Art Above Everything: One Woman's Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life

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Synopsis
Meet queer, BIPOC, and women artists around the world as they discuss the gifts, costs, and redemptive power of pursuing a creative lifeIs the all-encompassing quest to become a self-sustaining artist worth the sacrifices it often requires? Throughout her 20s and 30s, Stephanie Elizondo Griest could not help worrying if constantly prioritizing her writing over everything else—from postponing children to living nomadically to save on rent—was leading her to fulfillment or regret. After a break-up and serious health crisis in her early 40s, she decided to turn to other women artists for their perspectives on that perennial question: is art enough?Art Above Everything introduces us to legendary writers, visual artists, dancers, and musicians across the globe, who talk intimately about their art, what it requires, what it gifts them, and what it costs them. Opening in a classical Indian dance village, Elizondo Griest goes on to meet 100+ artists in Rwanda, Romania, Qatar, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Cuba, and the United States. She discovers artists from Rwandan playwright Hope Azeda, who navigated ethnic tensions as she attempted to bring about reconciliation through theater in the aftermath of genocide; to Romanian painter Florica Prevenda, who got assigned to a provincial factory during Ceaușescu&’s dictatorship but never relinquished her brushes.Art is inheritance, dissent, devotion, revenge, celebration, and more. Yet though each artist&’s relationship to their craft is different, their need to create in the face of economic hardship, misogyny, sexual violence, and family ostracization is wholly akin.Bold and inspiring, Art Above Everything never pretends that the artist&’s path is easy—but it illuminates the infinite ways we can wield creativity as a vitalizing force.
Copyright:
2025

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
272 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780807020425
Related ISBNs:
9780807020418, 9780807020760, 9780807020777
Publisher:
Beacon Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Biographies and Memoirs, Social Studies
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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