Natalia Naman Temesgen: Creativity needs tensions to thrive

Last weekend, I attended the Mayor's Commission on Unity, Diversity and Prosperity's "The Dream Lives" event in downtown Columbus.

The weather was perfect and our community was present -- young and old, black and white, men and women -- with full hearts and spirits to commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We heard a powerful speech from the featured guest speaker Joy Ann Reid, a journalist, filmmaker and history buff. Her thesis was that lasting change in the community should be collaborative, messy and full of "creative tension." Lasting change cannot come from a monolithic group. She was using certain civil rights events of the 1960s as evidence of this fact.

As you may already know, I grew up in Columbus but spent a decade after high school in Princeton, N.J., New York and Boston. I was sure that I would stay in that part of the country. Being a playwright, it was an easy fit. New York and Boston are hotbeds for theater and were chock-full of the type of people who meshed easily with me.

When my husband and I were looking for something more stable with our then 3-month-old, we came to Columbus to settle down. I was sure my artistic life would suffer. I was afraid I wouldn't meet friends who would share my interests and be willing to pursue social change with me.

But I was wrong on both counts.

The idea of collaborative change interestingly enough has been demonstrated to me in a more tangible manner here in Columbus than it had previously been in those Northeastern cities. Up North, I could quickly and easily find "my tribe" and basically insulate myself with people who had the same values, political inclinations and artistic interests. We supported each other's art and activism and didn't need to look outside our own circle.

Unfortunately, the fruit of our collaborative efforts didn't always effect much lasting change because it wasn't inclusive to those with other views. We were our own audiences. We were our own producers. We were preaching to the choir.

In Columbus, I've encountered people with similar values and socio-artistic goals but a completely different plan of achieving them than I have. We are collaborating, but doing so with a "creative tension."

It's a welcome tension, though at times it's frustrating. What ends up coming from the butting of heads is a return to the roots of the goal. You have to remind yourself why you're even at the drawing board in the first place. And as the group continues to remind itself that the end goal is one that unifies them, the goal becomes clearer and sweeter and its roots grow deeper and stronger.

The Biblical concept of the "refiner's fire" is not unlike the collaborative process I'm talking about. Collaborating with tension can be painful and may slow down the group's short-term progress, but with perseverance the resulting change is lasting.

Are you collaborating with people that test and challenge you, or are you preaching to the choir?

Natalia Naman Temesgen is an independent correspondent. Contact her at nataliadian1@gmail.com or on Twitter@cafeaulazy.

This story was originally published January 24, 2015 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Natalia Naman Temesgen: Creativity needs tensions to thrive."