Divinity Rising: All Part of the Show -

If you missed it, you missed a great show! It was so much fun! The performances were stellar, the body paint was awesome and the art was something to behold! Here are some photos! These images/videos are not really safe for work and/or young eyes due to bodypainted models in thongs/pasties and some adult language.

See the rest of the intro videos from the event by clicking Here.

If you missed this one, Mark your calendars for July 30, the next big event!!

I hope you are all staying cool out in this hot weather!  Here’s some tips for cutting costs and staying cool

Love, Light, and Blessings to send you through your dreams <3

Sometimes, it’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. That’s exactly what I’m doing in many areas of my life, but I also recently had to make a tough decision to let go of my baby of the past three years: Sub Rosa, the Gypsie Courtyard. Weekly production, booking, hosting was becoming too much for me, and I found myself unable to really pursue my own art forms and be such a supporter of everyone else at the same time. I am capable of and wanted to host higher quality shows, but found it hard while I was locked into the weekly duties of taking care of Sub Rosa. It’s been coming for a while. I have been struggling to keep it going because I know it means something to the people who were involved and came regularly and it meant something to me. You all mean so much to me. I wanted to keep it alive for you all, but had to know when to let go and follow where my heart was leading. Thank you for the amazing and overwhelming response of support I have gotten so far. I have met so many amazing talents over the last three years and believe in each of you so much. You’ve all touched me, blessed me and filled me up with wonder and good stuff. You all have such exciting journeys ahead of you if you just believe in the whispers from your heart that guide you. I will continue to produce events on a less regular schedule with a main focus on developing my performance art and hope to work with many of you in those events. I will be posting calls to artists, performers, models, etc for different productions. This is the first one: My next show is Poetry, Pop, and Paint and the information for the call can be found here on facebook : http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188781017831980

In other news, the debut of  my song Broken went so well! Thanks to my partner, Jada Parks for her photography and inspiration and to Nick Peay for the perfect music! Artography was such an awesome and fun event produced by Kenn Parks, and I was very happy with the response! I wish I had set up a webcam as suggested by my friend Tim to stream people’s responses to the web. Some people were creeped out to the point of being unable to look in my direction. One woman leaned in to tell me that I was very brave. Others let me know how much they enjoyed it, and I met some really awesome artists, creatives. Kenn did a great job at creating an event for people to mingle, appreciate art, and I foresee some awesome collaborations coming out of it. I enjoyed it immensely and can’t wait to do more living exhibits in the future. Here are some awesome photos by Tim Valentino of VU (pronounced View) Photography and Joe Mays and a phone video by Tim Druck. Enjoy! I am still working on the parade video footage and photos to share with you. Hope to have them done by the next newsletter.

On another note, I’ve found myself in a place where people that used to scare me with bullying or by holding their approval/love over my head no longer scare me. I’ ve found them raise their heads and try to surface  with the type of behavior that would have used to make me give in or try to defend myself or try to make everything “ok” . I’ve found it quite liberating to realize that I’ve come to a place where I don’t really care what they think.  I’ve found that the more I tried to shine, the more of a target I became. Somewhere in my journey, I overcame a need to prove myself to haters, people who wanted to hold me back and decided to let my actions speak for me. I am human like everyone else on a path of learning, trying to figure out who I am, go for my heart’s desires and learn how to best be me. Part of that process includes falling, making mistakes. We all do. If we didn’t, none of us would learn to walk..we’d still be crawling around on the ground.  Some of us aren’t happy with just learning to walk. We want to fly. The further you are from the ground, the harder you may find yourself falling.  It’s far too easy to weigh ourselves down with our own judgment and criticism.   The last thing we need is a bully or someone we trust/care about to continually grab on to our legs and try to pull us back down. The truth is it has never really been them holding us down that keeps us from flying…it’s our failure to push off of them and leave them behind. It sucks that they are lonely where they are, but maybe if you continue to rise, they will see that they can, too.   My favorite quote this year has been “Do not speak about your greatest gifts…Leave the talking to others.”  I’m trying to make that my mantra.  You’re either for me or against me and if you’re against me, the past is your home and I’m not looking down / back as I rise. The people I now find myself surrounded by and consider friends that have shown  me real love/support, inspire me to continue to rise, and actually care about my well being/happiness and I theirs  are more precious to me than gold, and the others are..well, people….people I once knew.   It’s hard to say goodbye and walk away from the habit/desire of giving others your power and letting them make you feel bad about yourself or scare you into giving up on flying, but definitely a hurdle worth leaping over.  So, raise a glass with me and toast to the liberation of saying good bye to the fears of yesterday!!

