Be Magazine

The Be Story

Posted on24. Nov, 2009 by admin.

The Sisters That BE or (The BE Story)

Connect the Dots. That’s where it all began. Actually, it all began with a dream. Streaming through a powerful vision, Missy Crutchfield got the message loud and clear—the arts address the issues of the heart, the arts are the true language of education, the arts can change the world.

The opportunity to take that dream and roll it out into something real and tangible came when City of Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield took office in 2005, and one of the first changes he made to the city government was creating the brand new Department of Education, Arts & Culture.

“Mayor Littlefield took arts & culture from the Department of Parks and Recreation and placed ‘education’ first in the name of the new Department of Education, Arts & Culture,” says founding Administrator Missy Crutchfield. “That says something about how important education and the arts are to this Mayor. He has envisioned Chattanooga as a city of compassion and EAC is a vehicle for carrying out that message to the community through our signature programs and initiatives.”

Ten months after pulling together EAC, Crutchfield invited the community to the first annual Connect the Dots summit (co-sponsored by EAC, United Way of Greater Chattanooga and Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga—a first ever partnership between United Way and Allied Arts) to engage in conversations about the potential impact of using the arts to address social issues.

Rick Lowe headlined as keynote speaker for the Connect the Dots summit. Through his artistic vision and passion for social activism, Lowe helped transform a neighborhood of shotgun houses in Houston’s Third Ward (which is now called Project Row Houses) into a thriving community for single mothers. From local residents and children, social services agencies and schools, architects and urban planners and artists of various disciplines, Project Row Houses became a dynamic community project in every sense of the word. Each community member had a part to play in helping rebuild and revitalize the neighborhood. This sense of networking and making use of each community member’s creativity, talents and resources helped Lowe and the project leaders in “connecting the dots.”

Following Lowe’s keynote address a group of 150 summit attendees engaged in a series of workshops sparking dialogue in the areas of Arts & Education, Arts & Healing, Arts & Economic Development and Community & Race Relations. In her opening remarks, Crutchfield said, “This summit is part of a collaborative partnership for change. We can tell a story in Chattanooga, Tennessee that can resonate across the country.”

As a result of that first Connect the Dots summit, many of the community members who attended immediately launched into new and powerful conversations about addressing social issues through the arts. The intent in offering the community summit is to help community members and organizations continue the conversation and start connecting their own dots, Crutchfield says. Former Allied Arts President Don Andrews says he believes the summit opened the way for new partnerships and collaborations among organizations in the city. “I think Allied Arts now has a clearer vision of the opportunities for crossing over with social service agencies,” he remarked in the summit discussion session.

Meanwhile, intrigued by an announcement for the Connect the Dots summit, an aspiring young magazine journalist Melissa Turner decided to attend. Having followed news stories about the rise in local youth violence and wanting to do something to help make a difference, Turner was excited by the possibilities of using the arts to address social issues.

Rick Lowe’s address captured Turner’s artist heart and her longing to live more compassionately, and she knew her experience at the summit was just the beginning of something much bigger.

“I went back to my office and wrote out the quotation from Joseph Beuys that Rick Lowe mentioned—‘Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and condition our lives’,” Turner says. “And then I posted it on my bulletin board for inspiration. From that moment on, I knew, without a doubt, I could use my creativity and talents to change the world. I’d known this all my life, but I needed to be reminded of it.”

This creative awakening is “Remember Your Dream”—Crutchfield’s powerful vision for changing the world through the arts. Late one night, Crutchfield experienced a dream that interrupted a dream-like state. Having spent time working with domestic abuse organizations she witnessed ruined children, who had great potential for their lives but who had become so broken and angry that they had lost sight of love or dreams for their own lives.

“I was very concerned about children who had been at the most damaged level,” Crutchfield says. “I was motivated to bring those children back to life and inoculate others against the same fate by prompting the community to band together to advance awareness using the arts and social issues and building relationships with arts partners and others committed to this mission.”

