We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brenden Bish a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brenden, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
The poster on the back of my door showed a baseball player in full swing tracking the ball he had just smashed with his bat. I would open and close my door day in and day out gazing up at this baseball player and although I didn’t know his name or what team he played for, I seen myself in him. Baseball was the first sport I ever played and he was a black man. While both of these truths contributed in me seeing myself in this professional athlete, the biggest had nothing to do with his sport or ethnicity but rather his faith.
Underneath his photo sat a paragraph that I carried with me for as long as I could remember.
Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Growing up in a Christian household, we would have scriptures thrown at us left and right reminding us of what to do and what not to do. But the scripture that sat underneath this photo was one that helped birth the confidence that I still carry til this day. It also reminded me that whatever I put my hands to, regardless of how difficult or tall the task, I had the strength and perseverance within myself to get it done.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m an International Poet who is taking my Poetry Career to new heights. At the moment I am also hosting multiple shows and workshops to bring other poets and aspiring writers to the stage to share their art and stories. With curating multiple shows and events, I’m always looking to find new artist and poets to connect with. So whether you’re a seasoned poet or looking to perform for the 1st time don’t hesitate to connect with me so we can get a few shows put together.
I’m also the current Executive Director of the Mosaic Coalition in the state of Connecticut. We are a Non-Profit organization that is dedicated towards Educational Options, Advocacy, and Community Empowerment. At the moment, we work in collaboration with LEAD of CT and have been able to expand to 6 cities in Connecticut and look to continue expanding to 10 cities by the close of 2025.
At our Community Centers we have launched multiple initiatives and programs from ESL classes, Zumba and Yoga classes, Chess Programs, Swimming Lessons, Sailing, Woman’s Empowerment, Financial Literacy workshops, Musical Instrumentation Lessons, and much more.
We are currently working on creating our own schools in 3 of the cities where we have established Community Centers.
The biggest way people can support us at the moment is by connecting with us and sending in Community Support Letters for the schools we will build that will allow us to create our own curriculum and quality of education.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Teamwork, Leadership, and Service. These three qualities are pillars in my life when it comes to values and success.
Having been blessed to have played several sports that were all based on being a team player, I’ve found that teamwork is a way to ensure that you can accomplish goals and tasks that are bigger than yourself and have the ability to contribute to a legacy that can last much longer than our own lifetimes.
A quote that I live by is “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go with a team.
Leadership is another quality that I believe is huge when it comes to carving out your own path towards success and most importantly, discovering who you are. I used to hold onto this idea that Leaders had to be loud, aggressive, or even charismatic in order to get others to follow them. I’ve since discovered that this isn’t true and that Leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the most soft spoken people are great leaders who lead by example and more than anything, bring out the best in others.
Above all, Service is the quality I’ve seen have the biggest impact on my life and the life of others. When we arrive at the realization that our lives are made better when we find the purpose in learning how to serve others without expectations or strings attached it has an effect on ourselves that other people can recognize and admire. More often than not, it is this admiration for observing someone else truly walk in their purpose and answer the calling in their lives that inspires us to seek the same type of self actualization and path in service.
For myself, I watched my parents and elders take on a life of service. Seeing this example set in my life has given me the foundation of service to others in my culture and community which has quite literally taken me across the world giving me opportunities as a volunteer that I could have only imagined. As a volunteer, I’ve been able to live and teach in Valparaiso, Chile in two High Schools. This experience helped me learn a new language and also set the stage for me to be able to travel all of South America. It was in this year of my life that I was able to carve out a specific plan to continue traveling the world and as soon as I returned home to the states from South America in 2017, I acted on my plan and found myself teaching in Asia in Gunma, Japan the very next year. I know that this amazing opportunity of living overseas in multiple countries would have not been possible if I was unable to find the value in service while volunteering first in the United States and then once again in South America.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
At the moment I am seeking writers, poets, artists, comedians, and creatives who are interested in coming together to build creative spaces within our communities in the North East. Whether you are someone that is well established or someone new in the world of art and creativity, I’m looking for people that still do believe in the collective spirit of the human species regardless of how much negativity or dispair is promoted in our news, airwaves, and social media feeds.
I am currently putting together a small collective of poets, artist, comedians, dancers, and creatives who are willing to share their stories, art, jokes, poems, songs, etc to diverse audiences across the tri-state area. These performances and shows will take place within the last 6 months of this year. The themes for these performances will be centered around the beautiful struggle of navigating a fast paced changing world that is filled with pretty lies and ugly truths.
Even if creative expression isn’t your thing and you are someone who is well versed in organizational skills, planning, and outreach, “We need you too!” so please don’t hesitate to reach out and tap in with us.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://mosaicoalition.org/
- Instagram: @Balanc3
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MosaicCoalitionusa
Image Credits
Belcher Digital belcherdigital.wixsite.com @belcherdigital
