Only after we named our anthology, WE KEEP BEGINNING, did we see so many direct and indirect references to this concept. While many contributors spoke to the essence of this continual renewal, Noelle Marie Falcis' response encompassed so much of what we think about when we think toward art in the space of social issues. Since her quote inspired the artwork that is now on every bag, here’s a preview of her featured words below:
"For me, I see beginnings as fresh and fated endings — I mean, aren’t they the same thing? Just as something ends, it is beginning; just as something is beginning, it is breathing its last breath of its previous ending. The two are so tightly woven together within a synergistic relationship; they simply cannot exist without each other. In many ways, they remind me of the sun and the moon, the sea and the sky, the re-memory and the re-imaginary — dualistic and interconnected by nature. I personally begin by ending, and I end so that I may begin again. If I relate this to storywork, then I must admit that every story I’ve ever written is linked, intentionally and unintentionally, one’s ending stitched to the next beginning, a smooth flow from one perspective and growing into a new one. It is the same narrative remembering and reimagining itself in a profusion of different ways, understanding itself better with each new handling. As I connect so much of storywork to the body, its memory, and its attempt at healing, I think it’s only right that we begin and end within that same narrative, shaping it within thousands of tongues and memories and retellings so that for every reader (or just ourselves) that receives it, perhaps, we’ve managed to curate a diverse enough account, in a plethora of handlings, that the reader and subsequent healing can be reached." — Noelle Marie Falcis, Issue 9: What We Lose.
