In this newsletter:

• Creativity is a thread

• BMC: Guava Tree Studies

• InverteFest

• Things I’ve Been Enjoying

Buiti/Buenas!

The New Orleans Jazz Fest is happening right now, and it got me thinking about what I learned from my massage teacher. I know... that's a seemingly unrelated combo of sentences! But thanks to that massage teacher, I co-founded the chair massage program in the Big Chief VIP Lounge at Jazz Fest and was the lead therapist (arguably the best gig at the festival!) for almost a decade. So, it’s on my mind.

I studied orthopedic and myofascial massage with my teacher for nearly 400 hours beyond my basic massage school training, and per his advice, I never took a single note. I have no notebooks from his classes, no worksheets. We never took a single test. No grades or pass/fails. His approach wasn't book learning or teaching about specific conditions to treat. It was teaching us how to think creatively about our work, no matter what puzzle was in front of us.

Creativity isn't [only] artistic talent or illustration or music or writing; I don’t think being in creative arts is a requirement for being creative at all. It's how you approach the decisions and actions you make. It's how you think about things and solutions you come up with. Deviations from the "textbook." It's curiosity and expression.

People often react with confusion when I include bodywork in the list of creative pursuits I've had in my life, which I do admit seems out of place alongside sewing and sign painting and music and jewelry metalsmithing. But the creativity in each of those activities informs the others.

To me, creativity is a thread that weaves through all of one's life. It's a stream that flows from one era to another, from one activity to another.

It doesn’t mean you have to be good at or even like all creative arts. Creativity isn't the thing you do or the output itself, it’s a thread of who you are. It's you, it's unique to you. My massage teacher taught each of us in class how to think creatively about whatever was before us, and the 5 or 6 of us in class would come up with 5 or 6 different- yet effective- ways to approach a client's physical issue. All valid, all of which made us amazing therapists to our clients.

You can strengthen that creative muscle in general or in certain ways. And some of us may have been born with a thicker thread that made being specifically in the creative arts... uh, nonnegotiable! But I don't think anyone is innately without creativity. We see children create broadly without hesitation. Drawings, stories and worlds, ideas, words, names, games, dances, etc. And a good portion of those children grow into adults who think they aren't creative at all, when they really are. (Which is why outsourcing your creativity- not just art but thinking- to something like generative AI is just...no.)

Other than my teacher (who was a musician also), I don’t think anyone in my class were artists. But after strengthening their creative thinking muscle through the vehicle of bodywork, they most definitely were.

When I played violin in a sound art band, I had so many people tell me after our performances that they wish they were creative, that they could play an instrument. I would always stress to them that, first, I knew- knew- that if they were curious enough to seek out a weird art band like mine, that even if they didn't believe they could ever play an instrument, that they were honing their creativity in some other part of their life, even if it doesn't look "artistic."

And second, by them seeking out music to see live, by listening and appreciating, that they were engaging with us in creativity. Sure, we could play by ourselves to no audience, but with them there, they undoubtedly contribute. To me, they were an important part of the creative process. Because not only is creativity is a thread in our own lives, it's a stream that connects us together.

If you’re a current subscriber, you have this new wallpaper set waiting for you at the end of this email, only available if this lands in your inbox!

I took a pre-Columbian Taino design and built a repeating pattern from it that highlights the continuous threads or streams in the design and in our lives. I named the set Apalanajawá, which is a Taino verb meaning "to flow."

Borikén Mail Club

If you’re not a member yet, join this month to get May’s postcard! And a reminder that while my main shop only currently ships to U.S., PR, and Canada, you can join the Borikén Mail Club from any country that receives U.S. letter mail.

The last couple months I’ve been working toward a goal of 20 new members, and I have 14 to go to meet it! Meeting this goal will help ensure that I have a stable, recurring income every month to cover my basic needs. So if you’ve been considering joining, come on in ::waves you over:: 🖤

If you are already a member, you have some BMC Members Only content below that others can’t see! 🖤👇

Posts You May Have Missed

InverteFest is an online event that happens 3 times a year during which people all over the world celebrate invertebrate fauna. You are encouraged to use your creativity however it suits you- go out and find your local inverts, maybe take photos and post them, make art about them, post research papers you’ve written about them, etc. Last week was the first event of 2026, and if you’re not already on Bluesky, here are some of the pieces I posted!

Things I’ve Been Enjoying

The InverteFest Anthology is a new collaboration of artists and writers:

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity:

Alt Text as Poetry

Alt text is an essential part of web accessibility. It is often disregarded altogether or understood through the lens of compliance, as an unwelcome burden to be met with minimum effort. How can we instead approach alt text thoughtfully and creatively?