Everyone Lives In A Hometown Worth Discovering (A Challenge)

You live in a hometown worth learning about, understanding, and seeing. Some may respond, “Not my hometown; there’s nothing to see” but I assure you, it may be for the very same reason that you may protest that I would respectfully disagree.

This is not to say all hometowns are affluent and every citizen is happy or that the past was always idyllic because sometimes life can be brutal, and the ebbs and flows of economic hardships fall upon every community. It is in how that community survives and carries on despite those struggles where stories of compassion, courage, and ingenuity emerge. If your hometown has lasted more than three generations, those stories are in ample supply and the pen of time does not stop moving; every day writes a new story.  In fact, you, yourself, may be the story for a future generation, but we will return to that point later.

Unless the object of a vacation is to “get away from it all”, large cities receive the lion’s share of tourism for large population centers offer destinations of cultural awareness and the levers of governmental power are mostly located in large municipalities, so locations of historical significance are often found there. However, it is most likely that you may not live in the center of a large city and I still attest that you live in an amazing place that is worth discovering.

Allow me just a moment to tell you of my hometown before I reveal my thoughts on yours.

I moved to my own hometown a little over twenty years ago and I defined my hometown by the schools for my children, the convenience of the grocery stores and gas stations and my commute to work. Maybe you can relate to that. It was not until my perspective changed almost a decade later when I looked at my hometown from the view of an outsider looking in; How extraordinary it was to appreciate a town that had two newspapers, a community radio station, an extraordinary theater, a world class ballet company, a river through the heart of downtown, a local history museum, summer festivals and car shows, and a growing community of artists who welcomed everyone at every level, experience not necessary. I realized “If I did not live here, I would want to discover it.”  So I did discover it in many forms, I drew comic strips featuring the town, I wrote arts and culture articles which were published in the local paper, I conducted interviews for a local interview show on community radio and all of this discovery eventually paved the way to Barnaby Druthers.

Now, I would like to discover your hometown too, but more importantly, I hope YOU discover your hometown too.

If you have responded to the original statement, that you live in a hometown worth discovering, with an adverse rejoinder, allow me to offer the suggestion that sometimes we can become too close to a thing to perceive it clearly and sometimes we are just too busy in the day to day to see what a visitor may see from afar. Could that be the case with you?  I offer the kindly response that a location that is less explored holds the greatest potential for a unique creation inspired by it.  

Even if your hometown’s historical stories were shared by someone else long ago, there are always unique ways to conceptualize those stories for a new audience; someone local could knit a quilt to illustrate a moment of importance. Someone local might paint a watercolor whose choice of color reflects the tone of the community. Sometimes Poems may reach hearts when narrations fail.

I challenge you to discover your hometown and, if you’re daring to create art/poem/story/song (music)/dance/or any other valid art form about your hometown.

Even if your hometown doesn’t have a working theater, I assure you, there are actors in your region yearning to perform and in want of a stage. Your hometown may not have a newspaper but there’s someone on the internet blogging or creating content. At this very moment there’s an artist in your town who is thinking they may have to move away to achieve success. There’s someone writing poetry in a notebook because to them there’s something special about pen and ink.  Your hometown may not have a history museum, but a clever person or team of people has the potential to compile newspaper articles, old journals and photographs and begin to tell a story on a website.

I repeat for emphasis that the less a location has been explored by others, the greater the potential for discovery and that is why I would like to learn more about the less heralded locales. I want to write stories about your hometown because I want to read those stories  and even if my stories do not find favor with you, no offense is taken, every art to a certain extent is created for a niche audience even if it is a niche of “one”, but if you find that to be the case then I encourage you to write the stories of your community that you want to read, paint/illustrate the art you want to see, and compile the history of the things that appeal to you.

And what can you do with the newly created art/story/poem/history? The easiest venue to distribute the creations of a community is online but if a community has the desire and resources to achieve it, they can utilize a physical space. If a community does not have an art gallery, consider that libraries have walls, they are wonderfully suited for a local artist gallery.  School auditoriums or civic centers may be venues for theatrical productions. I was walking in Birmingham, UK and outside the Moor Station there were posters of local poets with their poems. Outside the Tower Hill underground stop in London there were walls filled with art. What wonderful venues to share creative work! Creative thinking builds creative solutions.

I ask the reader to think of their own community in a new or renewed way. Everyone lives in a hometown worth discovering. And if you follow your own passions wherever they lead in a constructive way, the path you travel may become a story that future generations share and visitors like me will discover in time.

JTQ

PS: Comment or send a contact form (see the contact tab at the top) and let me know the name of a town worth discovering that can foster the imagination, stories and art. Maybe I can write a Barnaby story taking place there. Most visitors here don’t leave comments, they read the articles, news and then download the episodes, but if you read to this point, consider giving feedback and share the name of a town worth discovering and whether you’ll create your own art about it!