Aug 3, 2022
"Accessing your creativity is a huge healing thing, individually and collectively" - Monique Schiess
Isra Garcia interviews Afrika Burn Creative Development Director and Liason, Monique Schiess. A conversation that turns around creativity, leadership, change, disruption, imagination, experimentation and iteration, play and imagination as tools for thriving and finding joy, creating a movement that matters, the power of building a tribe of makers, Afrika Burn as a world-transformation artefact, and why values and principles matter most than anything.
"The whole world is disrupted"
Monique Schiess is a change-maker responsible for cofounding Afrika Burn in 2077, the Burning Man regional event a Southafrika and one of the most relevant burns in the world. She has been running the coordination of the creative projects since then. She was also a partner in the Mother City Queer Projects, has two degrees in Environmental Science and Social Anthropology, and had an incarnation as a game ranger.
"Keep doing the next right thing" - Monique Schiess
"I was living in the bush for some years, even without electricity"
After fifteen years in the desert of Tankwa Karoo (South Africa), Monique Schiess has a doctorate in driving rebar pegs into rock and shale, and a PhD in the economics of artistic chaos and wrangling itinerant misfits and renegades.
"Milestones at Afrika Burn happened when we were not planning anything" - Monique Schiess
She is a fire-starter of sorts, an instigator and incubator of creative projects across the board.
"Artists are the tricksters of the world"
She makes sport of poking people in their creative ribs, and believes that fun and waking up creativity is a most powerful vector for change in this world.
"Honor your creative and believe you can create change"
"I'm not a brand; I'm Monique"
Interview main topics (and index)
"You create a community first, and then, the rest will happen by itself" - Monique Schiess
Podcast show notes:
"What a privilege to be on this journey" - Monique Schiess