Making LightCommunity conversationsJoin us

Next gathering · Provincetown

Come make
light with us.

A conversation with artists on sustaining creativity, courage, and connection in difficult times.

Plan to join us Why we gather
Nov17

November’s conversation

November 17, 2026

Time
6:00 PM
Place
Provincetown Commons
Address
46 Bradford Street, Provincetown, Massachusetts

Christopher Mirabile · Heidi Jon Schmidt · Candace Perry

Three artists, one generous room, and an honest conversation about continuing the work. Everyone is welcome—bring your questions or simply your curiosity.

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An open invitation

When the world feels dark, we gather.

“I felt that we as creatives needed to have some conversations about it. To support each other. To find ways to carry on.”

Making Light brings visual artists, musicians, writers, poets, and performers into one room to support their own practices—and the creative life of the whole community. There is no stage to impress and no prerequisite to belong. Everyone is welcome to participate.

November 17 · This month’s guests

Three voices.
One open conversation.

Each gathering crosses disciplines. What matters is not how we make, but how we keep making—and how we help one another continue.

Christopher Mirabile

Christopher Mirabile

Christopher Mirabile is a novelist, start-up mentor, and former corporate lawyer known for his love of rich storytelling rooted deeply in place. His debut mystery series follows Silas Lopez, a plainspoken former ranch hand turned police chief in Provincetown, Massachusetts. A full-time resident of Provincetown, Christopher draws inspiration from the town’s unique character and history. When not writing, he’s hiking with his dogs, taking photos, or exploring in the dunes with his wife.

Heidi Jon Schmidt

Heidi Jon Schmidt

Author of five novels and story collections, including The House on Oyster Creek and The Harbormaster’s Daughter; writer for The Atlantic and The New York Times, and creator of the Night Owl Substack.

Candace Perry

Candace Perry

Candace Perry is a writer, teacher, and social justice activist who holds the audacious hope that writing can change the world. Over fifty of her short plays have been produced in the US and Ireland; her five full length plays have had readings, workshops and productions in New York and Cape Cod theaters; and a dozen of her short plays have been produced online. Her short stories have been published in Ms. Magazine, The Sun, Best of THE SUN, Cape Cod Review, Cape Cod Women, Roanoke Review, and Summer Home Review. She is active in ArtPeaceMakers, the organization that produces the annual Martin Luther King Jr. walk in Wellfleet, and she also serves on the steering committee of the Cape Cod Coalition for Universal Healthcare, a local organization working for Medicare for All in Massachusetts. She is a trustee of the Helltown Players and a member of the Dramatists Guild. More info at candaceperryplaywright.info.

Save the dates

The conversation
continues monthly.

  1. December 15, 2026

Between gatherings

Something to
carry with you.

An evolving library for creative courage, community, and the work of staying awake to the world. Follow a thread, open a shelf, keep what helps.

Because the point has never been the objects we’re making, or even the genuinely interesting and at times truly beautiful art that has at times emerged in those objects. The point has been what’s emerging in us—which hopefully includes this deeper way of perceiving the world and the ways in which we can offer ourselves to the world as agents of discovery and change.

