The Artivist

A Manifesto & Reinforcement of Surviving, Thriving, & Revolutionizing Through The Nexus Of The Humxn Experience & Intentional Art Making

Dear you who feels the call to do something,

This book has been a long time coming. 

It started on September 29, 2019, as an idea and very short draft in Alexandra Franzen’s inaugural Tiny Book online class, but it was never finished. 

It became a few different iterations of itself before i picked it back up and got serious about finishing and publishing it on June 24, 2022 when Roe v Wade was overturned. That never happened.

And then the November 5, 2024, Presidential election happened and i knew in my gut this was it. The book was ready. 

i, however, wasn’t. 

i had just released my latest book, Magick For Transformation, less than a month prior and had a whole slew of promotions and promises to do for it. 

i had just gone through a 39-day dark night of the soul cycle where i was diagnosed with cancer, had a total hysterectomy, and then was (gratefully) proclaimed cancer-free. 

And because i came face-to-face with my mortality, i had just made a promise to myself that the next book i was going to write was going be a memoir—the one i had been trying (and avoiding) writing since i was 20. 

i didn’t want to “write” this book next (i say “write” because it was almost completely written and just needed to be edited). 

But i have finally lived into the truth that most grown and evolved folxs know: i am not in control here; i am simply (and sometimes stubbornly) led to where i’m supposed to be. 

So here i am, welcoming you to sit around the fire. A fire that has raged inside me for as long as i’ve been alive. Or rather, as long as we’ve all been alive because i/we/us wouldn’t be where we are without the ashes and embers of those who came before us. 

This eternal fire that we all gather around is fanned and fueled by our ancestral and collective desire to create and be the change we wish to see. The desire to do something, to act, to bring about equality and justice for all. 

And the Sacred Flame i offer you and the movement is my burning personal need to be and bring about said change through my art, work, and words. 

And the Pheonix i found rising is this manifesto, The Artivist, who told me they wanted to come out today, Monday, January 20, 2025—the same day as Trump’s inauguration—in the spirit of offsetting some of the anger, fear, and uncertainty i/we/us may be feeling and in service to the truth that we are way less alone than we probably feel and definitely way more powerful. 

i wanted to do something today that left me feeling more empowered than simply turning on the TV and taking to social media to express my outrage. i’ve done that before (rather loudly) and it hasn’t created the kind of ripple i know i’m here to make. 

That’s because social media isn’t my medium—art is. 

Sharing this book with you today is my activism, my living embodiment of artivism and The Artivist. This manifesto is my contribution to the solution and pathway of change over these next four years and beyond. 

But/and/also/all i, nor my vision, are perfect—and nowhere in this book or anywhere else in my life, work, and art do i pretend or entertain the illusion that i am. 

And this book is not perfect—it’s all self-done. Self-written. Self-edited. Self-designed, published, and printed. There will be errors. There will be holes and areas to be improved upon. 

But i/we/us do not need to be perfect to be a part of or contribute to the solution. 

i believe if we’re going to get anywhere in the future (and particularly in the next 4 years), we have to stop demanding perfection from each other as an entry fee to being a part of the movement and contributing to the solution. 

More importantly, we have to stop demanding it from ourselves and our art—how many ideas, movements, and contributions have we lost to the panopticon of perfectionism’s gaze?

Too many. 

And i finally decided that The Artivist wasn’t going to be one of them. 

So i’ll go first. 

i give you my imperfect self and this imperfect manifesto in service to the highest good of all. 

i give you my grassroots, living testament to the fire, creativity, and the driving need to create change that lives inside me. 

i give you my insides in hopes that what spills forth from it as it passes from hand to hand, heart to heart, and soul to soul outlives me/you/i/we/us, Trump, and all the injustices and ‘isms that came before and have yet to come. May it wrap us all in a legacy of solution envisioning and acting, art making, and artivism. 

i give you The Artivist and the not-needed permission slip to make that look like you—and however you feel fits as truth. 

May The Artivist be one of MANY ground swells that are ebbing today and every day hereafter until justice is a lived truth for ALL of us, Earth and its many inhabitants and living creatures included. 

And so it is. 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

i’ll see you on the streets. 

in lak’ech,
The Artivist

Book ships on or before February 11, 2025.

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Book ships on or before February 11, 2025.  

Brandi Amara Skyy

i’m the author of over 8 books both self and traditionally published. i use the modalities of writing & magick to help you live your Wild Dreams & Wild Dream Life.

Be proof of what is possible.Â