Remembering her own dream and wanting to get more involved in the community, Turner scheduled an interview with Crutchfield to discuss the summit and future plans for addressing the arts and social issues in Chattanooga. She recalls, “During the interview, I remember thinking, ‘This is so exciting. Things are really happening with this new department.’ They are making a difference through the arts in this community.’” After writing a story about the Connect the Dots summit for a local city magazine, Turner began thinking about how she might best change the world through her creativity and writing.

Reflecting on the moving stories she learned about through Connect the Dots, Turner tossed around the idea of a global magazine that would tell all the “good” stories about people around the world using their creativity to make a difference. Thinking about this magazine over the next few months, Turner was surprised when she came across a story in the Wall Street Journal about a twenty-something magazine publisher, who was planning to launch a similar magazine that fall. “I was shocked,” Turner says. “It was one of those moments where you get zapped and you feel all tingly. That was the type of magazine I had been thinking about, and that was someone else doing it. I then began to realize you have to act on your dreams.”

Several months passed and the next year’s Connect the Dots summit launched with a vibrant line-up of first year success stories—local artists and social services agencies that had come together to “connect the dots.” Percussionist Bob Stagner brought a class he connected with at Signal Centers, a life-long education center for people with developmental disabilities.  The group came to life as they drummed along with Stagner and smiles lit each face around the circle as they connected with each other through music.

In another workshop that day, Crutchfield debuted the original documentary footage of “Sisters Speak Out Against Violence”—a spoken word theater piece inspired by The Clothesline Project, an international movement that provides domestic violence victims with a plain, white t-shirt as a canvas for speaking what is on their hearts and beginning the healing process.

“When I became acquainted with the t-shirt project, I was so moved by the words,” Crutchfield says. “I remember thinking, ‘This stuff is good—how do we bring it to life?’” And so the next creative vision came for Crutchfield, taking the words from off the t-shirts and bringing them to life through a spoken word piece called “Sisters Speak Out Against Violence: A Vignette of Voices.”

Moved by the Sisters Speak Out Against Violence documentary, Turner connected with Crutchfield following the workshop and attended a visioning meeting for future Sisters Speak Out projects. Around the same time, Crutchfield invited Turner to get involved in the upstart of a new publication for teenagers. “I was kind of blown away because this was exactly what I wanted to do—use my writing and publications experience to reach teens across the city,” Turner says. “And when Missy mentioned the name of the publication would be Chattanooga Teen Scene I got really excited because when I was fifteen years old I had started my own publication called ‘Teen Scene’ that lasted for four years. The connections were undeniable. It was meant to be.”

As they began working on more projects together, Crutchfield and Turner’s friendship grew closer and they began bonding like sisters. They both say, “We’re ‘sisters’.” Sharing a heart for creative vision and compassionate living, the connection is magic, they agree.

One day the week of Thanksgiving, Crutchfield and Turner met at Barnes & Noble for coffee. “I got zapped that day,” Turner says. “Missy was sharing a book with me and said you should check this out on page 62, and I took the book and opened to page 62—exactly.” From talking about the book that “zapped” them, as they put it, Crutchfield and Turner’s conversation turned to another magazine project the two had in mind. “I shared with Missy my vision for a magazine that highlighted all the good stuff going on in the world and all the amazing people who are using their creativity to make a difference,” Turner says. Crutchfield had envisioned a similar magazine for carrying forward the “Remember Your Dream” signature EAC initiative for connecting the arts and addressing social issues. “Let’s do it,” Crutchfield said. “We can make it happen. Let’s start making plans to launch with an online publication next year.”

And so the idea for Be magazine was birthed, but the name hadn’t come to Crutchfield and Turner yet. That occurred on a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks later when they visited a funky, little gift shop on Chattanooga’s North Shore. Looking at the magnet wall, the “sisters” both happened to spot the same magnet at the same moment—an unpretentious square with Mahatma Gandhi’s “BE the change you wish to see in the world” quoted on it. As Crutchfield picked the magnet from the wall, there were two “Be” magnets stuck together. “Melissa and I looked at each other and I said, ‘Well, I guess it is meant to be. Do you want one too?’” Crutchfield says. So they each got a magnet and with the inspiration of their “Be” magnets, a week later the name came to them both—“Be magazine—that’s the name.”

