We talk about hope here a lot—and there’s a reason for that. It is crucial to life, despite what cynic or circumstance may imply. But hope can still be hard to find. Sometimes, it’s difficult to imagine the light will ever break through the grey cloudiness, that warmth could ever thaw that cold part of you that wonders “Is this all there is?” or “Will this ever change?”
That’s why, since 2010, TWLOHA has been running a project called Here We Collide. It’s not on any T-shirts, it’s not at a festival table, it’s not an event you can attend or an item you can wear and share. Rather, it’s simply an online pursuit of hope amidst the chaos. A digital lighthouse, so to speak.
On our Here We Collide Tumblr and Twitter, we point to where we have found hope or inspiration. Painting or poetry, music or film, pixels or performance… All are tremendous mediums for exploration, and expression. All have undisputed value in education, development, health, recovery—in simply being human.
Just think of when a song’s timely lyrics or moving crescendo lifted your spirits.
When careful brush strokes or stunning photos spoke to you in ways words can’t.
When someone’s story or an innovative film made you feel like it’s OK to dream again.
Madeleine L’Engle once said, “Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving.” It’s clear you don’t even have to consider yourself “creative” to benefit from the many words, colors, and images people use to tell their stories.
For the past two years, it’s been a joy to share with you the hope we have uncovered through Here We Collide. But now, the vision is going one step further. We don’t just want to point you to work and words we find valuable; we want you to contribute your own. Art has the power to not only stir the individual, but to inspire and generate community. The goal is that Here We Collide would be a true collision of creative minds and hopeful spirits.
Every Friday, beginning with this one, we will now be posting a Here We Collide Collective. It will be different each week—a creative project, an illustration challenge, a poll, a [fill-in-the-blank]—but it will always be a prompt for you to respond to in some way. By posting on Tumblr with a specific tag, you’ll submit your ideas and your work to Here We Collide. And throughout the next week, we’ll post some of the submissions. We’ll still be finding inspiration elsewhere to share with followers, but we think it’s important for the Here We Collide community to be increasingly interactive—to inspire others in return.
If you haven’t yet, you can follow Here We Collide on Tumblr and on Twitter at @herewecollide. And if you would like to participate in our first Collective, you’ll find more details here.
There are stories you have not told, songs you have not sung, images you have not yet brought to light—and we eagerly await them.
—Alyce