Women Creativity

In Creative Quest, Questlove synthesizes all the creative philosophies, lessons, and stories he's heard from the many creators and collaborators in his life, and reflects on his own experience, to advise listeners and fans on how to consider creativity and where to find it. He addresses many topics - what it means to be creative, how to find a mentor and serve as an apprentice, the wisdom of maintaining a creative network, coping with critics and the foibles of success, and the specific pitfalls of contemporary culture.

In the winter of 2020, Annabel Abbs experienced a series of bereavements. As she grieved, she kept busy by day, but at night sleep eluded her. And yet her sleeplessness led to a profound and unexpected discovery: her Night Self. As the night transformed into a place of creativity and liberation, Annabel found she wasn't alone. From the radical fifteenth-century philosopher Laura Cereta and subversive artist Louise Bourgeois, to Virginia Woolf and the activist Peace Pilgrim, women have long found sanctuary, inspiration and courage in darkness.

Journey through the archetypal wisdom of the divine feminine to reclaim your authentic self and to follow your soul’s longing. Embodiment teacher Mara Branscombe takes an intriguing look at the seven feminine archetypes that prevail in the modern psyche—Maiden, Mother, Sage, Huntress, Lover, Mystic, and Queen—and traces their continuing influence throughout different stages of our life, sometimes dormant, sometimes prominent.

Kate Ceberano is used to a hush descending as she draws breath to release that magnificent voice but when the whole world quietened in 2020, she found the silence disorientating. Without an audience or long hours of travel with her tribe of musicians, there was time to think. But what does an artist do when they can’t make art? They find a way. With characteristic passion, abundance and joy, Kate liberated her unsung songs.

The almost daughter is almost normal, because she knows how to know and also not know. She knows and does not know, for instance, about the barracks by the athletics field, and about the lonely woman she visits each week. She knows—almost—about ghosts, and their ghosts, and she knows not to have questions about them. She knows to focus on being a woman: on training her body and dreaming only of escape. Then, the almost daughter meets Oksana. Oksana is not even almost normal, and the questions she has are not normal at all.

Elizabeth Arden was a household name on six continents and a millionaire several times over before her death in 1966. Arden counted British royalty and social elites from the overlapping worlds of New York, Hollywood, London, and Paris among her clients. She revolutionized skin care and cosmetics, making it acceptable for all women to embrace glamour and wear makeup—not just actresses and prostitutes. She created a successful international business empire before women gained the vote and at a time when virtually no woman owned or ran a national company.

When Amanda Eyre Ward's 13-year-old son, Harry, dove headfirst into the world of sneaker culture, she found herself baffled by his obsession with flashy, expensive shoes that seemed like mere status symbols. Determined to bridge the gap with her teenage son, Ward reluctantly decided to embrace the mantra of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em". As she shed her preconceptions and immersed herself in the quest to snag the latest drops, Ward discovered a community far richer than she had imagined.

Eileen Kramer has lived the most extraordinary life. Born just after Australia entered World War I, she embraced creativity and adventure from an early age. She danced and painted murals in Karachi; worked as an artist's model in Paris and London; met Ella Fitzgerald and Groucho Marx; and learned the twist from Louis Armstrong. In September 2013, aged ninety-nine, Eileen returned to Australia. Now, at 108, she is still dancing.

In the 10 years since the publication of her beloved, groundbreaking Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, number-one New York Times best-selling author Amy Krouse Rosenthal has been quietly tinkering away. Using her distinct blend of nonlinear narrative, wistful reflections, and insightful wit, she has created a modest but mighty new work.

Beauty, make-up, art, power: How to Be a Renaissance Woman presents an alternative history of this period as told by the women behind the paintings, providing a window into their often overlooked or silenced lives. Can the pressures women feel to look good be traced back to the sixteenth century?

Sally grew up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, her childhood world filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God - their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally’s baby brother vanished from his pram, she became suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go?

You have creative dreams swirling in your heart, but pursuing them while changing diapers and managing the carpool schedule feels impossible. You have no time. No space. You can mother, or you can create. You certainly can't do both (right?!). But what if you could pursue your God-given creative gifts alongside motherhood, for the enrichment of both experiences? What if you stopped viewing creativity as a selfish act, and started to see it as essential to your own flourishing as a mother? This book is a much-needed permission slip to do just that.

Popular creative coach Gail McMeekin, author of the best-selling The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, offers a wealth of advice for the specific challenges creative women face today: thinking too small, underestimating the need for change, fearing the future, and lacking self-confidence. McMeekin combines interviews with some of today’s most successful women and her own proven success strategies to help readers transcend their “blocks” and achieve success.

Luxury fashion mogul and social activist Rebecca Minkoff built a fashion empire through hard work and a relentless drive to live her dream. It wasn’t easy and took tremendous resolve to remain hungry and persevere. By never giving up, she has created a space for herself on the shelves of luxury department stores across the world.

A defining manual on using creativity as a tool for empowerment and allowing your personal identity to live in and guide all parts of your life, Kevin Morosky shares stories and inspiration from the women who have most influenced his creative path and explores the ways we can pursue success by implementing their wisdom in all aspects of our lives.

Forged in the stress of early motherhood, The Mother Artist explores the fraught yet generative ties between caregiving and creative practice. As a young mother working at a museum, essayist Catherine Ricketts began asking questions about the making of motherhood and the making of art. Now, with incantatory prose and an intuitive gaze, she twines intimate meditations on parenthood with studies of the work and lives of painters, writers, dancers, musicians, and other creatives.

Have you ever experienced the so-called pleasure freeze? It’s what happens when you feel guilty when you are doing well, and others are not happy. The second, or sacral chakra, dictates how we begin to relate to others outside the family dynamic and the creative exploration of life, relationships, and sexuality. Being creative in nature, this chakra’s main focus is allowing the individual to discover what they enjoy, to form hobbies, to create loving and exciting relationships, and to even experience creativity in lovemaking and sexual eroticism.

Struggling to start your novel? Stuck in the middle? Finished a first draft, but it doesn't really grab you? This short, easy-to-follow book helps you speed through your first draft, minimize major rewrites, and keep readers turning the pages. Using specific questions and prompts to expand and focus your story idea, plus examples from plots as diverse as The Terminator, The Awakening, and Gone with the Wind, best-selling author L. M. Lilly talks you through the five simple steps she's used to write every novel she's published.

For those who struggle with negative thoughts, overthinking, and procrastination, the answer to a more organized and productive lifestyle is right in your hands! This audiobook is an informative guide designed to help people of all ages and lifestyles find the most effective steps needed in order to recognize what is most important in any situation.

When a 200-pound glass partition fell on Donna Fado Ivery's head resulting in brain injury, disability, and chronic pain, she could no longer count on walking, speaking, or thinking. How would she care for her infant, her preschooler, her husband, and herself? How would she continue to serve as pastor? With humor and humility, this inspirational memoir speaks to Donna’s struggle through medical, social, and church prejudice with the abiding support of family and the Holy Spirit.