In the months following, Crutchfield and Turner began breathing life into the creative framework for their new online publication—and the confirmations started flowing. The biggest confirmation came with a trip to New Orleans. The story of New Orleans’ survival and recovery following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 had moved Crutchfield and Turner both. They knew they needed to connect with the city.

Inspired by the mobile technology initiative launched in New Orleans following soon after Katrina’s devastation of communications, Crutchfield launched a collaborative called “Connecting the Dots with Technology” to partner with local corporations in donating used computers to the city’s recreation centers. The program has proven to be a win-win for both the corporations and the city—and “Connecting the Dots with Technology” has received national attention.

The trip to New Orleans in May 2008 launched a series of amazing events and new connections. Joining Katherine Frank, Chattanooga’s liaison with Annunciation Mission in New Orleans, Crutchfield and Turner set out on a weekend trip to help with an ongoing project refurbishing the house of “Miss Ella.” A Katrina transplant who traveled to Chattanooga on Al Gore’s private jet shortly after the storm hit, Miss Ella was ready to finally return home. Working with the non-profit Rebuild, a group of Chattanoogans has been trekking down to New Orleans to gut out and rebuild Miss Ella’s house and make it livable for her once again.

While they were there, Crutchfield and Turner wanted to make the most of their trip and make some contacts for EAC and Be magazine. The first day in New Orleans, they met with Ernest Collins, executive director of arts & entertainment for the City of New Orleans. They discussed the role of the Department of Arts & Entertainment in the city’s economic redevelopment and the department’s relatively new role in helping keep the lines of communication open with citizens across the city.

On their way back from meeting with Collins, Crutchfield and Turner stopped at Fleur D’Orleans, a fine jewelry shop on Magazine Street that specializes in everything “Fleur de Lis.” As Crutchfield and Turner browsed the shop, owner Jann Fenner introduced herself to them and shared about her life story and living in New Orleans. As the story developed, Crutchfield and Turner got chills as they learned about Fenner’s husband, journalist Thomas C. Laird, spending over 100 hours interviewing His Holiness the Dalai Lama and wrote the book “The Story of Tibet.” And Fenner herself continues to operate a fair trade co-op she started with women in Southeast Asia who weave rugs and craft jewelry. Here was BE magazine’s first strong New Orleans connection with a global flair.

Returning to Fleur D’Orleans the next day, Crutchfield and Turner overheard an interesting phone conversation. “Yes, he’s my boyfriend. Yes, Mike has been in the paper.” After hanging up the phone, the shop assistant introduced herself and began sharing the rest of the story about her boyfriend. Mike Miller is an activist for Unity for Greater New Orleans who has been published in newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, and he has spoken on National Public Radio’s “This I Believe.” As Crutchfield and Turner digested this second incredible connection, they both shared about Chattanooga’s own Unity in the Community campaign inspired by Education, Arts & Culture to bring the spirit of the “Unity” Thanksgiving Day service event to neighborhoods across the city all year long. Another strong connection with New Orleans was confirmed.

Realizing their purpose is more in line with communications and connecting people, the “sisters” found it a little more difficult to pull away from their amazing conversations to scrape paint off Miss Ella’s house. As they pulled up to the curb in front of the house, Crutchfield’s son James Ward spotted them and gave them that look—where have you been? He had worked hard on the house all morning, paint splattered all over his hair and clothes. Crutchfield and Turner felt a little guilty about their reluctance to join in on the project. But as they stepped out of the car to survey all the work that had gone on that morning, project coordinator Katherine Frank reminded them that every person has their strengths and that communicating and connecting with people were Crutchfield and Turner’s purpose. “We ‘Be’,” as they like to put it.

Coming back from their amazing Be trip to New Orleans with lots of ideas and confirmations, Crutchfield and Turner realized the city is their second home. There are many more Be trips to come—connecting the dots, connecting the world, one city at a time.

But this is just the BE-ginning…

This story continues…

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