three of La Traviata or something. And so, one by one he said, “okay, I've gotta hear who can play this.” So, one by one he pointed to us and we had to play it. And the first chair played it. Then the second chair couldn't play it On down the line till it got to me.

I had taken this piece of music to my flute teacher, my private teacher, and he taught me how to do it with a different fingering. So, when it got to me, I played it And Mr Giamo, the band leader, was absolutely stunned that an 11th chair loudest somebody that he had placed an 11th chair Could play this passenger, nobody else could

So, he said, everybody move down. Vivian, move up to second chair That was the scariest thing that that could happen because then the first chair and I would have to play all the solos and duet parts of all of these pieces But those kinds of experiences through the arts, I can't tell you what that began to do for me I was painfully shy You might not ever think that Painfully shy Afraid to raise my hand in class. Afraid to ask questions. I rarely talked. You have no idea what that kind of experience does for a young person in terms of, not only selfconfidence, but agency and agency is related to hope. Agency gives you the sense that no matter what the challenge, you can find a way. And hope is simply the expectation that something good will happen in the future And hope is fed by finding workable roots to your goal and being able to plan and problem solve. There are about eight or nine elements of hope Those experiences contain a lot of those elements of hope and agency.

Those two things are related. So that's the beginning of my art making experience. The arts helped in terms of my own sense of being competent No matter what anybody else tried to tell me or to demonstrate by excluding me from academic things that I should have been included in because of my grades, which were, were excellent, the art making and the participation in art, and in this case, music let me know that I was competent to do something and that I had some gifts

So, I think that was the beginning of where my optimistic point of view started and where the sense of agency began and has continued and really has been, uh, confirmed and affirmed by the kind of art making, um, that I do now, particularly in pottery, which is a huge hill to climb and a huge challenge

Art, Mathematics, and the Brain

I was a math major in undergrad and math and music are connected in a lot of ways. Art making changes lots of things about our brain If we engage in art making early enough, it creates synapses, and brain pathways that are etched in children that don't engage in art making So, we know that art making, makes positive changes in brain structure and brain chemistry and that brain work also enhances a young person's ability to do math and languages. So, we know that certain subjects reinforce the same kinds of brain pathways Music, math, and language are often enhanced by one another.

Art making involves activity and voice and decision making And those kinds of actions, which are also elements of hope are the opposite of helplessness. When you are engaging in art making, you are beginning, even though you might not be aware of it, to exercise the power of your voice.

So, it does in very many ways help, empower those who feel, unseen and unempowered. It's why almost every kind of protest Involves these murals out outside and, and, and people holding up signs and, uh, making drawings and all kinds of things and singing. Everybody naturally knows that the non-verbal pieces of us can convey our emotions and feelings and thoughts a lot better than sometimes a speech would.

Pursuing Process

I've been known to be a bit of a perfectionist. I have been challenged by the clay on the wheel. The first thing you have to do after you wedge the clay and make sure that it doesn't have any area in it, is to center it on the wheel. If you don't center that clay, you're not going to be able to do very much with it You have to center it so that it stops wobbling and it is perfectly still going around in a fast, uh, world that is perfectly centered and perfectly still That in itself is just internally calming When you feel that clay stop wobbling and get centered. Wow! That the first time that happened, that I accomplished it, it was amazing. And that's because of the internal, kinesthetic senses that we get from art making that transfer to an internal state of calm and order and balance.

So, you have to center it, then you have to try to make something of it And, I have to tell you, um, the first pieces, and even now sometimes, pieces collapse.

And so I had a day not to Not too much in the past That was total, you, you can consider it, total disaster. I couldn't get my pieces centered properly When I did, there were air bubbles that threw it off center When I got, when I pulled the clay up and was thinking I was making a cylinder or base or whatever I was making, I pulled either too quickly or too much.

So, the rim collapsed and, um, I had to start over And, uh, then I went to another piece that I had made and I tried to put a handle on it and the handle was falling off. So, you would think that I would have left, um, that day feeling really frustrated and despondent. And I would've thought I would've too, because it was a frustrating day

I didn't get anything done that I wanted to. I would've thought it would've bothered my tendency toward perfection, it did the opposite. And I couldn't understand why I got in the car and I was smiling, driving back home from the studio My attitude was, “boy, I really learned so much about letting go ”

Those of us who are in class always say, the clay will let you know what it wants to be, and sometimes it's not what you're trying to do And that is so much like life. So, I learned so many life lessons from, from much art, but certainly, in this case from much about letting go, feeling the control, understanding that I can eventually bring some order

But it's okay not to, and to let go of that perfectionistic attitude. I's really helped my state of mind and I was surprised that I learned it that quickly It was really almost a subconscious thing. It's very much like that when we continue to strive for perfection, we miss the blessings that comes from the process of doing what we're doing.

I can think of times where that's been true And so I really do try to let go in many phases of my life. Things don't have to be done my way Somebody else's way is just as good. I don't have to fret about this or that And so I'm really learning. Unfortunately, it took me 70 years to learn that, but I don't have to deal with the anxiety, and the nervousness and the frustration that comes with always pursuing perfection. So now I just pursue process, our mistakes and our imperfections, can really sometimes, come out to be beautiful. And that's such a strong lesson for, for me, that I've really embraced that and tried to accept the gifts of the process as they come

And that's one of the blessings of living an art rich life, that, that the art teaches us so much about how to live

Art and Identity

I got myself into an art class from a nonprofit that I knew about way back, but they advertised that they were doing something online So, I took this visual art class in, in line drawing was the first thing, kind of journaling through, through art One of the early sessions, we were working with drawing lines as well as pairing that with breathing. This organization was both art and, and spiritual They, they had a spiritual base for it, which I liked. As I was drawing the lines and, breathing deeply, this was just around the time when George Floyd was murdered, it immediately occurred to me, and I really do think that this is because of my own consciousness of being African-American and what is happening to African-American people, because everyone else in the class was Caucasian and they were struck that I would even have that relationship, that, that relationship would occur

It immediately struck me in the middle of the drawing that I was breathing, and I could breathe when George Floyd said, “I can't breathe ” And it occurred to me that my purpose, part of my purpose in life, because art can reveal purpose, that’s one of the other wonderful things that it does I should be breathing for other AfricanAmerican people who can't.