* don’t forget to come to the site to see the photos if you’re reading this by email. While you’re at it, keep the ripple of Divinity going and hit “share on facebook, twitter, email” etc…

I am so grateful for the last year and the many blessings it held.

I realized that with Sub Rosa, we held close to 100 shows, featured over 100 musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, comedians, and poets, inspired the sale of hundreds of dollars in local original art, music, inspired the community to pay more attention to local original art, saved a life, volunteered, created murals, videos, music and more together, witnessed love and the beginning of relationships, held each other through tough times, saved people’s stuff from being lost, helped bring awareness to local businesses, and had members gain more media attention. I am so proud and grateful for everyone who has helped this dream for our city’s art and entertainment industry to unfold!!

You can see some of the awesome people who helped to make it happen at The Sub Rosa web site.

The transition between years seems to have been a rough one. The last couple weeks have been even more crazy than usual.

“Oh Divinity, that’s what you always say.”

No, really. Everything from murder* to setting boundaries to accidental death to finalizing debut dates of my first book and the band.

*by murder, I don’t mean I murdered, I meant it affected a close friend.

Everywhere around me people seemed to be dealing with loss, with change, with letting go..and most importantly..with being vulnerable with each other.

One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn is the strength of vulnerability..to not be afraid to be angry, or cry, or be scared in front of others…It is okay to ask for help.

One of the biggest steps in growth for me was to attend a public open mic (With lots of friends in the audience) and read a letter I had written to my mother. I was terrified signing up, because I knew I was going to break down in the middle of it, and I did..but I made myself do it, and I made myself finish. I got that pain out in a circle of people I knew AND strangers. When I was done, the room responded by rushing the stage and smothering me with so much love, I was buried and had to say into the mic that was still in my hand, “Guys, I can’t breathe!”

Being able to be that naked in front of people is freeing. It’s terrifying, but once you step through that veil of fear, you realize the universe will respond to you and give you all the help/love you ever need (though maybe not from the people you think it should come from).

I am more grateful than ever for the life ahead of me, the amazing things I get to do everyday, and I have found the best motivator of all to be changing the words “I have to” to “I get to”.

The things I get to do now and in the next few months have me so excited, my face could melt.

I get to continue working with my new band, which we have named “Sagun” (pronounced Sah-goon). We are pushing to be ready for our debut March 14 at a powerhouse show called “Poets, Prophets, and Punks” that I am producing. (Tickets on sale at Great Escape, Ear – X- Tacy for cash, at divinityrose.com for cards)
(Core members: Divinity Rose, Rosella Pearl, Kelly Newton)

I get to work on and release my first Diaries of a Godling book, “The Promise”. – Will be released with book signing March 14 at The Great Escape before the show..as having the books before the show will be greatly beneficial…Will also be available at the show.

I get to host a contest to inspire and encourage high school students to write.

I get to start working with a personal trainer to get myself in the shape I want to be in for the show.

I get to host a bunch of AWESOME shows with Sub Rosa including Pin Ups and Hot Rods on January 30, celebrating my dear friends’ Porscha and Pam Newman’s birthdays and the cd release party/mardi gras party on February 13 with Revenge of Ricky Williams and Squallis Puppeteers.

I am so excited for 2010. There are so many wonderful experiences I want to give myself and others. How about you?

Speaking of “Get tos”, Cody and I got to go to and be part of a dark carnival for the cd release party of “Sonic Epitaph”. What a great spiritual journey! Check them out!

Sonic Epitaph!
Pick up a cd and for crying out loud, support these master weavers of mind webs! They’ve worked hard, are super real and nice, down to hand making the signs on the walls of the concert hall…They deserve all the blessings about to pour upon them!

Most of these photos from Awesome photographer Linda Carmella ..email her at sweetestangel13ATgmail.com

The Louisville Speak Easy at Carly Rae’s is growing exponentially every week! It is so amazing to see so many shining and magical people appearing to be part of our family!

It’s where all the hearts of art are hiding this summer!

IT is every Thursday at Carly Rae’s, starting at 8 pm. There is no cover charge!

Drink Specials: $2.50 margaritas or throw your name in the plateful of grateful for a chance to win the blind pig! Winner gets five drinks for $1 each.

Third Thursday of every month, we choose a featured poet, musician, artist or filmmaker and pay a small stipend

If you’re in Louisville, Kentucky on a Thursday, come experience the magic of naked hearts sharing poetry, monologues, music, drum circling, jams, bellydancing and fellowship! Come warm yourselves by our heart fires!