Notes from a Palace
by Abigail Nash
Wandering the streets of beautiful Hallstatt, Austria, easily the most quaint and unique town I’ve ever seen, I was struck by a manhole cover in the street. It said- “Take care of what you love.”
If I had to sum up the lessons and takeaways from Salzburg Media Academy, this sentence would work just fine.
The two and a half weeks were filled with meaningful lectures, seminars, workshops, presentations, projects, field trips, conversations, and friendships. And yet, when reflecting back on the Academy, the single words that keeps coming back to me are “community” and “love.”
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In reflecting on our feelings coming back home and returning to the daily grind, some of my friends and I realized we don’t know exactly how to feel now. It feels like a piece of us is missing. Home is dear, and we are so happy to be home. Yet, something has changed.
In discussing with my friend, I realized the difference is community. Every moment of Salzburg Academy was filled with people. I have never been less alone in my life. As an introvert, I found it exhausting. Yet I couldn’t tear myself away. Now that I’m home, I’m lonely; I feel restless and unsettled in my familiar spaces.
And so I come to another realization; sitting in what is uncomfortable and unfamiliar to us increases our capacity. In this case, it was my capacity for community and socialization. It makes me sad to realize that our modern life necessitates a high degree of separation from other people.
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From all of the wonderful lectures and lessons we mutually learned in our time there, the moments that stand out to me are those where we connected as a whole group beyond age, religion, language, and personality. I vividly remember sitting down to play piano in preparation for the Talent Show; I looked up mid-playing to see a crowd of my Fellows around me, listening with faces lit up, and spontaneously singing together.
I see Shreenath introducing his game, Calamatrix, to everyone at the Academy, and spending hours saving the world from catastrophe via card game.
I see the Talent Show, which somehow turned into a dance time and people spontaneously started dancing and sharing their music from their home countries. Watching a group of sweaty, laughing people attempt to dance unfamiliar steps as a group, laughing and holding each other up, was a beautiful moment.
In a more somber moment, watching people walk solemnly in quiet groups through Mauthasen, holding each other when necessary, speaking very few words, and yet holding each other in mental solidarity while viewing an example of the worst humanity can do to each other reminded me that together, we are powerful. Together, we can heal, learn, and love.
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So, these moments stand out as a powerful collage of memories and truths in my mind. In reflecting on these reflections, I asked myself why they are important. They may seem inconsequential at first thought- I mean, what exactly is accomplished through dancing spontaneous cultural dances together?
To me- everything. A quote Chris included in his lecture on fugitive spaces stands out to me: “What is to be done is to found a new society by not necessarily bringing about the destruction of myriad edifices of terror, violence, circumscription, and normativity but by cultivating the spaces and places that by dint of their existence instantiate the impossibility of the normative bastions that now surround us” (Marquis Bey)
This, I believe, is a part of how that is done. Connecting in truth, in love, and in shared moments builds the tapestry of our community.
And is a constant reminder to our lovers, lunatics, and poets- Take care of what we love. This will be our legacy to the world, and how we will bring people on this transformative journey we traveled together.
