Get the good gives feels!

Who doesn’t love giving to nonprofits who make their communities better? I certainly love it. And Omaha Gives! is one of the best times to do it. The Omaha metro’s 7th annual 24-hour charitable challenge is set for May 22nd. Head on over to the website to discover, dig in, and give. This year is another stellar example of event branding to help inspire the community at large to get involved. Led by Jake Welchert working with Daphne Eck and the team at the Omaha Community Foundation.

How many millions will be donated this year? Only time will tell.

Show Up, Shout Loud

I was introduced to IDLES via text from a good friend. It was the video for Danny Ndelko. On first listen I was all in. The music and the message. But I wasn’t sure if it was new music or if it was from the 70s. Maybe I’d been missing out all this time. But then I heard the same song on radio KEXP the following week. Then I knew, they were the next big punk rock thing. Exactly what I had been waiting for.

Their album Brutalism I love. And Joy as an Act of Resistance is an instant punk classic. Their videos online are powerful. The live performances at KEXP drew me in like no other. Again, the music and the message. I could feel the weight of all of it in what I was hearing through my speakers and seeing on my screens.

But no screen can compete with a dark, dank club and a couple hundred kids packed together, moving in unison.

They were my most-listened artist on Spotify last year. And watching those videos always gives me goosebumps. But nothing compares to the raw energy of their live show.

In a pit in downtown Kansas City, crushed Coors Light can in my back pocket, ramming into my crew of misfits who made the convoy down from Omaha, ramming into complete strangers, with spit and beer and sweat spraying wildly into the air, we moved to and fro, singing at the top of our lungs, our voices blending into the sound waves blasting from the stage, pummeling the crowd, making our hope real, bleeding our dreams into this reality we are now standing in together, in this short burst of life leading to exhaustion, each vocal and bass line and drum pound making it painfully obvious we made the right choice in taking 24 hours out of our busy schedules of work and family and community to drive 3 hours to a show that lasted for an hour and forty-five minutes because it just might be the closest thing to church I’d been to in decades.

And that is why you go to shows.

What are you?

The brevity of our online world has whittled us down to a few words we use to describe ourselves. In the online world, it stands to reason, the words we use are what we project of ourselves into the digital. But not all of ourselves. Online I’m a designer, activist, collaborator, citizen. Offline I’m still those things, but there are other more important words I use when I think of what I am. And those real world titles I’ve come to protect from the noise of what happens online—son, brother, friend, neighbor, husband, father. Roles I’m incredibly proud of and put a lot of value, time, and effort into. I just don’t see the need to share them into the digital void. Which certainly doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Perhaps just the opposite.

We Rise: LA

An immersive experience that brings together LA’s diverse community to explore our collective power to live lives of purpose and engagement.

More powerful art for the cause. Put on by Yosi Sergant’s Task Force, this Los Angeles show is 10 days of powerful programming, performances, immersive workshops, and a world-class art exhibition. This effort to call attention to our crisis in mental health is yet another example of artists, strategists, organizers, dreamers, and makers coming together to build momentum towards lasting change.

I contributed a Power Poster to the exhibition called “You Are Not Alone.” A simple reminder that we do not go through this life by ourselves. We are loved and we matter. All of us.

Take the Gallery Tour »

We Rise: LA
May 18–27, 2019
Los Angeles, CA

The Next Slew of Game Shows for America

Hey. So apparently there’s a new game show where college grads crushed with student loans have the chance to win enough cash to pay off their debts. Why stop there? How about we create games shows to solve all our problems and enflame our political divisions. Here are some we could do next:

  • Let’s Get You Some Health Care!

  • Name That Climate Change Catastrophe

  • The Price Is Tax Cuts for the Rich

  • The 10 Trillion Dollar War

  • Wheel of White Grievance

  • Press Your Execution Button

  • Whose Vagina Is It Anyway?

Together, with a solid game show concept, there’s no limit to the problems we’ll be able to solve.

Ann Willoughby: Designing a Life and a Career

A leading American voice in design is coming to Omaha. Ann Willoughby has taught, written, and lectured about the importance of women as design leaders in both business and as a social force. Have you heard of the Willoughby Design Barn? It’s awesome. Looking forward to seeing lots of people out for Design Alliance Omaha’s spring lecture. Special thanks to Ervin & Smith for the stellar event poster.

Ann Willoughby
Thursday, May 9, 2019 @ 7 pm
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

RSVP on Facebook »