The Art of Is ― Improvising As a Way of Life

It’s easy to assume that Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous and endlessly influential “I Have a Dream” speech was pre-scripted, vetted by others, written and re-written. It was not. Instead it was given “on the fly,” when audience members such as Mahalia Jackson urged King off his prepared text. The result has inspired millions. In this breath-of-fresh-air thinking about how to cultivate the kind of game-changing creativity everyone seeks, Stephen Nachmanovitch shows exactly how the passion and immediacy of improvisation can be cultivated and how, in fact, we all improvise all the time — whether we are driving or deep in conversation. He explores ideas about being in the moment and reacting to people as they are, finding “gold” in unexpected distractions and roadblocks, and not only accepting but also celebrating imperfections in everyday practices. This “creative mindfulness” also makes innovation the province not of solitary geniuses but the result of engagement and interaction. The results, Nachmanovitch shows, foster meaningful change and invention — and may just ignite a dream.

Stephen Nachmanovitch, a pioneer in free improvisation on violin, viola, and electric violin, performs internationally and teaches widely on creativity and the spiritual underpinnings of art. The author of computer software in a variety of fields, he holds a BA from Harvard and a PhD from UC Santa Cruz. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.