BOLDtalks's video: Tapping Into Culture to Reawaken Inspiration and Creativity - BOLDtalks Woman 2016

We can choose to treat the hyphens that live between the roles we embody as bridges or as borders. Each aspect of our identity, journey and legacy, has a story. These narratives are steeped in history and woven together by culture, both personal and collective. Our worlds, private and public, are shaped by the stories we inherit, the stories we believe and the stories we create. In this interactive Talk, we will explore ideas of how to tap into our cultural traditions and myths in order to awaken the inspiration needed to expand fully into who we are, while confidently traveling across the bridges of who we have been and who we are becoming. Christine Jean Blain is many things; an educator; a writer; a performer but above all she is a storyteller. Whether writing fiction or poetry, she uses words to paint a picture of the way things are, once were, or maybe one day could be. As an educator she uses her experience, passion and creativity to a build bridges between what is occurring in our global society and its relevance to our local communities and personal reality. Ms. Blain’s work is influenced by culture; the one she inherited as well as the one she helps to create. Christine Jean Blain holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration, a Bachelor’s degree in cultural studies and an advance certificate in Non Profit leadership and management. She currently teaches and resides in Dubai, UAE. She the author of Lighting the Back Home, a self-published collection of prose and poetry. Her work can be found in African Voices, literary Magazine, and most recently, A Lime Jewel, poetry anthology written in aid to Haiti, compiled and edited by The Black Londoners Appeal and Afros: A Celebration of Natural Hair, created and edited by Michael July.