The gradual grinding
In 2018, Georgina Johnson, creative polymath and the woman behind counterculture platform The Laundry Arts, co-wrote a manifesto with mental health activist Sara Radin called Slow Fashion to Save Minds. At a little over 200 words, it was succinct but full of powerful emotions that forced readers to rethink their approach to their work and life.
In it, Johnson touched on the need to respect everyone's mental abilities (including your own), pushing those behind them forward, as well as the need for transparency and fairness, the importance of community, and how sometimes it is necessary to just slow down. Although it was geared towards the fashion industry, it found resonance with people across the arts.
"It took on a life of its own and was picked up by everyone from DJs to chefs to graphic designers," says Johnson. "I realized that people needed this easy, open, and direct guide to make them feel like the industry isn't particularly cold."
Above and above: portraits of Georgina Johnson by Campbell Addy
Johnson felt that a manifest was the perfect format for packaging her ideas, and it was a way for her to channel what she had learned and experienced from working in the industry, first as a fashion designer, later as Artist, curator and creative director, speaker and commentator.
"I don't really see myself as the center of this industry," she says. “As a black woman, I'm still on the fringes, but I'm constantly trying to pull down a few doors and break the wall of silence that people like me face when trying to get our foot in the field . I try as best I can to make space because I am very aware that no one will just give it to me. "
I think my nature is that I just do things myself because I don't have time to wait for people to say, "OK, you're worth it, we listen."
The manifesto was a step in creating a space Johnson wanted to work in, but she didn't want to leave him there. Two years later, Johnson has just released The Slow Grind: Returning to Creative Balance, a collection of essays, thoughts, and conversations that build on the Manifesto. Additionally, the book seeks to examine creative, social, and environmental sustainability by recognizing the systems that have become the norm and the ways in which they need to be changed.