CreativeMornings/Dubai

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We’re looking for a new host in Dubai!

In 2008, Tina Roth Eisenberg, also known as Swissmiss, started CreativeMornings out of a desire for an ongoing, accessible event for New York’s creative community. The concept was simple: breakfast and a short talk one Friday morning a month. Every event would be free of charge and open to anyone.

Today, attendees gather in 200+ cities around the world to enjoy fresh coffee, friendly people, and an international array of breakfast foods. Volunteer hosts and their team members organize local chapters that not only celebrate a city’s creative talent, but also promote an open space to connect with like-minded individuals. We call ourselves an engine of generosity and live by our manifesto. 

CreativeMornings Dubai's previous host has since stepped down so we are now looking for a replacement. Could this be you?

If you are:

- passionate about your local creative community in Dubai - psyched to lead a small volunteer team to put your own spin on CreativeMornings - excited to be a part of a global network of the nicest, most creative people you've ever met - one to use the words humble, driven, resourceful, generous and connected to describe yourself - ready to grow as a creative leader in your city

...we’d love to hear from you! If interested, complete our standard New Chapter Application, which consists of a written application and video, and we’ll be in touch.

We will conduct a follow up interview with the top candidates.

We look forward to receiving your application!

CreativeMornings

P.s. Insight into what it’s like to be a host. And more insight. Okay, last one. 

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Here it is the May NOW talk by Alex Maia!

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May is ending with a real bang!

Alex the ALEX of Alex House of Social is speaking and she is a firecracker!

Hit the link to reserve your seat, not that you will want to sit!

We are back LIVE and IN PERSON at ATÖLYE Dubai. Remember to create a CM profile, update your picture and opt into the newsletter! NOW is

Nada Badran has written this month's theme essay, enjoy and see you Thursday.

Living in the Now

By Nada Badran

“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

In the ‘Book of Virtues’, author William Bennett tells a story called “The Magic Thread” about an aspiring young boy, always daydreaming, and flawed with impatience.

‘Peter found it hard to enjoy whatever he was doing at the moment and was always hankering after the next thing. In winter, he longed for it to be summer again, and in summer he looked forward to the skating, sledging, and warm fires of winter. At school he would long for the day to be over so that he could go home, and on Sunday nights, he would sigh, ‘if only the holidays would come…’’.

One morning, Peter was out wandering in a forest near his home. He dozes off on a patch of grass and wakes up alarmed to see an old woman standing above him, holding a silver ball, from which dangled a silken golden thread.

She tells Peter ‘this is your life thread. Do not touch it and time will pass normally. But if you wish time to pass more quickly, you have only to pull the thread a little way and an hour will pass like a second. But I warn you, once the thread has been pulled out, it cannot be pushed back in again. It will disappear like a puff of smoke.’ Peter was over the moon about his newest toy. It was exactly what he wanted. From then on, every time he grew restless, bored, felt like his life was routine or difficult, he would pull the thread.

He pulls it to hasten his military time, his marriage to his childhood sweetheart, his child’s crying, his wife’s pain. Time goes by and Peter’s hair turns as white as snow and his body aches. He looks at himself in the mirror and sees someone he no longer recognizes. He goes back to the forest and sees the old woman who had given him the ball. She asks if he has had a good life. ‘I’m not sure’, he replied. ‘Your magic ball is a wonderful thing. I have never had to suffer or wait for anything in my life. And yet it has all passed so quickly. I feel that I have had no time to take in what has happened to me, neither the good things nor the bad. Now there is so little time left. I dare not pull the thread again for it will only bring me to my death.’ The woman then grants him 1 final wish, and Peter then asks to live his life as if for the first time, experiencing both joy and sadness, without cutting anything short. He wakes up, a young boy again, and can hardly wait for the mundane of everyday life and the joy that can unconsciously bring.

Embrace the now, and always remember to stop, and pause for joy.

[creativemorningsdubai]

April 21, 2022 is the next CreativeMornings!

Our speakers are fantastic!

Our introduction to the theme thought piecee this month is from Kat  Kinsella-Fernandes.

The Stable Philosopher

by Kat  Kinsella-Fernandes

I was drowning in trouble but I looked fabulous. I even wore a hat.

“Come on!  Come on!” 

I clung on to the railing, holding myself upright against a screaming and jumping crowd.  I was doing my fair share of screaming and jumping. 

“Come on!  Come on!”

Hooves and colours thundered past us in a million-dollar flat-race.    My eyes were fixing on a bay racehorse, the favourite to win, then losing her in the blur of motion. 

