Kwanzaa '06: Kuumba

(cross-posted at ALLABOUTGEORGE.com)

Creativity. It's like Butterfly FX says:

Take time to be creative whether in the kitchen, with a music score, the brush, the clippers, the microphone, the computer, with your happy feet, your hands, your vocal chords or guitar chords. We have a creativity that can teach and heal.

That'll work. As will Sassy Redbone:

This day is one of my favorites because it challenge us to do something that we as black folks have done all too well. Make something out of nothing... No I am not talking drama... I am talking the energy it takes to retrieve scraps from master and make a meal. The energy that inspired Grandma to take torn material and make it into a quilt. The energy that it takes to turn pain into poetry. The Energy that is takes to turn a blank canvas into a masterpiece...

CRE-A-TIVITY!

It is a beautiful thing. It is what keeps us going from day to day - it is what stretches out a paycheck to the next pay period. We are all creative in our own ways. Kwanzaa asks us to use our creative energy. They ask us to use our creativity to help our community - but I want to ask you to use your creativity to help your self... We all have our 9 - 5 jobs that we work every day. These are cool they keep the bills paid and life comfortable for most. But is that all we want??? I want to challenge you to extend yourself... Think about the lady that put puppets in front of a camera and played Bach and Mozart in the background, she initially made it for her own children. Baby Bach is now a multi-million dollar corporation. We all have that little fire inside of us that can be made into Kuumba... It might not be our place in the universe to make over a million dollars however what we create today may help others in the future...

That applies over all formats. Check out J.R. Richard's Mandrake Society Radio podcast with special guest Melanie Morgan for more. I had the pleasure of meeting J.R. at SXSW Interactive and Melanie at BlogHer.