“I can breathe for you when you can't Be still and know that I am God, choose joy and choose life.”

Those were the other thoughts that were coming to me I had to really think about, how can I understand this as a divine revelation about purpose and how I can practically breathe for other people when they can't? What does that mean? So, then that set off a whole chain of other kinds of activities and actions, um, that I wanted to engage in to be able to do that. But it totally came from art, and it totally came from art inspired by who I was

Surviving the Pandemic

The first thing I said to myself is, “I will not let this pandemic kill me I will not die because of this ” And so then, “okay, what are you gonna do?” So that's when all of this around how am I going to take care of myself? and self-care, you know, is a lot of things. It's what to eat, How do you take care of your physical self, your spiritual self? and how do I keep up my fitness program? I have a wonderful community and a wonderful fitness program All of our fitness instructors, they all stayed in their houses, recorded themselves, and every day they were on a Facebook page live so that we could tune in, whenever we wanted and continue our exercise programs [My physical fitness] All of that got reinforced out of the pandemic, as part of a whole self-care plan It emerged rather organically, the book did and what went in the book. It just started as my need to communicate and connect to my friends what I was doing.

Here, here's what I'm doing, here's how I'm occupying my time I believe that, and I really do that there was some divine purpose in allowing this to happen. I took for myself. Part of that is that everything stopped. Okay. Are we listening to maybe a divine message about “stop it, you're just going berserk here world ” And so I took that as an opportunity to Sabbath. And I do practice Sabbathing. That is resting long enough to recuperate and rejuvenate

I just started knowing that I needed to connect to somebody somehow and I needed to be active because I knew what art making at that point. I taught it long enough, could do so. I knew I needed to be creating, and I needed to be eating well

I just started trying to eat well and figuring out what that looked like and making all of these new things And I got into baking I've always liked baking Hadn't done it, in a long while, but it too is creative. And I just wasn't baking any old thing I was baking things that were pieces of artwork And I just started taking pictures. Because somebody said, oh, send me a picture Well, then I started taking pictures of everything I did. What I cooked; what I drew; maybe a little music thing that I developed a little melody I took pictures of everything And I just said, “oh, I think I'll collect these and put 'em together.” And then the idea of a little tiny book, that was my journal of how I survived the pandemics, plural, political unrest, the George Floyd murder, racial injustice, political unrest, and the covid. It just emerged into a collection of what I was doing to save my sanity and my health, to preserve my life.

The Development of Build-ABridge

Nathan Corbitt of course, had a lot to, to do with that I had come to Eastern as the graduate Dean and he was there as the Chair of Communications The Angels of Harmony, which is this multiethnic gospel choir, needed some help. I liked Choral conducting and so I got involved in doing that

He was directing the Eastern Winds and he simply came to my office one day as one of the graduate faculty and said, “What do you think about taking the Angels and the Eastern Winds to South Africa?” Because apartheid was crumbling The gospel choir of Eastern University had every color, every ethnic group in it. It was a wonderful group of people who visually and of course, musically demonstrated how people live, sing in harmony from very different backgrounds So, we ended up taking the Angels on this unbelievable trip for which we fundraised like crazy. In celebration of all the racial barriers that were falling We sang for the seminary, which could finally reopen, and schools, and just all sorts of things It was such a joyous trip

Then, one of Dr. Nathan's, student graduates had gone to Costa Rica and called him back and said, “you know, this earthquake just happened, and the government is not going to fix the port in the roads because, and its mostly darker skinned people who live in this community that's now disrupted and depressed and, and people are out of work and whatnot Can you bring a team of musicians, and later years artists, that look like us to help us energize our community? He asked me to go and we got a diverse small group of student artists that we knew both at Eastern and outside. And we went to Costa Rica to help them seed a music institute that would be theirs and to do some other things. That was the beginning of what we eventually saw in two years what a music institute could do for, a community that has suffered trauma and disaster

We saw what it could do economically because it really spearheaded into action people who, um, started collectives and, and a community built a community school room and just took on their community because the government wasn't So, from that we had the idea, “gee whizz, look what the arts can do in community.” We also noticed that the artists that we took were great artists, but they didn't have the training on how to teach and how to work with other people and the kids. So, that was one leg of the start of Build-A-Bridge

I was also working domestically through my church, and I had started this summer arts camp because I noticed that kids weren't learning. They weren't learning what I was teaching them in Sunday school They weren't learning what their teachers taught two or three years ago in Sunday school. They didn't remember. And so, you build on it And by the time they got to me, I had the senior high students, and they didn't know anything. I said, “what's going on with their learning?” And I decided it wasn't them. It's the way they're being taught. Memorization and being read to, and all this boring stuff So, I started a summer camp We were doing, everything through art making; dance, visual arts, music, all of them. And then I measured their learning over a couple of years, and it improved.

So, I was doing that kind of thing around teaching and learning and Nathan around community and economic development Those two things came together What I was trying to do and what we were doing; what he was doing in Costa Rica and Africa. And we said, let's start an organization that gets artists to give their gifts in service of community and other people, not just the, the hallowed halls of performance Let's teach them how to take that gift and really use it to serve. That was the idea of Build-A-Bridge.