THIS, THAT, and THE THIRD | 2024 End of Year Reflection By Lexi S. Brunson Editor-in-Chief of /CW
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Grab the scissors [or a sledgehammer], there is some undoing that needs to be done.
I love how obligated I feel to write these yearly reflections [even though, according to my records, 2023’s brooding does not exist, LOL]. Why spend so much energy sharing my untethered thoughts after having them bound into strategic literary bows for 364[ish] days straight? Huhhhhhhhhhhhh!?!?
It’s complexly simple. THIS is for the future.
Some people are living for today, and many are dreaming for tomorrow, but I just so happen to be cut from an obnoxiously irritating cloth that urges me to plant seeds for future growth [absolutely obnoxious]. It’s a tricky weaving of doing the work, while archiving the work, while creating an ecosystem of validating the work of others, so that there is a more equitable “echo” system of validation of the work, so that there is a historical narrative that documents the shift of that validation, that is archived in a society that values all active contributors, of diverse skillsets, to ensure the sustainability of our species.
THAT, run-on sentence is exactly what I have been doing throughout this year [& the vast majority of my adult life]. It’s that un-categorizable NAICS code of a business yall may have heard us reference as CopyWrite or /CW. It’s the reason why I had to send out two cease and desist this year [Yall have been busy boi boi, I hate to have to do it]. It's the reason I had to troubleshoot 1/3rd of a slated budget & make those ends carry 4 loads [Go ahead & math the math. It's public. You know I have the “receipts”]. It's why I don’t take many meetings before 11:30 am, and also why deadlines & bylines are not synonymous with deserving credit.
That’s why there is a need to do a little snipping here, a cut or 400 there, and maybe bust up some gargantuan underachieving, underproducing, underwhelming attempts at getting by, over yonder. There is always space for growth. But you have to continue to make room for that growth. The year 2024 has taught me that I have outgrown the orchard and these seeds are going to need a more sophisticated irrigation system.
That means collaboration can no longer look like charity [take that in slowly]. Those who serve must also be of service to themselves. The cloth that I am cut from must now be tethered to cloths of endurance, cloths of joy, cloths of nurturing, cloths of stardom, cloths of influence, and cloths of dark reality [even though society hates to broadcast that bond]. We must reinforce these seams, making sure that we survive [like we survived 2024] but also create a garden that thrives.
You should not have to lose your community to serve your community. You shouldn’t have to undercut our collective value in this “market”, and that should be overstood! You shouldn’t have to put your life on the line for your livelihood [& lawd knows I did it this year. That’s how I secured 1/3rd SMH].
So as 2025, rolls in, I’m going to be rolling up my sleeves and getting a little “Dirty” [See how I can never really shake that moniker fully *shrugs*].
The first seed has to go to the pulse, CopyWrite Magazine paved this mission for me. So the media company is going to get some overdue love [I know what value it holds].
/CW Creative Services will be featuring some quarterly opportunities that will allow me to share my skillset that brings me joy & value. [Specials on creative Resume & CV creation, show-stopping bios, and other forms of written posturing that will help all of our community members level up].
& THE THIRD thing that needs uprooting is the weed that /CW Creative Studios + Shop has become. “This is where we show that space is only defined by its cultural functionality [place] and programmatically assert that art is a reflection of our experiences [seen & unseen]” - from CULTURE: BETWEEN SPACE & PLACE. What I built with my hands is a testament to what I built with my soul…but it ain't gon be none of what we thought it would be.
So inclosing all 2025 is going to be prep for 2026, 2027, 2028, and beyond.
Watch me work.
Love & All Things Urban,
Lexi S. Brunson | “Whatever I need to be” & Editor-in-Chief of CopyWrite Magazine
