For Free/For Nothing

It’s the last Sunday of 2020.

I wrote that and just had to breathe for a minute.

Soon, we can kick this year to the curb and focus on the hope and light ahead. There IS hope and light.

As we all re-assess where we are, what we want, where we want to focus, how we want to focus, what our boundaries are moving forward into a new year, this week has been filled with questions, observations - you know, the usual.

As possibility becomes more tangible in our world, and in our industry, where will you stand? What will you stand for? What will you not stand with?

The idea of change is great. The work of change is gritty and uncomfortable. We’ve had months to acknowledge that and the grind is slow. The implement of change will be realized in the year and years ahead as our industry rebuilds and reveals its truths.

We have to hold it - and each other - accountable. As Toni Morrison said “Language is agency.”

Let’s get the language right.

My husband, Thomas Young, has said throughout his career “I will sing for free, but I will not sing for nothing.”

As artists we need to take that language to heart, and to action.

Call it what it is.

If you take your training, and your professionalism and CHOOSE to use it to help a company, a project, you are VOLUNTEERING.

Volunteer work. Let’s call it what it is. Let’s not pretend it is something else. Volunteer work can be fulfilling, and can be an incredible resource and help.

Lawyers call it pro bono. “Denoting work undertaken without charge, especially legal work for a client with a low income.”

The company/the project wants to “hire”. you. They have no money. They can’t pay you. (and don’t get me started on “exposure”).

If you decide to say yes, you are a volunteer. You are volunteering to help them. You are bringing your professionalism and training and expertise in pro bono.

If that feels right to you, then do it. You are doing it for free, but you aren’t doing it for nothing.

“Nothing” denigrates your professionalism, your integrity, your commitment, your craft. Walk away from “nothing”.

“Free” still can hold your artistic integrity and your humanity in high regard, because it will be recognized through your work and your respect of who/what you are volunteering for.

Let’s start changing the language. Let’s start offering to volunteer or do some work pro bono when it makes sense for us to do it. Let’s start calling it that. Let’s hold the project/company responsible to do the same.

And you, dear artist creating boundaries: don’t give it all away. Make sure your volunteering and pro bono work doesn’t drain you. Do it for something. Make sure the reasons make sense to you. Make sure the language is revealed. Make sure the intention is true. Just don’t do it for nothing.

As we kick 2020 to the curb, walk into 2021 knowing you matter; your professionalism and your choices matter; This should be a year that all these changes we have begun to stir will begin to congeal and take shape. If we give the language permission to have agency, we can claim agency in our professionalism and our craft. We can volunteer without compromise. We can say no without compromise.

Let’s do things because they matter and let’s stop doing things for nothing.

Simplify, breathe, and create into 2021. This new year needs all of us.

with fondness & fierceness,

Susan