Jeannine Ouilette
Creative practiceWays to keep the work moving—even when the world feels like too much.
  1. Writing as ActivismThe Harvard CrimsonA reminder that ideas of change are powerful, and words can help carry them forward.
  2. Learning to WorkVirginia ValianA generous, practical essay about making meaningful work alongside anxiety and self-doubt.
  3. Staying creative in darker timesCreative BoomSuggestions for protecting a creative practice when the news and the world feel heavy.
  4. The MarginalianMaria PopovaAn uplifting ongoing conversation between science, art, literature, and what makes life meaningful.
  5. Imagination in an Age of CrisisRecommended readingEssays, poems, and reflections on the vital role imagination plays across cultural, environmental, political, and spiritual crises.
  6. Read This When Things Fall ApartKelly Hayes, editorA care package of history, personal stories, and practical advice for activists and organizers building power under demoralizing conditions.
Community & careThoughtful hosting, local solidarity, and making room for one another.
  1. 10 Ways to Turn a Small Business into a CommunityPriya Parker with Emma StraubA conversation about building a place people want to linger, return to, and help shape.
  2. What We Can Do to Protect Our NeighborsHeidi Jon Schmidt · Provincetown IndependentA local invitation to think clearly and act generously for the people around us.
  3. Making Light on WOMRJeannette de Beauvoir and Art DevineListen to a conversation about Making Light on Outermost Community Radio.
  4. Re-Humanizing “Them” — and UsJake NortonA moving essay on the danger of dehumanizing others and the work of staying connected.
Art & resistancePoetry, history, criticism, and artists refusing to look away.
  1. How art can deliver justice for refugeesHyperallergic“According to legal experts, such work can also play a role in accountability efforts, helping to convey testimony and corroborate survivor accounts, and even enter legal proceedings as evidence of mass atrocities.”
  2. Six Poems for Political DisasterBoston ReviewPoems for sitting with political catastrophe without surrendering imagination.
  3. On a Generation That Squandered Its PoetsRoman JakobsonA historic essay on the loss of artists and the stakes of cultural memory.
  4. Artists nationwide unite against the Trump administrationHyperallergicA look at artists finding collective voice and public purpose.
  5. How artists resisted fascism a century agoARTnewsA review of Andy Friend’s Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism 1933–1943.
  6. Ur-FascismUmberto EcoEco’s essential essay on recognizing the enduring patterns of fascism.
  7. How the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz survived the death campsLiterary HubAnne Sebba on music, survival, and the role of art amid genocide.
Listen & witnessSongs and testimonies that meet the moment directly.
  1. Don’t invade a winter people in the winterFacebookA reflection on Minneapolis, courage, and the refusal to give up one’s soul.
  2. The Streets of MinneapolisBruce SpringsteenA song released in response to the killing of Alex Pretti.
  3. A new protest songFacebookA song to return to when your heart hurts.
  4. A song written in the 1840sFacebookAnother older song still capable of lifting the spirit now.

Words to carry

Small lights for the long walk.

Words That BreatheLetters from Jeannette

A monthly newsletter with useful articles, short stories, writing tips, book reviews, practical takeaways, and occasional surprises.

Protect the borders of your attentionGurdeep Pandher

Compassion needs boundaries so that we can preserve the strength to return to the fire.

Seek joy as a daily act of defianceGurdeep Pandher

A call to make joy a healer, a compass, and a quiet revolution against despair.

Artists go to workToni Morrison

A reminder that difficult times call for language, imagination, and the work of repair.

Change drives creativityHrag Vartanian

A thought on why the desire to remake the world is bound to the creative impulse.

Keep a small light burningMaryam Mahjoba

A reflection on writing as shelter, witness, and a light against swallowing darkness.

The archive

Past conversations

A growing directory of the artists, questions, and practices that have passed through the room.

From the archive

Six voices.
Countless ways to make.

A changing selection from the artists who have joined us. Choose a portrait to meet someone new.

September 22, 2026

Sandy Longley

Sandy Longley is a former English professor from New York State, now a full-time Provincetown resident. Finishing Line Press published Navigating the Waters, her first poetry collection, and Passager Press published her second, Mothernest, in 2023. Her work can be found in many literary journals.

View this conversation
Sandy Longley · Dinah Mellin · Fred BoakEd Walsh · Zoë Lewis · Christopher MirabileScott Coffey · Kai Maristed · Scott CunninghamCandace Perry · Candy Hammond · Frank PoranskiHelen Grimm · Grace Emmett · Susan LambertArt Devine · Padraic (Paddo) Devine · Seamus DevineHeidi Jon Schmidt · Jay Critchley · Dinah MellinCody Sullivan · Jon Richardson · Sheryl JaffeeGrace Emmett · Amy C. Davies · Ken FieldFermin Rojas · Denise Coffey · Mike Carroll

The archive is growing; revisit these conversations whenever you need a little light.

Jeannette de Beauvoir

Meet the organizer

Jeannette de Beauvoir, organizer of Making Light

A storyteller making space for artists to stay connected to their courage—and to one another.

Jeannette is a bestselling author of historical and mystery fiction, a poet, arts radio host, and Provincetown resident. She created Making Light from a simple conviction: when times are difficult, creative people need a room where they can speak honestly, listen generously, and keep going together.

Visit Jeannette’s website

Come into the room

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the next conversation?

Tell us a little about yourself, ask a question, or let us know you’d like to attend.