Lifting each other up: Creative Mornings is about coffee and new friends and so much more

STAUNTON — “This way for coffee and new friends!”

A chalk arrow pointed pedestrians southward on New Street to the open doors of the Smith Center. Half a block down the brick sidewalk, another chalk-scrawled message urged, “Almost there!”

Twenty minutes before the Creative Mornings event was set to start, the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art was abuzz with activity. A woman and her companion dog waited to sign in and put on a name tag. Besides their name, people were asked to write on the tag what they would be if they were a spice.

A diverse group of people were pouring coffee and tea and chatting. Some idly strolled through the center’s two largest rooms, faces turned toward the artwork on the walls. One woman smiled as she took a selfie of herself next to a painting.

The clear and loud five-minute warning chime resonated through the room, and people began to fill up roughly fifty seats for the guest speaker of the April 26 Creative Mornings meeting.

What is Creative Mornings?

Creative Mornings is an international organization with 240 chapters where creative people in the area come together. The local Shenandoah Valley Chapter, which meets every fourth Friday of the month, is free of charge and open to anyone.

Anika Horn is a co-founder of the Shenandoah Valley Chapter.

"We believe that everybody is creative," Horn said. "So you don't have to be a painter or a sculptor or an artist. We believe everyone has creativity in them but we hardly ever have an outlet to practice that in community."

Horn and Megan Burrows created the local chapter to provide just such an outlet.

The venue changes month to month in places that the participants might not otherwise visit. In March it was held at Bluebird and Co. in Crozet. Last October it was at Curated Interiors in Lexington. A few months before that the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center in Staunton hosted the event.

The May meeting is this Friday, May 24, at the Wellington Venue in Waynesboro. Free tickets and more details are available on the Creative Mornings website.

Every meeting features a speaker, but there is also time to socialize with free food and coffee available. There's also usually an icebreaker activity and, before the meeting ends, anyone can take part in the public service announcements where participants can share information on an upcoming event or a project on which they need help.

Davey White taught at Temple and Rowan universities before he and his partner moved to Staunton from Philadelphia in 2022. He began the Off Center for Coming Together and Sharing Curious Stories, an organization that gathers people together to experience curious stories through theater, puppetry, literature, and storytelling. It is based in downtown Staunton on West Beverley Street.

White remembers attending the very first meeting of Creative Mornings. He stood up and announced that he was just starting The Off Center and wanted to do a storytelling event. The first person who came to him that morning, expressing an interest in taking part in the event, was Diana Black. The two have now worked on several projects together.

"I feel like it's a church for creativity," White said. "I see the people and I feel like I'm part of something greater in this community."

White taught a college class on the creative spirit when in Philadelphia. There are a lot of ways to describe what it means to be creative. One is the meaning most people assume, describing someone who is artistic. Another meaning is novel. White's aunt calls things creative when they're a little different than what's expected.

"But another is a way of thinking, a way of problem solving, a way of looking at the world with greater flexibility," White said. "I think the speakers that we get, they're discussing their career, their life, their struggles, their stories. We're all sort of studying that. I think we're broadening our worldview a little bit. And if broadening your worldview isn't creativity, then I don't know what is."

Speakers

Every month there is a speaker with an inspiring story who addresses those in attendance. The stories aren't just tips on being more creative or stories about the speaker's career. Sometimes, the speaker truly opens up and shares something very personal.

In April, the speaker was Danielle McEwen. She attended middle school and high school in Augusta County before college. She returned to the Shenandoah Valley in 2022.

McEwen found out about Creative Mornings after a chance meeting with a woman at a coffee shop. The two, who were strangers before that meeting, talked about a lot of topics, including the loneliness that sometimes comes with creative jobs. McEwen describers herself as a digital nomad. The other woman invited McEwen to a Creative Mornings meeting.

"You find yourself at a lot of co-working spaces, you find yourself trying to find other creatives, people who can understand your walk-in life without judging it," said McEwen, who attended her first meeting in November, 2023. "The conversations I had with people felt soothing to my soul. I hadn't felt that in a long time."

She was on her own healing journey at the time, seeking out a therapist for the first time. Part of what she shared with the group that April morning was her story of healing. She started by talking about her best friend dying while she was in high school. She went through grief that has shaped her well into adulthood, sometimes in ways that she didn't understand until she started therapy.

"It really took me a while even in my adult life to allow myself to let go of the guilt from not saving her," McEwen said.

McEwen thought the experience of sharing in front of a group would leave her feeling exposed, but she was surprised it didn't. She called it a faith walk from the beginning to the end. She told the audience that she had never shared the story publicly and asked if she had their permission to be vulnerable.

She came out of the experience realizing that Creative Mornings is a lot of things, including a safe space to share.

"It was very powerful," McEwen said.

The title of her talk was, "The Spicy Essence: My Journey to Wholeness."

Spicy: The theme of the month

Every month has a different theme. Spicy was the theme for April. Spicy can be interpreted in different ways. It can be about being open to trying new and bold tastes. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life.

But it can also be exciting and suggestive, like a spicy joke or comment, something that might be provocative or controversial.

Before McEwen spoke, people were encouraged to imagine how the spice they wrote down when they entered would dance.

Most did not need much encouragement.

This reporter notes that most spices apparently dance in a manner similar to those inflatable stick figures that beckon you onto local auto lots.

This was the icebreaker and, it's not for everyone. Even some creatives didn't necessarily love the activity. Jonathan and Sam Shover, who own Millpond Photography, are regular participants at Creative Mornings.

The most uncomfortable icebreaker the two could remember was a few months back when the group was asked to do improv. Participants were asked to find a partner who they didn't come with and mirror what the other person was doing for 30 seconds to a minute.

"It felt like 30 minutes," Sam said.

But they both understand why it's being done.

"The whole point is to get yourself in the community and interact with people," Jonathan said. "A lot of times we just stay in our lanes and don't get out of our comfort zone."

Networking

Diana Black defines herself as a creative multi-hyphenate, meaning she does a variety of jobs in the creative field. She's dependent on networking and making her own opportunities. She's found that Creative Mornings has really helped her in doing that.

"Since I have joined Creative mornings, I've found people I could collaborate with, people who were looking for someone to hire," she said. "I've been able to find people to donate to a non-profit I was on the board of. We did a whole art auction based on the networking from Creative Mornings. Now I know all these artists and we're friendly, I can tell them about this good cause. A lot of things that would have been really difficult without Creative Mornings became seamless and easy."

Horn said one participant started a business based on connections, and encouragement, she got from the monthly meetings. Another person took the leap to become a fulltime artist.

"I'm not going to say we set out in hopes of this happening," Horn said. "But when someone tells me that being in community has given them courage or the right connections, then that is exactly what I was hoping this would create."

Sam Shover of Millpond said a room full of creative people could be viewed as competitive, especially for those in the same line of work. She's never seen that at Creative Mornings, though.

"It's a unique space," she said. "People come together. When you're a creative you kind of have this attitude like there's competition. There's other photographers trying to do the same thing I'm doing. But in this environment, it's uplifting where everyone is loving each other and lifting each other up. It's just kind of like a family almost."

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— Patrick Hite is The News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Creative Mornings Shenandoah Valley brings together area creatives