A lot happened with me and Humanitou in 2018, its first full year. Here are some gratitudes and highlights from the past 12 months, and some glimpses of what’s in the works for the coming year.
Thank You …
The list of good things below comes with credit due to good people and organizations giving me and Humanitou opportunities.
Special thank yous to the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region, Manitou Art Center, the Pikes Peak Arts Council, Abigail Kreuser and Kreuser Gallery, Jessica Patterson and Root Center for Yoga and Sacred Studies, and all those who sat down with me to talk and share their insights via Humanitou.
Humanitou Conversations
I started Humanitou in May 2017 as a platform for connecting through one-on-one conversations of humanness and creativity. This past year 29 more artists and other participants sat down and talked with me, and let me photograph them for sharing via Humanitou.
We talked about creativity, love, resilience, aging, death, money, politics, society, masculinity, parenting, yoga, spirituality, passion, inspiration and more good, good stuff.
Humanitou in the Spotlight
Humanitou became a content partner with the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region and its cultural website PeakRadar.com in August.
Christine Kathryn hosted me on her podcast, Creating Space, in September.
The Pikes Peak Arts Council (PPAC) awarded me a MicroGrant in August and, in October, named me a finalist in the PPAC Awards for Visual Excellence.
Also in October, I shared my story of Humanitou in a PechaKucha event at the Manitou Art Center’s annual gala, MACnificent.
Humanitou Poetry & Photography
This past year I uncovered my own buried practices of art. I’d put aside those personal creative pieces of myself for nearly 10 years. Now I publish poetry on this site and have started showing photography in local galleries.
I am working on a photography project for my first solo photography show (Kreuser Gallery). My portraits of nature, the details that get overlooked, are about reverence and connection. Reverence for the natural world and, ultimately, ourselves.
I also am working on another Humanitou Chapbook, San Agustinillo, for publishing in the coming year. I expect San Agustinillo to be a little fatter volume of poems paired with photos than Echoes of Oms, yet still as digestible in one sitting (or many).
And looking into 2020, the Manitou Art Center has me on its schedule for a solo photography show, Humanitou, in its Hagnauer Gallery.
Some Humanitou poetry: “Cottonwoods in the Valley” | “The Horizon” | “Bird | Savage“
Humanitou Yoga
In June, I completed a 32-week intensive yoga apprenticeship and teacher training with Jessica Patterson at Root in Colorado Springs, and then continued with 12 more weeks of apprenticeship.
I’ve since started teaching yoga at Root. I also publish writing and conversations on yoga as means of exploring my own practice and sharing what I teach.
Some Humanitou yoga reading: “What Is Yoga?” | “On Yoga (+ Masculinity) with Chris Dwyer” | “Self-Inquiry on ‘Doing’ Yoga”
The Evolution of Humanitou
Humanitou started as a project, a way to use my skills as a former journalist to step outside my comfort zone and engage in my community, one conversation at a time.
It also has become a site of my personal work in art and yoga, and my platform for connecting with others through all these means. It’s a site focused on “the yoga of humanness and creativity.”
Yoga is about connection. So is creativity. So are the one-on-one conversations. Humanitou through and through is about connection.
This realization has become a motivating force for the site and my work.
Humanitou will continue to emerge and shift and grow in 2019. It’s an evolution of spirit.
Support for Humanitou
As my work and Humanitou continue to develop, ideas of how to sustain and grow the work simmer in the background. I couldn’t do these things without support. The support of my family, mentors, community and those named above.
By spending time with the content on this site, you are supporting Humanitou. Thank you.
If you are interested in being an even bigger part of what Humanitou and I are about, a couple more free and easy ways to do it are through social media sharing and by subscribing to the monthly email newsletter.
If you already have done and do those things, thank you for that, too.
Also, you can buy a copy of Echoes of Oms via Amazon and visit the art galleries where I show photography. You can practice yoga with me (and other teachers) at Root.
And if you’re interested in collaborating, are part of an organization that would like to partner with me, or you have helpful feedback, you can write to me at adam @ humanitou.com.
Thank you. And onward with good thoughts for 2019.