“Come on!  Come on!”

The jockey was a beloved acquaintance and a national treasure.  Strange that you can love an acquaintance who you simply haven’t had time to become friends with.

“Come on!  Come on!”

The excitement of the race was my short respite from going under, but…

“Come on!  Come …come….ooooohhh…awwwww………”

Sixth place.  How?  The horse was at her peak, the jockey skilled and trusted.  While other spectators celebrated their win, I walked round to the stables, dispirited but ready to comfort the jockey.

There he stood, still wearing his helmet, saddle in hand: a lot poorer in both money and prestige than he could have been, if ONLY he’d been in first place. 

He smiled.  Not a trace of sadness or humiliation (my predicted emotions for him), and said:

“Today wasn’t our day.  You can’t push the river.  We’ll have another day. ” 

You can’t push the river.  There I was, open-mouthed, taking that in.  My life was boiling over with difficulty.   And yet here was a just-beaten sage in jodhpurs, handing down wisdom from pretty much every culture who had faced tribulations, failed, learned, survived and thrived. 

My troubled-mind eased: today is not my day.  I couldn’t fix or control anything: I can’t push the river. But I could breathe and let go.  And wait it out: I’ll have another day.

And there. 

Just like that.

Things did not get better. 

But I did.

And slowly, in the time it takes for a river to flow its course, life turned out…alright (…perhaps better than alright)

Was this kismet?  Fate?  Chance? Free will?  I have no bloody idea: go find your own philosophical jockey and get his opinion.  But I do know that the bad times come and go.  And so do the good times.  It passes.  It all passes.  How I respond to the comings and goings, and whether I seek calm in the thrills, and hope in the spills, is up to me.

[creativemorningsdubai]

April 21, 2022 is the next CreativeMornings!

Our speakers are fantastic!

Our introduction to the theme thought piecee this month is from Kat  Kinsella-Fernandes.

The Stable Philosopher

by Kat  Kinsella-Fernandes

I was drowning in trouble but I looked fabulous. I even wore a hat.

“Come on!  Come on!” 

I clung on to the railing, holding myself upright against a screaming and jumping crowd.  I was doing my fair share of screaming and jumping. 

“Come on!  Come on!”

Hooves and colours thundered past us in a million-dollar flat-race.    My eyes were fixing on a bay racehorse, the favourite to win, then losing her in the blur of motion. 

“Come on!  Come on!”

The jockey was a beloved acquaintance and a national treasure.  Strange that you can love an acquaintance who you simply haven’t had time to become friends with.

“Come on!  Come on!”

The excitement of the race was my short respite from going under, but…

“Come on!  Come …come….ooooohhh…awwwww………”

Sixth place.  How?  The horse was at her peak, the jockey skilled and trusted.  While other spectators celebrated their win, I walked round to the stables, dispirited but ready to comfort the jockey.

There he stood, still wearing his helmet, saddle in hand: a lot poorer in both money and prestige than he could have been, if ONLY he’d been in first place. 

He smiled.  Not a trace of sadness or humiliation (my predicted emotions for him), and said:

“Today wasn’t our day.  You can’t push the river.  We’ll have another day. ” 

You can’t push the river.  There I was, open-mouthed, taking that in.  My life was boiling over with difficulty.   And yet here was a just-beaten sage in jodhpurs, handing down wisdom from pretty much every culture who had faced tribulations, failed, learned, survived and thrived. 

My troubled-mind eased: today is not my day.  I couldn’t fix or control anything: I can’t push the river. But I could breathe and let go.  And wait it out: I’ll have another day.

And there. 

Just like that.

Things did not get better. 

But I did.

And slowly, in the time it takes for a river to flow its course, life turned out…alright (…perhaps better than alright)

Was this kismet?  Fate?  Chance? Free will?  I have no bloody idea: go find your own philosophical jockey and get his opinion.  But I do know that the bad times come and go.  And so do the good times.  It passes.  It all passes.  How I respond to the comings and goings, and whether I seek calm in the thrills, and hope in the spills, is up to me.

[creativemorningsdubai]

Thursday, April 21 is the next CreativeMornings in Dubai!

Ramadan Kareem. We are back live and in person at ATÖLYE Dubai, our exclusive partner, in Emirates Towers. This month is all about KISMET,

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Reserve your place!

Ramadan Kareem. We are back live and in person at ATÖLYE Dubai, our exclusive partner, in Emirates Towers. This month is all about KISMET,

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Missed Laila Binbrek talking about La Biennale di Venezia?

