ABOUT THE CREATIVE GOODS
The Creative Goods is a feminist and justice-based advice column for creators with conundrums, written by me, Jill Margo of The Creative Good. It’s free and comes out on the second Friday of every month.
Through this column, I offer suggestions, commiseration, and reassurance, particularly to creators who’ve been most impacted by patriarchy and other forms of oppression. And by “creators” I mean folks who practice any of the creative arts, like writing, visual art, and music—whether they’re just starting out or already working professionally.
Advice columns fall under the self-help category. One definition of self-help is: “Care for or betterment of oneself by one’s own efforts.” Now, I’m all for the betterment of oneself, except there’s one problem: traditional self-help tends to start with the idea that we’re the problem, that we need fixing.
In my work, however, what I’ve realized is that often what we label as personal problems or failings—such as perfectionism, visibility blocks, burnout, and imposter syndrome—are actually collective issues that stem from “systems of fuckery” (h/t to Janine Bertolo) like patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy. In other words, it’s not us, it’s the oppressive system(s).
What I’m interested in is not traditional self-help, but justice-based self-help, which recognizes that the systems need fixing more than we do. So, that’s the underlying ethos I bring to dishing out the creative goods. I love how things can shift when we get out of the self-blame and shame that comes with oppressive conditioning and into power. I’m still learning too, so we get to learn together.
My hope is that this column will also have a thriving comments section, made possible by the Substack platform, in which folks can chime in with their own suggestions, commiseration, and reassurance because we are stronger together.
If you’d like to submit a letter for consideration for the column you can do so anonymously using this form. Please don’t feel that you have to outline an overt social justice issue in your submission though. That’s something I can help tease out, when applicable. Any conundrum related to your practice is fair game!
ABOUT THE CREATIVE GOOD
I lead The Creative Good where I help creators—once again, folks who’ve been most impacted by patriarchy and other forms of oppression—to be in practice in a generative, sustainable, and liberatory way. Right now, I have two main offerings: Follow-through Sessions, which provide a whole season of accountability and in-it-togetherness and Shine Sessions, which are one-on-one coaching/consultation sessions. You can find out more about my offerings by visiting my website.
This advice column is something I do because of The Creative Good. I’ve opted to write it instead of a salesy, promotional newsletter because it feels way more generous, connecting, and creatively satisfying. To be completely transparent though, if I have an offering I want to let folks know about, I will do a short shout out at the top of each monthly email (kind of like a classified ad). That way, the primary focus always remains on having great conversations around creative practice—but if you’re interested in what I do, you’ll still be in the loop.
ABOUT JILL MARGO
I have over twenty years experience working in the literary, visual, and performing arts. I’m a creative nonfiction writer who also makes pressed flora artworks and herbarium specimens. I write about plant encounters for The Outside In, another project here on Substack. In terms of my own intersections of identity: I’m a middleclass white settler and cis-gendered woman who’s experienced misogyny, anti-fat bias, and ableism. I live and work out of a big corner garden suite in an old mansion on an idyllic property surrounded by Garry Oak trees. This land I inhabit was stolen from the Lekwungen people—known today as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations—and is now known as Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
