Show, don’t tell

Hi, my name is Jacob Mann. I cover the art beat for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman. More accurately, I cover every beat, same with and my coworker and editor. That’s how it goes with community newspapers these days.

What’s that about necessity being the mother of invention?

I love this job and I’m lucky to have it. I get to cover everything from major court cases to small community council meetings. While we have to cover it all, we tend to have our beats based on our wonderful personalities.

Tim Rockey is the go-to politician, meetings junkie. My editor, Jeremiah Bartz has been the Frontiersman’s sports writer longer than I’ve paid taxes. So, naturally, he’d rather write about high school basketball than churn out a crime update but he does it all.

Lucky for us, Bartz is just as good of editor as he is a sports writer. On top of mentoring strong and ethical writing, he encourages Tim and I to follow our interests when we can. He was the one that suggested the art column.

So here it goes.

My new column is all about local art in the broadest sense. Art of course, isn’t just about paint brushes or pencils. It’s music. It’s writing. It’s baking, dancing, acting, rapping, welding, upcycling, fashion designing, and oh so much more.

There’s no single way to express creativity and no cookie cutter example of creativity looks like. It can be anything and that’s half the fun. The rest is about making it and for many, sharing it when it’s done.

I cover a lot of local artists and artistic happenings so expect to hear about those. This series will include everything from one on one interviews and firsthand experiences at events, to deep dives with interesting trends and research relevant to the Valley.

This is by no means a vessel for critical reviews. I will not be grading, evaluating, poking, prodding or otherwise judging any person, group or endeavor around town.

This isn’t rotten tomatoes. This is the Valley and I intend to tell its story fair and honestly, just like I do in my reporting. Only here, I get to tell it as myself and share a notion or two about how I feel about it.

I grew up in the Valley and now I’m raising my kid here. I’ve always seen great value in creative pursuits and offering opportunities to locals to express themselves, especially the children.

This job has been such a blessing in many ways, namely the people. I get to tell the stories of creative and influential people that helped shape my community before I was here and while I stomped around town like I had any clue where I was going.

There’s an ever growing number of people stepping up for their community today and it makes me so proud to know so many Valley residents are working for a better tomorrow for our next generation, even if it’s something as simple as a paint night for homeschool families or some cop reading “Berenstain Bears” to a group of kids at the Palmer Library.

I decided to kick off this new series with Fireside Books’ new Writers’ Group to tie everything together. Makes sense, write?

I attended the first meeting Tuesday, Feb. 11 and was pleasantly surprised by the turnout. A dozen or so people showed up, mostly from Palmer it seemed. The tiny round table was soon overcome with people trying to make room as more people showed up well into the meeting.

Local writing teacher Rob Kozlowski led the meeting. His calm demeanor and electric range of experience made him an ideal facilitator in this humble newspaperman’s opinion.

It seemed like just about every quintessential writer archetype was represented that evening. One attendee even pointed this out.

It was like the “Breakfast Club,” only instead of the criminal, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the brain; you had the fantasy writer, the romance novelist, the biographer, the poet, and the literary buff.

At the end of the meeting, I wasn’t the only one thoroughly impressed with the hyper engaged group. Everyone spoke at least once and only one or two people stayed mostly quiet.

The romance writer was one of the more outspoken members. She was eccentric in the kind of way I admire as a fellow scribe. She was very knowledge in literary execution and overall just sounded like she knew what she was talking about

There was a chance for attendees to share some of their work. The romance writer’s piece got one of the biggest reactions and spurred the most conversation. She told them ahead of time they could give her notes but she wouldn’t answer any questions. True to her word, she listened with an intent ear and purposefully jotted down the feedback.

The fantasy writer shared an epic story of a hero akin to those in Homer’s ancient Greek poem, “The Odyssey” or Sony Playstation’s video game “God of War.”

Like many attendees, I found his story interesting but wordy at times, trying to cram as much history and backstory as he could into the first few paragraphs. I’ve been there.

He also wrote the story in second person, which is seldom used in most books you pick up at the store. He said it was deliberate and a creative choice and it felt like the best way to tell this story. I respect that and so did everyone there.

The Writers Group’s core function worked like a charm. The group engaged with the fantasy writer, giving their impressions and and asking questions while he busily typed what they said into his notepad.

The fantasy writer admitted that he wanted to “show, not tell” with his story while illustrating this world he created. Show, not tell is a common chant in the writing world. It basically means let your reader figure out what’s going through the story itself, not the narration. While there’s a time and place for grand exposition (common in Fantasy books) there’s still ways to make the plot move along more like a moving story than a history lesson.

Kozlowski mentioned this to the fantasy writer while giving his feedback. While I’ve heard this saying a million times, that’s one of the things that resonated with me the most from that meeting.

February’s over and what a month it’s been. One of my close friends, Devon Shaw is moving onward and upward with his highly influential AK Rhymefest that’s reaching new heights and making huge waves in the local music scene.

Another good friend of mine, Carmen Summerfield, and her army of Valley Arts Alliance board members put on the 14th annual Wearable Art Show.

Both Summerfield and Shaw are based out of Palmer and much of their work goes on around there. But, their efforts span across the Valley and surrounding state. They don’t just tell people about their visions. They show it can be done through their actions.

As one of the last people born in the old Valley Hospital, I take an extra sense of pride knowing my home, the greater community, is a better place to live in thanks to some creative people from my old stomping grounds.

I’m also glad Kozlowski stressed how effective freewriting can be when you’re feeling blocked. It’s true. It’s like my editor always says (paraphrasing here): writing’s a lot like exercising; once you get going, it gets a lot easier to keep it going.

Let’s keep it going shall we?

See you folks next month in the latest installment of Art Beat.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com