An Interview with Angela Mack

Author of "Chronic Creativity: A Diagnostic Look at the Condition and How to Become Infected"

By C. Freeman, June 2006

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Q: What is the area in which you are most passionate?

A: Currently, I am the most passionate about race relations in America. I am also passionate about the Kingdom of God and using the arts as a vehicle by which society and people can be changed. It’s amazing how many sermons I have preached using the arts and nobody even realized it until they thought long and hard about it later. The arts can get a message across in ways that normal speeches or conversations cannot. It is a form of communication.

Because of my upbringing, I never learned how to effectively communicate as a person through conversation. Writing and the arts allows me to converse. It’s really the only language that I know and am fluent in. Talk to me one and one, and you will definitely get a quieter, meeker, more shy part of me... but that’s not the real me. I am full of so much passion that it frightens even me at times! How does a person with so much passion communicate with others healthily? Via the arts!

Q: How have the Arts influenced your life?

A: When I see something artistically very good or something that moves me, I will carry that memory very strongly. I am very forgetful about “day to day things” but I can tell you some of the artistic things that have moved me the most and influenced me. That is the cool thing about the arts. If you see it or hear it, you can catch it if you have the right sort of mind.

Q: What have you done in the Arts to influence others?

A: I care about justice. There are people who deserve to play music who haven’t gotten a chance due to power issues. I like to see the underdog come on top. That is why I care so much about promoting these long forgotten artists in Grafton. They deserve to be honored. Just because a person is the wrong race or from the wrong place in the societal structure doesn’t mean that they can’t be lifted higher. This is part of where my passion for the Kingdom of God comes in. Jesus delighted in lifting up those who society rejected and deemed unworthy. I guess that as an artist, I have had it done to me many times. It has hurt me so badly that I want to do all that I can to help others.

Q: Who do want to emulate in your life?

A: I really want to emulate the love of God. It sounds trite and very religious. But I mean it.

Q: Is there someone whose work has influenced (in or out of the Arts)?

A: Rich Mullins has been a huge inspiration to me because, although he could have been just another wealthy Christian artist, he chose to give his money and life away to missions... particularly the Native Americans. When I graduated from high school as an honor student, I bounced back and forth between wanting to be a star on Broadway to wanting to be a music missionary. I think that I really have a passion for missions... so did Rich.

Queen Esther in the Bible is another fan of mine. I really see myself as a queen and feel that it is my duty to use power to help and lift up others. I take this role very seriously and don’t really tell anyone that I secretly view myself as a queen.

Maya Angelou tops it up there as well. I would do anything to be able to just write songs and poems and musicals all day while visiting with friends throughout the day like she does. Actually, anyone in the arts really inspires me. I have a special fondness for artistic people and can spot them a mile away. I think they are often misunderstood. •

About the Author | More by Angela Mack
Angela K. Mack is the Marketing Director and a Performing Arts Instructor at the North Shore Academy of the Arts. She enjoys composing music and writing articles and interviews in her spare time at creativeconnectionarts.com. She has spearheaded a revival of Paramount Records with her award-winning music history website. Her passion for spirituality, creativity, the arts, and race relations fuel many of her creative endeavors.

08/02/08