One of the fundamental tenets of the Broadleaf Writers Association is that through community, writers gain not only in talent but in strength and confidence. As a unit, we can achieve more, we can assist one another in the dreams birthed the first day we created worlds. Our region is deep in organizations dedicated to writers, and we believe it is necessary to partner with and promote them all. The broader the community, the greater we can assist our writers. So, today we launch a feature promoting each of our partners. Please, follow the links, see what these groups are doing. Perhaps they speak to you. Perhaps they speak to a writer you know. Perhaps you will share the word, help us in our efforts to build the biggest, most diverse community of writers in existence.
Today, we begin with the Southern Collective Experience.
The Southern Collective Experience is an organization of the arts founded in 2010. After its founder, Clifford Brooks’ first book of poetry, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics, was published, he saw a need for increased professionalism and tight-knit feel of a family within, and around, those who shared a similar vision. The Southern Collective Experience is a group of men and women who not only dream of being an artist, but have gained success in that endeavor. They promote and provide personal support within their ranks to show through doing that not all of the Creative Ilk are incapable of sharing a stage.
The cardinal virtue of the Collective is to promote the arts, in all its forms, proving that integrity, high standards, and classical understanding of the past, present, and future of expression do exist. Not only that, but they are thriving. Innovative minds are able to balance their dreamscapes as well as their check books.
Every member holds their own responsibilities within the organization, while gaining enormous promotion for their own endeavors through social media, a magazine (The Blue Mountain Review), and an NPR radio show called Dante’s Old South. You can find all of this and more by visiting their website, www.southerncollectiveexperince.com.
Of course, the presence of the word “Southern” isn’t meant to exclude any part of America, or the world for that matter. Everyone is south of somewhere. This has more to do with the couth, tact, and honor. This is about laughter, relaxation, and mutual success while retaining absolute independence. This is not a Utopian hope. This is not a haughty construction of vowel and consonance sounds more akin to prayers than statements of facts. It is what it is, and the SCE welcomes you to submit, inquire, and learn.