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Thursday, April 21, CreativeMornings in Dubai 73!

Marilyn Zukhour and Tala Odeh join us to talk KISMET and being Cosmic Centaurs!

Reserve your place!

Ramadan Kareem. We are back live and in person at ATÖLYE Dubai, our exclusive partner, in Emirates Towers. This month is all about KISMET,

[creativemorningsdubai]

Thursday March 24th is our 72nd CreativeMornings in Dubai morning motivational with Laila Binbrek.

Register now seating is limited!

We are LIVE and IN PERSON at ATÖLYE in Dubai! Coffee and light snack are on us and we look forward to seeing you, laughing with you and sh

Every month we like to lead into our talk with an opinion piece and this month's essay is by our host James Piecowye.

Back Story

by James Piecowye

“Never assume you know someone else’s truth. Everyone has a back story.”

-Laila Binbrek

I can’t get Laila’s back story quote out of my head.

I must have started this piece 15 times trying to bring to the page what it is about this quote that keeps pulling me into my memories.

My back story, is messy, disconnected, funny, heartbreaking at times, motivating at other times and I wouldn’t change a single thing even if I could.

Yet, I only selectively share my back story and I almost never share what I like to think of as the pivotal moment in my back story with anyone.

Maybe I don’t want to expose a vulnerability in myself by sharing my back story?

Maybe I don’t want to appear to be different from you by sharing my back story?

Maybe I don’t want to share my back story because I want to maintain a public and private me?

By not sharing my back story you don’t have a complete picture of who I am.

By not sharing my back story you are forced to make decisions about what I do, the value of my contributions and even my desirability as a friend based on incomplete information.

Maybe the problem I have is not the wanting to share my back story but the how do I open the door to sharing my back story.

How do you fit the events of a fishing trip that ended tragically in the summer 1975 into a conversation?

For 22 years I have had business cards printed at Zayed University and behind my name are the letters PhD and MB.

In 22 years not a single person has EVER asked what MB stands for, not even the person approving the printing has knocked on my back story door.

Yet as I sit here writing this, I hesitate to share any more details even though I am showing you the door to knock on.

My back story is the missing puzzle piece to what I do and who I am.

Your back story is your missing puzzle piece.

What I have learned from 71 CreativeMornings events is that we all need to find our own channel to tell our back story and as vulnerable as we might think it makes us telling that story will not only be personally liberating but it creates the basis upon which a richer relationship with the people we interact with can be built.

My channel is podcasting.

I am going to fill in the missing pieces of my back story puzzle by recording a podcast drama because as Laila has reminded me my story is my truth without which you really don’t know me.

What about you?

What is your back story and how will you share it?

[creativemorningsdubai]

Next Speaker March 24th Laila Binbrek!

The next speaker, March 24, is Laila Binbrek the woman behind the UAE Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia.

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Laila Binbrek is speaking at CreativeMornings in Dubai March 24th.

https://creativemornings.com/talks/laila-binbrek

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The next speaker at CreativeMornings in Dubai is Laila Binbrek Thursday March 24th.

https://creativemornings.com/talks/laila-binbrek

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https://creativemornings.com/talks/rashid-al-awadhi

It is time for CreativeMornings in Dubai #71 with Rashid Al Awadhi.

Our framing essay this month is from one of our community members and the start of yet another way we here @CM_Duabi are trying to give this community a voice.

The Monumental of the Little Things

By Aldrin Silva

Growing up in a place where physical objects are meant to be monumental, some tend to overlook the non-physical possibilities of something being monumental in nature. Me – I look for the monumental in the smallest or more personal things in life.

A good example would be my personality. I’d like to say I’ve been shaped by face-to-face role models, but, most of what I am comes from a TV series called M*A*S*H*. If you’re not old enough to remember the premise, it was based on a frontline medical unit in the Korean War in the mould of a comedy-drama, complete with a laugh track. Emotional stuff with a lot of laughs. I watched it for the first time when I was 14. Back then, everybody wanted to be the main character, Dr. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, including the wit, sarcasm and largeness of character he was. Most of my “humour” comes from his stylings, which means almost no one today gets it.

I’ve watched the entire series once a year, every year since getting them on DVD in 2003. And upon every watch, I find myself noticing more personality traits from the other characters that I had taken on imperceptibly. In fact, those other traits are something that I find myself growing into more each year – BJ’s charm and easygoing nature balanced with a righteous temper; Colonel Potter’s almost Solomon-like wisdom and grit; Margaret’s non-nonsense attitude and hidden funnies; Charles’ appreciation for finery bordering on superciliousness but hiding a well of emotional fortitude; Father Mulcahy’s faith in humanity and compassion; Klinger’s focus and drive in everything he does.

