We caught up with the brilliant and insightful June Guralnick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, June thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

From childhood! My journey began in a tenement in Washington Heights (a Manhattan neighborhood made famous by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical). Growing up in the Heights profoundly shaped my path as an artist and human being. The panoply of different cultures (Hispanic, Irish, Japanese, Greek, Jewish, African American, etc.) coupled with my family’s passion for the arts (‘Grandy’ Ben was a professional musician, Aunt Vivian a music therapist and Special Ed teacher, and my mom a pianist), inspired me as a young child to embrace my own creativity. I wrote poems by age five, my first story when I was eight, and at twelve took the IRT downtown to train to be a dancer. I knew, as only a child can know, that art was my destiny. A few years later, attending LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, I submerged myself in the prismatic worlds of visual arts and drama. Professional training ver the next decade at dance and theatre studios around the country and overseas, along with a college and grad degree (in theatre) subsequently gave proof that I was now ‘educated’ as an artist. Ha ha -or so I thought!

June, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Classifying my artistic journey over the past half century can be a tad challenging! That being said, Playwright/Author, Director, Producer, Dancer, CEO, Educator, Multi-Media Artist, and Community Arts Catalyst are some of the titles that trail after my name.

While in high school I had an experience that altered how I perceived art. In 1972, with other compadres from my high school, we ventured downtown to paint a mural on a boarded-up storefront. As the mural took shape, community residents – homeless men from a nearby shelter, bleary-eyed shopkeepers, caffeine-crazed cab drivers, harried mothers with kids in tow – stopped to offer their reactions. After the initial surprise wore off from our passerby’s comments, we decided to incorporate some of the suggestions. We soon realized the mural was transforming from our original sketch into something more vibrant, leading to a light bulb moment for me: artists collaborating with communities can be impactful both for the community and artist! A seed of understanding was planted in my ‘art-soul’ that would blossom throughout my life in a variety of enriching and sometimes provocative ways.

My artistic journey has included authoring fifteen plays and performance projects; leadership roles as the North Carolina Arts Council Theatre Arts Director, Executive Director of the Cultural Activities Center (TX), National Endowment for the Arts Theatre Administration Fellows (Wash. D.C.), and City of Raleigh Arts Commission Executive Director; and serving as an educator at institutions including John Jay College (N.Y.), St. John’s University (N.Y.), North Carolina State University, Guilford Technical Community College (N.C.), and St. Andrews Presbyterian College (N.C.). Additionally, I’ve served on boards and committees for national, regional, and local cultural organizations (and currently am Chair of the North Carolina Writers Conference).

Your awards and recognitions are numerous! What are you most proud of? 

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My core belief is that Art functions as both an act of individual creation and an act of engagement and connection with others. This understanding has been the flame that has been my creative homing beacon.

This belief strengthened during my three year stint as a North Carolina Arts Council Visiting Artist in the late 80s/early 90s. As part of my residency, I created a large-scale interdisciplinary project called THE HOME PROJECT, devoted to using art to begin the healing process in a racially-divided, sometimes violence-torn NC county. This work was life-changing for me, and over the years I’ve continued to create projects that capture the unique history and experiences of American communities. Some of my nationally-recognized interdisciplinary projects include: DREAMS-OF-FLIGHT involving over 1000 children in North Carolina and Ohio creating literature and art about flight for the Wright Brothers centennial celebration, as well as a travelling play authored by me; PROJECT GENERATIONS, a year-long creative writing project involving children, teens, and seniors; and FOOD FOR THOUGHT, an oral history project with seniors in rural North Carolina, resulting in the publication of a book containing stories, historic photographs, and old-time recipes.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When the pandemic struck, my fifteenth full-length play shut down in dress rehearsal, like every other new play in America! I was distraught, of course (this was a work I had dreamed of writing all my life – a veiled autobiographical account of my early family life – and finally I had finished it)! Surrendipitiously, a few weeks earlier, I’d been offered a teaching position with The Joel Fund (TJF), a Raleigh, NC non-profit serving military members. TJF wanted to offer writing classes for veterans as part of their Operation Art program. My experience working with veterans was limited – a decade earlier I had spent a year interviewing soldiers as part of the process writing my play, ACROSS THE HOLY TELL (about a female veteran returning home from the Iraq War). But my gut told me to accept the teaching position and I listened.

Transformative, life-changing, and sometimes gut-wrenching are some of the words that spring to mind when I describe this teaching journey. Over the last four years, I’ve taught veterans who are homeless, veterans suffering from PTSD, veterans lying in hospital beds, and for the most part, veterans who’ve never had the opportunity to write about their lives. Through a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Forces grant in partnership with the Department of Defense and Americans for the Arts, I was given the opportunity to lead creative writing classes for active duty, veterans, and staff at Walter Reed Hospital in D.C. This year, I was also honored to lead a creative writing class for women vets through George Mason University’s Veterans and the Arts program.

What veterans taught me about writing upended pretty much everything I thought I knew! It struck me that the powerful outpouring of breathtaking stories and poems I was witness to should be shared with other people – so last year I partnered with Artist Soapbox and we co-produced a limited podcast series: THE WRITE TO HEAL: SOLDIERS DEEP DIVE INTO STORYTELLING. We interviewed leaders who champion creative writing and the arts as a catalyst for soldiers’ healing, as well as soldiers whose lives have been radically transformed through story. The series was successfully received and is available at https://artistsoapbox.org/the-write-to-heal/ as well as other streaming audio platforms.

In a few words, how would you sum up your creative journey in life?

For five decades, my work has taken various shapes – plays, performance projects, books, oral history projects, multi-media works, exhibitions, community installations, and podcasts to name but a few – but my goal has always been the same: to tell stories and create space for the unique experiences, history, dreams, and struggles of Americans, with the hope that tolerance, understanding, and empathy can be born from engagement with Creativity!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://juneguralnick.com/

Image Credits
Teresa Pigeon