Let Me Give You A Lecture

...but not from me, from Albert Camus. 

Photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson

Camus gave a famous lecture once entitled, "Create Dangerously" and I cannot think of a better time to go back and reread his words, especially as artists (musicians, actors, comedians, etc) are being punished for speaking up regarding the current Trump "administration". 

This quote, below, resonates so hard right now...

"To create today is to create dangerously. Any publication is an act, and that act exposes one to the passions of an age that forgives nothing."

He goes on about having one's art reflect the current time, the responsibility of artists to speak up and risks...

"It is not surprising that artists and intellectuals should have been the first victims of modern tyrannies, whether of the Right or of the Left. Tyrants know there is in the work of art an emancipatory force, which is mysterious only to those who do not revere it."

It really is worth a read. (I do recognize that some words/phrases are outdated and offensive (i.e. the use of the word "Oriental", only using the word "man" and "he, his" when addressing artists. It is most likely a reflection of the time it was written, 1957.)  It's still relevant.