This is Locals 100—and I am the subject. It marks the 100th article in this series, or as I see it, the 100th person added to the broad canvas portrait of a community. Beyond an honest desire to paint myself into the picture, this self-portrait is an opportunity to state something I haven’t said plainly before—the motivation behind this work.
Cincinnatus Hibbard: Self, tell these others what you’re all about.
Cincinnatus Hibbard: Well, I love ideas—ideas in application, ideas in action. You know, I once adapted my business card into a dance musical called Actionable Ideas (laughs). It’s on my YouTube—with a lot of other odd things.
I consider myself a writer and conceptual artist. I’m working in the tradition of the human potential movement… I’m a utopian—which just means I think things can get much better (as well as much worse). I’ve written about fever dreaming inspiration, the medium of new art media, holidays, happiness, the politics of reconciliation and unmasking our common humanity, etc.
That’s my work, but I am best known for my attempts at impact journalism and for throwing heartfelt ragers.
And you’re something of a performer?
Yes, well—ideas excite me. They make me want to get up and dance. They make me want to sing. Again, they animate me. Big ideas make big feelings. That’s something I think people mistake about ideas—they are really about feelings. Ideas and feelings are just two sides of the same spinning coin.
What is your intention behind your column, ‘Locals’ (and your podcast, ‘Community Portrait’)?
This will sound pretentious, but in my modest and typo-strewn way, I’m attempting to paint and energize a broad coalition of progressive leadership in the North Bay—those people with the working ideas and initiative to lead us into MLK’s ‘beloved community.’ Read through the past hundred articles and see for yourself—I think we could be a model for the nation.
Why do you want to do this? What is your need?
I think, deep down, I am a child (perhaps with the agency and naivety of a child) that wants his family to stop fighting and be together. I want them to acknowledge each other and help each other and to love each other. As an adult, I see the whole world as my family. I see what’s happening in America as a family fight.
Tell us about your passion project.
Well, I believe it is the purpose for which I was made (laughs). It’s a book—but also a film and event series about love—love in its spiritual aspect.
In a nutshell, I believe that transcendent love and the mystical experience of the universe are the same thing. When you put them together, you define what love is lucidly. It is the light-filled answer to all our problems. It’s a workable, practical answer that points to a whole set of alternative, love-based institutions. Maybe it seems a bit naive to write about love in this political moment, in which fear (anxiety, dread, phobia, paranoia, terrorism) is paramount, but I have a child-like faith that the coronation of fear will be the hinge on which the historic pendulum will swing. I’m getting us ready for it.
Isn’t that a departure from your work with Locals?
No—love ties it all together.
What is your picture of heaven?
A musical—where even our fights are part of a harmonious music.
Learn more: Enter the url linktr.ee/cincinnatushibbard to learn more. Cincinnatus Hibbard can be hired to speak about love.
