[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!
Melanie Faith
Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.
Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.
The Society of Professional Journalists
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.
Maxine Greene
Philosopher and Education Scholar
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Weekly Wide Awake: Here Is The Beltline IV
“Art is the highest source of hope.”
Gerhard Richter
My Atlanta BeltLine Writing Project has come to an end. Having written last week about what I know for sure after writing about art on the Beltline for 4 weeks, I want to share my gratitude for the experience. I agree with Richter that art is the highest source of hope. Art — broadly defined — is, by its very existence, hopeful. It lives in the aspirational space of the not yet and as if. The creative process is hopeful. It builds. It is generous like an open hand. It is fearless in the way that a flower blooms, a butterfly emerges from its cocoon, water washes over rock. An artist’s skill and spirit are hopeful. An audience’s heart and mind are hopeful. There is breath and depth to it all.
Art is hopeful in that it changes things. It changes both the artist and the audience. It changes the environment in which it lives and breathes. It changes the story we tell ourselves and others. It changes the future by the thought it encourages and the conversation it begins. It changes it all in the same way that faith inspires and wounds heal.
A Note on my Atlanta Beltline Writing Project
I am practicing paying attention. I am practicing noticing beauty. I am practicing getting in touch with my artist self. I am practicing connecting with the outdoors. I am practicing my inner Mary Oliver. I live in Atlanta, “the city in a forest.” I live on the Atlanta Beltline, an interurban trail that graces the city. The Beltline is part arboretum, part art gallery, part park. It connects shops and restaurants and homes with people of all descriptions. I walk on the Beltline 4 or 5 times a week. I have spent the last year appreciating all that it is. I have personally photographed the images I will share. My hope is to write about it — its art, trees, landmarks, etc.— for the next few weeks as spring unfolds.
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About Katie
Born in Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
I have really enjoyed all four of your posts on art on the beltway…I look forward to walking there again and being more tuned in to what is around me .