Friday, May 13, 2005

Church and the Recognition of Creativity

"I don't think it's a coincidence that American blues and country-western music have their roots in gospel music. Many of our best musicians started out in church choir. In part this is because church choir was the main, sometimes the only, form of music available in poor rural communities. But church is where many of us learn to express our spirit in a creative way. It's where we first understand that the Spirit moves in poetry and song. For many of us church is the first larger audience we have for our own words, spoken or sung aloud, our knees shaking as we blink back tears and try to communicate to the world who we are on the inside."

--Vinita Hampton Wright, in The Soul Tells a Story: Engaging Creativity with Spirituality in the Writing Life

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