diVERSES reKINDLED: In Conversation With Ebri Yahloe

One of the ways to know you’ve made an impact on people is noting the language they use.

Specifically, if they naturally use the words you use, and do so unprompted, that is a sign you have touched them.

I have seen this firsthand with my own communication students, who regularly incorporate the terminology I introduced them to in my own classes.

The challenge is that most ideas are not original. Art navigates the same barriers. Love poems have been done before, and so have nature poems, and so have any poems on a topic you’ve written.

Fortunately, art doesn’t come from the uniqueness of the destination. Art comes from the uniqueness of how we arrive.

Ebri is an artist who demonstrates that dedication to finding the appropriate approach for the expression. Whether through video, audio experiences, or written form, Ebri handles it, but does not stop. Art becomes communal experience through events. Art becomes communal experience through collaboration. Art becomes communal experience by embracing impostor syndrome.

The goal of what we create is not new—in fact, audiences typically retreat from unfamiliarity.

Instead, we have to find new ways to say what everyone already knows.

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Full conversation with artist Ebri Yahloe and poet Geoff Anderson: https://youtu.be/SnHAyphID8g