Each of these traits has guided me in ways to treat my fellow sapiens. The show was about the horrors that humanity can inflict on itself balanced by what could be termed as insanity but dressed up in a way that makes you reconsider your notions on people and their experiences. I’ve found that maintaining that balance is one of the most difficult aspects of my personality, something that takes enormous measures of focus, even on your worst of days. But, in the end, it’s actually something I’m most proud of, and I consider that balance in myself, my most noteworthy monumental achievement thus far.

[creativemorningsdubai]

Next Speaker Rashid Al Awadhi MONUMENTAL is the theme!

February 17th, 2022, 8:15 AM – 9:30 AM GMT+4 Hosted at ATÖLYE Dubai

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January 2022 CreativeMornings is all about the theme FREE!

Ella Spira and Pietra Mello-Pittman the dynamic duo behind Sisters Grimm are speaking!

This month our theme essay is by Randah Taher.

Permission to Live Free

By Randah Taher

“Don't want to be sweet and neat Don't want someone living my life for me Want to be free.”

Said Toyah in her song “I want to be free”.

The 80s are so last century, but the feeling of wanting to shed our skin to bring our true selves out is always in the present tense. We feel like pretending to smile for the picture, not for a moment or two, but for long months and years on end. Ooh, that face muscle hurts so bad.

I was only 4 years old when this song came out. So I can’t say I remember it. Yet I remember clearly the freedom I sought in my childhood to choose my own friends without my parent’s approval, to travel on my own to destinations I know nothing about, to experience life without a pre-approved itinerary. I followed mostly my intuition and it served me really well until I started bringing logic into the picture so that I can explain my creativity better. I ruined a big part of it because of that limited freedom I put myself in.

We take this picture-perfect frame to work. We try to fit in with how we dress, act and even how we think. We don’t feel free to approach problems in new undiscovered ways.

Too risky.

But when someone suggests something radical and it gets approved, we moan and regret not sharing that same idea since we thought about it a week ago. We didn’t feel free enough to share it out loud and ruin that picture. Did you experience this lately?

I sometimes still do.

Here’s your permission to be and act free.

Start the day with a new routine. Experiment with your next meeting with a physical exercise. Write on the walls instead of typing on the computer. If it makes you alive and with a sense of freedom, why hold back? After all, the term “leisure time inventions” didn’t come out of nowhere.

That’s when a new product or process occurs when the “inventor” is away from the workplace and in contact with people from outside his/her field of work.

Read: free.

And so Toyah continues ..

“We should live and let live And all live our dreams"

[creativemorningsdubai]

January 2022 CreativeMornings is all about the theme FREE!

Ella Spira and Pietra Mello-Pittman the dynamic duo behind Sisters Grimm are speaking!

This month our theme essay is by Randah Taher.

Permission to Live Free

By Randah Taher

“Don't want to be sweet and neat Don't want someone living my life for me Want to be free.”

Said Toyah in her song “I want to be free”.

The 80s are so last century, but the feeling of wanting to shed our skin to bring our true selves out is always in the present tense. We feel like pretending to smile for the picture, not for a moment or two, but for long months and years on end. Ooh, that face muscle hurts so bad.

I was only 4 years old when this song came out. So I can’t say I remember it. Yet I remember clearly the freedom I sought in my childhood to choose my own friends without my parent’s approval, to travel on my own to destinations I know nothing about, to experience life without a pre-approved itinerary. I followed mostly my intuition and it served me really well until I started bringing logic into the picture so that I can explain my creativity better. I ruined a big part of it because of that limited freedom I put myself in.

We take this picture-perfect frame to work. We try to fit in with how we dress, act and even how we think. We don’t feel free to approach problems in new undiscovered ways.

Too risky.

But when someone suggests something radical and it gets approved, we moan and regret not sharing that same idea since we thought about it a week ago. We didn’t feel free enough to share it out loud and ruin that picture. Did you experience this lately?

I sometimes still do.

Here’s your permission to be and act free.

Start the day with a new routine. Experiment with your next meeting with a physical exercise. Write on the walls instead of typing on the computer. If it makes you alive and with a sense of freedom, why hold back? After all, the term “leisure time inventions” didn’t come out of nowhere.

That’s when a new product or process occurs when the “inventor” is away from the workplace and in contact with people from outside his/her field of work.

Read: free.

And so Toyah continues ..

“We should live and let live And all live our dreams"