Survival Is A Creative Act: Suleika Jaouad’s American Symphony of Contrast—Cancer, Art, Music, & Life
Jan 15, 2024
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In this engaging conversation, Suleika Jaouad, an Emmy award-winning columnist and author, shares her journey from leukemia diagnosis to creative empowerment. She discusses how journaling helped her navigate the challenges of illness, transforming her experience into the acclaimed column, Life, Interrupted. Suleika delves into the emotional complexities of identity post-cancer and the power of storytelling in fostering connection. She also touches on her intimate Netflix documentary, American Symphony, exploring love and resilience amid adversity.
Embracing creativity in the face of illness can lead to healing and resilience.
Sharing vulnerability can be a powerful tool for connection and growth.
Choosing to embrace uncertainty and find joy in everyday experiences can transform the way we navigate life's challenges.
Deep dives
The Journey of Survival: Navigating Illness and Creativity
Facing a relapse of leukemia after a decade in remission, the author grapples with extreme emotions of shock, terror, and relief. The unique dynamics between the author and her partner, John, who is experiencing a period of success, create a juxtaposition of highs and lows. The author reflects on the process of creating the documentary film, 'American Symphony,' which captures the extremes of their lives and challenges the conventional narratives of illness and success. The film explores the intertwining of vulnerability, creativity, and survival, and the author's hesitations and ultimate decision to share their private lives in this raw and honest portrayal.
Embracing Uncertainty and Capturing Extremes
As the author faces a relapse of leukemia, she reflects on her book, 'Between Two Kingdoms,' which explored embracing uncertainty and navigating liminal spaces. The author acknowledges the contrast between her previous focus on gray areas and the extreme highs and lows she is currently experiencing. The documentary film, 'American Symphony,' captures both the author's journey of survival and her partner's success, challenging traditional narratives and capturing the duality of the human condition. The author grapples with the tension between her fear and hesitancy to share her private life and her belief in vulnerability as a means of healing and connecting with others.
The Power of Surrender and Creativity
Suleika Jaouad shares her experience of surrender and creativity during her battle with illness. She discusses how she embraced her limitations, turning them into a source of inspiration and creative expression. Through painting and journaling, Suleika transformed her pain into something beautiful and meaningful. She emphasizes the importance of living in the present moment and finding joy in everyday experiences. Suleika also reflects on the power of choice in responding to life's challenges and how it can lead to personal growth and transformation.
Navigating Uncertainty with Curiosity and Wonder
Suleika Jaouad discusses her approach to uncertainty and the importance of embracing curiosity and wonder. Despite facing ongoing health challenges and not knowing what the future holds, Suleika shifts her perspective to living each day as if it's her first. She seeks out moments of play, tiny joys, and nourishing experiences, finding peace and beauty in the present moment. Suleika also shares her belief in the power of creative acts to alchemize darkness into light and create something meaningful out of challenging circumstances.
The Symphony of Life and Embracing Liminality
The podcast explores the themes of the American Symphony, both as a musical piece and as a metaphor for life. Suleika Jaouad and John Batiste represent the merging of diverse influences, identities, and experiences, embodying the true American spirit. They navigate the liminal space of uncertainty, existing in the gray area between health and illness, tradition and innovation. Suleika emphasizes the power of embracing duality and holding space for the in-between, providing a sense of belonging for those who feel like misfits. Through their journey, they invite others to reimagine survival as a creative act and find inspiration in the symphony of life.
What do you do when the power goes out? You improvise and turn it into a creative act.
At the age of 22, confronted with a leukemia diagnosis amid the tumult beyond her control, Suleika Jaouad made a profound decision to embrace the art of journaling. Deliberately opting to distill insights from her affliction, she endeavored to endure her newfound residency in a Manhattan hospital in a meaningful and aesthetically resonant manner while giving ink to the intricacies that proved profoundly challenging to articulate. What began as a daily journal evolved into Life, Interrupted, an Emmy award-winning column and video series showcased in The New York Times, chronicling Suleika’s experiences from her hospital bed.
Our conversation today revolves around her leukemia diagnosis at a young age, the relinquishment of independence and identity in the throes of illness, the transformative power of writing as both agency and healing, and the embrace of the tumultuous and uncertain in-between space that defines life post-illness.
We also discuss her newly intimate Netflix documentary, American Symphony—a beautiful exploration of Suleika and her husband, John Batiste’s lives individually and together.
This is exchange is about what it means to live a creative life, to be in a creative, collaborative relationship, and how mindfully to navigate hardship.
I hope it will be a wellspring of inspiration for you.
