Lawrence Creates Makerspace

09/24/2024

If you know students attending college in Louisiana or New Hampshire, help them get their proof of citizenship, which is a passport or a birth certificate. They must have this in order to vote. It takes time and effort. These state laws are specifically made to discourage young people from voting.

We document and analyze voting and election laws across all 50 states and D.C. Follow our detailed, near-real time analysis of voting rights legislation across the country.

09/10/2024

You all know I write a lot about actually listening to adolescents before you start a moral panic over their video games, social media or THEIR PHONES!! This podcast, taking down Haidt and Twenge's awful book on anxiety and teens, is hilarious and well documented. Listen to it for laughs and good research methods.

Is social media to blame for the teen mental health crisis? It's complicated!Thanks to Emily Weinstein, Amy Orben, Andrew Przybylski, Dean Burnett, Michael Mull

08/02/2024

I've signed the contract with Palgrave-Macmillan to publish a cross-over scholarly and trade book for the general public. We need to talk about freedom, because while we actually know exactly what it means on a daily basis, we’re told by our leaders that it’s something else. We know that we like to have a stretch of time ahead of us with no obligations and the opportunity to do the things we like to do the most. Most Americans have little personal freedom of this kind, and long for it. We’re told however, that we are the Land of the Free. Some politicians tell us that liberty is a strong national defense, a strong economy, or the opportunity to become an entrepreneur. Others believe their liberty depends on being free to discriminate against people based on race, gender, or religion. Too often, the conversation about liberty is about trivial demands like not having to wear a mask to prevent spread of infection. We need to change the conversation about liberty so that we can talk about our everyday psychological needs and the ordinary desires of people to live in families and communities where they don’t feel held down and held back all the time. The title is The Psychology of Liberty: Reclaiming Our Everyday Freedom.

05/31/2024

It's published and Open Access -- our article on the EEG-enabled Virtual Reality System!

More than 40% of the U.S. population have experienced mental health disorders since the COVID-19 pandemic. 40% of this group received no treatment for their mental illness. Barriers to treatment include stigma, prohibitive cost, and a belief that treatment is inaccessible, particularly in isolated o...

04/19/2024

Today was the last day of the CLEOS lab. We helped creative adolescents find their way along the invisible pathways to careers in the performing and fine arts, invention, writing, leadership, healing arts, and jobs that haven't been invented yet. Thousands of hours of counseling, tens of thousands of bits of data on their needs, and hundreds of counselors and psychologists trained to understand how to help people discover their creative potential. I'll spend the rest of my life publishing all that we learned about these magical young people. Thanks to all of my students, colleagues all over the world, friends, and family that supported my mad quest to make the world a safer place for imaginative kids.

02/06/2024

Last year I asked of my Facebook friends, "When do you feel free? What are you doing? " 102 of you answered with such rich information that I'm going to ask again. When do you feel free? What prevents you from feeling free? I hope you will all reply here! My book proposal on the psychology of freedom has been sent by the series editor at Palgrave-Macmillan out for review, so fingers crossed, your ideas will be included (if I use your info, I'll send you an IRB research consent form before asking you to participate into the book). Want to hear my talk on Possibilities of Freedom? Contact me!

02/05/2024

As I watch the Grammy awards, I think about how many of these artists had somebody who believed in them and showed them the way to their goal. That's what we do at CLEOS for young creative people. Counseling and comprehensive personality assessment for creative people every Friday until May free, at KU. Sign up here:

Schedule a session Fill out the form to be scheduled for our ONLINE OR IN PERSON COACHING! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or difficulty in using the scheduling form. Thank you for your interest in the CLEOS Program!It should be noted that only available dates are shown in the drop...

01/18/2024

We are opening up our CLEOS Creativity Counseling to small groups of students from all over the world! Friday morning sessions include online career assessment, individual counseling, and group counseling to help creative adolescents and young adults with career planning and counseling for procrastination, depression, and social and performance anxiety. Counseling is free for all. Our counselors are specially trained in the unique needs of people in the creative fields. Schedule here!

Schedule a session Fill out the form to be scheduled for our ONLINE OR IN PERSON COACHING! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or difficulty in using the scheduling form. Thank you for your interest in the CLEOS Program!It should be noted that only available dates are shown in the drop...

07/15/2022

This morning, it’s fairly quiet at the Pine Springs trailhead. It’s hot and not a lot of people are taking on Guadalupe Peak in the mid July heat. But 40 years ago, the place was abuzz with activity. Michael “Shorty” Powers, Robert Leyes, Donnie Rogers, Joe Moss, Dave Kiley, and John Galland, members of a Dallas-based organization known as POINT (Paraplegics on Independent Nature Trails), set out to climb Guadalupe Peak in wheelchairs. They began their journey 40 years ago today on July 12, 1982.

Before they even began, the group suffered its first setback. Overnight at the Pine Springs campground, Galland had developed a kidney infection that would prevent him from making the climb. The remaining five pressed on. Within the first 150 yards, Moss, Rodgers, and Powers had already taken tumbles, and it took the group 45 minutes to cover that short distance. This would be no easy task. About a mile into the climb, Powers is forced to turn back because of muscle spasms, but the group remains optimistic. "Boy, we've gotten up high...I haven't seen this far in a long time. I usually can't see over cars" Moss said around the one mile mark. By sunset on the first day the group had covered 1.75 miles of the 5 mile trail (at the time, the Peak Trail took a slightly longer route following the present day 'Stock Trail' at the lower sections - leading to a slightly longer but more stable first part of the climb).

Over the next few days we’ll be marking the 40th Anniversary of their historic climb by sharing photos and “real time” newspaper reports from 1982. Pictured here are the five members of POINT near the start of the Guadalupe Peak Trail on July 12, 1982 (Photographer Randy Eli Grothe/Dallas Morning News – WorldPressPhoto)

02/28/2022

If any of my old Makerspace friends know experienced riders who would like to volunteer at our Imagination Farm, we have great opportunities to ride and train! Not for new or rusty riders -- we hope to have programs for you soon!

08/16/2021

New project in the works at StormDoor Productions.

Excited to share. