June 15, 2013
6:23 pm

posted by
Tamsin Smith

“Yet the absence of the imagination had / Itself to be imagined,” declares Wallace Stevens in his poem “The Plain Sense of Things.” Whether or not we acknowledge this interpenetration, the world is indeed what we make of it. We actively participate even – perhaps especially – when we place limits upon what is possible.

The very essence of Stevens’ poetry is its refusal to be tethered. The verse is challenging to those who seek defined meaning and rules of interpretation. The poems float above the laws of gravity. His verse is nothing if not a chorus of clouds refusing to lie still on solid ground. Herein likes its mysterious magnificence. (Click “Read More”)

May 19, 2013
12:16 am

posted by
Tamsin Smith

SSS is pleased to announce that Tamsin Smith has been tapped to lead the expansion and relaunch of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation. Read more on the new direction in blogs from Tamsin and Larry.

April 24, 2013
8:06 pm

posted by
Tamsin Smith

April 25 is World Malaria Day and I’ll be speaking on a panel about the power of grassroots supporters in spreading the buzz about the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets Campaign. A week or so later, I’ll be keynoting the Bay Area Leadership Summit of another UN Foundation initiative, the Girl Up Campaign, which is being organized and hosted by a group of Stanford students with a passion to empower adolescent girls around the world. My message will be simple: people are everything. (Click to “Read More”)

April 23, 2013
1:41 am

posted by
Tamsin Smith

The second coming has arrived. All bang, no slouch. Meet Issue Two of Radio Silence. It’s everything one could want from a magazine uniquely dedicated to Literature and Rock & Roll. This latest brilliant love child mixes everyone from David Remnick talking Bob Dylan, to Jim White riffing on David Byrne’s luminous “superwhiteness,” to selections from Edith Wharton and the forgotten (until now) novelist Don Carpenter.

Each essay felt like an unforgettable first kiss and each goosed me to muse that life should be lived like an endless series of unforgettable first kisses. Whether it’s words or rhythm sections raining down, there’s clearly a magical alchemy at the intersection of these genres. Radio Silence is full of great writers chronicling musically-induced epiphanies and musicians recounting ecstasies bred by verse and prose. Fans of both will feel giddy at this blurring of the lines between artist and audience. Mr. Yeats, perhaps at last, the falcon can hear the falconer. (Click “Read More”)

April 3, 2013
11:00 pm

posted by
Tamsin Smith

Tamsin Smith co-authored a case study on harnessing the power of stories in business with Professor Jennifer Aaker and Tina Sharkey. Click here and pull up a seat around the campfire. We dig into the signature stories and challenging chapters of brands from (RED) to Apple, Chipotle to Zappos.

February 14, 2013
1:22 am

posted by
Tamsin Smith

Valentine’s Day – I should probably linger long on the topic of romantic love. Yet somehow such thoughts leave me feeling a bit selfish and small at the moment. Don’t get me wrong: I am a fan of the tender touch, the expansive dreamy possible. It’s just that far too little air-time is given to celebrating the power and promise of non-romantic love.

To be sure, Friends and Family (and the joys therein) do get props in popular culture, but what of love for those one may never meet? All this news about the Pope resigning and so little discussion of what it means today to love one’s fellow human beings in a world where war and hatred saturate the news of here at home and far away. (Click “Read More”)

January 13, 2013
8:17 pm

posted by
Tamsin Smith

The start of a new year seems a good point at which to turn one’s orbit around. Art is my prism — a way of looking out to look in. Proximity to another being’s inner struggle with, search for, or celebration of the ineffable breeds an intimacy too difficult or too frightening to attempt outside of the witness box. So I endeavor to witness myself more fully by looking through the eyes or “I”s of others. (Click “Read More”)

December 13, 2012
9:29 pm

posted by
Tamsin Smith

Tamsin recently shared her thoughts on the power of stories, girls, and play, in building and sustaining social impact movements. Click to watch the video.

December 8, 2012
7:47 pm

posted by
Tamsin Smith

The urge to ****. It comes on strong and wild and it fills you tip to toe. It may take you in the shower, when you’re tipsy in a crowd, or on top of a mountain with no one else in sight. The surrender is sublime, and so easy. Just open you mouth and it’s all right there inside. A singular but universal passion. It connects, shapes, and propels the human experience. It is the essence of fullfillment and release, fun and power, simplicity and profoundity all rolled into one tight syllable. To SING may be both the root and the flower of the most personal and most communal thing that we do. (Click “Read More”)

November 28, 2012
9:24 am

posted by
Tamsin Smith

EI editor and poet Tamsin Smith speaks with WordTemple host Katherine Hastings about the verses and images behind this new collection, inspired by the Bay Bridge.  The interview begins at 30:00.