Listening

Why is it so hard for us to listen? Why do we so often listen to things that don’t serve us, and ignore the things that do? As I prepare for my first opera engagement in four (!!) years, I recognize the siren song of unwanted, yet persistent voices in my head....

Heart of courage

Heart of courage, Kimberly Barber (November 2021) Here’s a shoutout to all the artists out there who daily demonstrate their courage. To quote the Cowardly Lion in part (thanks, Jack Haley): “I could be kind of humanIf I only had a heart…I’d be...

Allowed on the voyage

From “Fifty Boats”, artwork by Nan Shepherd (2009); Kimberly Barber (2021) This week I went on a daring journey with my students in our studio performance class: I told them everything was allowed. Their wildest imagination, their instincts, their personal...

Intersectionality

Puzzle intersections (Kimberly Barber, 2021) I’ve been inspired this week reading Parker J. Palmer’s classic, The Courage to Teach. There is so much to be gleaned there, but one of the things that really landed for me was the notion of paradox in teaching,...

Loss and gain

Don’t judge me for my artwork. My mind was a bit of a blank this week as I considered what I wanted to post about. As sometimes happens, I’m mining my week’s experiences for a theme and coming up empty, when suddenly something someone says gives me...