Diary of a Smart Chick

Various writings from a curious mind

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  • many human trafficking victims are children
    Interviews,  Mental Health

    Dressember: Fight Human Trafficking Through A Community Style Challenge and The Power of Crochet, Slow Fashion, and Sustainability

    November 30, 2020

    Dressember is a movement to fight human trafficking. Each December, teams come together to raise money for the cause. They do so by committing to wearing a dress or tie every day of the month, sharing it on social media along with information about human trafficking, sex trafficking, and slave labor, and asking people to donate. I’ve decided to join the Namaste and Crochet team this year, which has an additional component: raising awareness about the power of crochet and knitting as slow fashion, sustainable, ethical antidotes to fast fashion which is one major contributor to slave labor around the world. My personal fundraising goal is $1000. Ready to donate?…

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    anonymous woman art by eva lake

    Interview with Photomontage Artist Eva Lake

    September 4, 2018
    music interview

    Musician Interview with Heather Schmid About Transformations

    March 7, 2019
    Needle felting artist weijue wang

    Interview with Needle Felting Artist Weijue Wang

    September 7, 2018
  • low hanging fruit
    Reviews,  Theatre

    Female Veterans Surviving Homelessness Together – Low Hanging Fruit, a Compelling Play

    July 24, 2020

    Heather Gordon, Cat Brooks, Livia Demarchi in Low Hanging Fruit. Photo credit: Mario Parnell Photography Intro: A Compelling Play One of the things that I miss the most during the restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic is seeing live performances including theater. So, I’ve been looking back at some of my old reviews of events like that, reminiscing. Here’s a post from July 2016 about a compelling play that really moved me, enough so that I still remember the power of it four years later (although it’s so hard to believe it’s been that long since I saw it!) Compelling. That is the word that keeps coming to mind as I…

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    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020
    book review memoir

    Book Review: Always Too Much and Never Enough

    September 4, 2018
  • Art

    How COVID Has Inspired Digital Performance Art and Where It Might Go

    May 14, 2020

    Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash I have intended to get back to posting here regularly for quite some time. I haven’t done that for myriad reasons but a lot of things have inspired me recently, and I’m finally motivated to get back to it. Tonight I am watching Digital Witness: Performance in the Era of Online-Only, a Zoom panel discussion hosted by SOMArts. It’s a smart, articulate, intriguing, edgy discussion about how performance artists are adapting to a digital forum in the era of COVID-19. Everyone Is Active On Screens Right Now It speaks to something I have been thinking about a lot lately, which I haven’t quite really been…

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    screenplay readers

    How to Become a Reader for Screenplays (A Class I Just Took Online)

    August 15, 2020
    India photography by Danielle Da Silva

    Interview with Director, Photographer and Activist Danielle da Silva

    September 7, 2018
    Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan embroidery

    Interview with Embroidery Artist Michelle Anais Beaulieu-Morgan

    September 4, 2018
  • literacy volunteer
    About Me or This Blog

    Literacy Volunteer: Appreciating the Ease of Reading and Writing

    August 19, 2019

    This post originally appeared in 2007 on my old blog: Real Words for a Real Writer. It’s about my brief but memorable experience as a literacy volunteer. When I was about eighteen, I signed up as a Literacy Volunteer of Tucson. My work with the group didn’t last long (what can I say, I was eighteen and not exactly committed to anything for very long periods of time). However, it left a lasting impression on my life. Although I obviously knew that there were illiterate adults living around me, I hadn’t really understood until working with one what that meant on a daily basis. And I hadn’t understood until that…

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    Launching Crochet Saved My Life: Early on My Book Publishing Journey

    August 25, 2019
    writing crafting moods

    How Writing, Crafting, and Depression Came Together in a Book

    September 19, 2019
    drowning feeling in depression

    Dr(Owning) and S(Wallowing) in Depression

    May 23, 2019
  • artist as culture producer
    Book Review

    Recommended Essay Reading: The Artist as Culture Producer … and Thoughts on Creative Collaboration

    August 18, 2019

    The Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life is an essay collection edited by Sharon Louden in an effort to combat the stereotype that artists are working in studios alone, toiling away in solitary – even self-absorbed – pursuits. The essays are each by an artist who “reaches outside of the studio to extend creative energies and pursuits into his or her community.” She goes on to say she chose these artists for many reasons including their generosity and that “they inject creative culture into the cracks of society, where they alter the direction of small towns and large cities”. Each of the essays is as different…

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    therapist memoir unsayable

    Therapist Memoir: Annie Rogers’ Shining Affliction and Unsayable

    January 10, 2019
    dementia memoir

    Dementia Memoir: Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words

    January 9, 2019
    art of asking

    Book Review: Art of Asking

    January 5, 2019
  • art of asking
    Book Review

    Book Review: Art of Asking

    January 5, 2019

    This book review of the Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer is from the archives. I originally published in April 2015. I lost my posts for this site in an update problem and am slowly restoring the posts I think are important. Since I really loved The Art of Asking, I wanted to be sure to share this again. I read a lot. And I like most of the books that I read. But rarely am I so moved and touched by a book that I have to tell everyone about it over and over. I recently read The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer, and I find that I…

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    a love for movies

    A Movie Lover’s Search for Romance: A Dating Memoir (Author Interview)

    September 22, 2020
    book review memoir

    Book Review: Always Too Much and Never Enough

    September 4, 2018
    artist as culture producer

    Recommended Essay Reading: The Artist as Culture Producer … and Thoughts on Creative Collaboration

    August 18, 2019

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I commit to using my skills / experience in writing, crafting and therapeutic creativity to assist others in understanding, exploring and achieving their creative dreams, honoring their artistic selves and healing their inner and outer worlds. This is done primarily through the channel of crochet but incorporates information from other areas of craft, art, creativity, and psychology. Subscribers receive my newsletter and additional rewards at various funding levels. As we reach collective milestones, I donate copies of my books to those in need.

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