By Carly Cassano
Literary Traveler is proud to have featured articles about artists from all over the world—some well-known, others obscure—who have something in common: Vision. Novelists, historians, journalists, painters, composers: individuals who believed in their work, not only as a means of personal expression, but because the work they did was founded in Love and Progress. You know, independent thinkers!
Certain artists—bards and poets, musicians and activists—were like flowers plucked from a desolate landscape. Some of them had roots, but most of them chose to blow in the wind, dropping their stories and sounds wherever they ended up. It’s thanks to the seeds scattered by these transients that the we discover shockingly different cultures, as well as supernaturally similar story tales from opposite ends of the world.
Literary Traveler wants to explore how writing, music, travel, and progress depend upon each other—and how various writers and musicians built their body of work and careers on the road. For example:
How did ancient and Renaissance bards capture the expansive nature of war and peace?
How were beat poets inspired by travel, spiritualism, and jazz?
How are folk musicians inspired by nature and the industrial complex?
How has the psychedelic movement in the arts created peaceful and political movements all over the world?
How will artists continue to help humanity progress through their collective vision and story?
We’ll look at exemplary figures who answer each of the questions above over the course of the spring. Join us as we start out on a hell of a trip!