Posts by Daphne Stanford

We artists and writers can’t afford to passively watch all the things we care about burn to the ground. Rather, we should be proactive in ensuring that the arts have a place to flourish and thrive in every town and community in the US.

The future looms large before us and it is our responsibility as artists to advocate for ourselves. We must advocate for our continued importance and relevance in such politically uncertain times. We must advocate for increased fusion of art and science, since an interdisciplinary understanding of the world has always been more thorough and enlightening.

Considering the fact that we don’t have this whole existence thing figured out for ourselves yet, is it a fool’s errand to hope that machines could figure it out for us?

With many school districts cutting funding to non-STEM-related classes, music, humanities and arts educators need something reliable to fall back on.

Music felt dangerous to me because singing and playing the piano was always associated with emotion—which was strictly forbidden as something to put on display, in my household.

I wouldn’t want to suggest foregoing the grieving process in favor of art, but perhaps it’s possible to funnel some of that energy and anger into one’s art, as well.

Don’t underestimate the power of focus, originality, and succinctness—as well as good, old-fashioned cleverness.

That’s the great thing about writing: It allows us to create a separate world of pure imagination.

If I really wanted to be revolutionary, instead of speaking Spanish, I would attempt to learn how to speak Huichol, Náhuatl, or Purépecha.

One of my favorite things to do in high school was to listen to people talk about me in Spanish and start talking to them in Spanish right back.

Whatever you do, don’t avoid writing because of fear of pain and suffering.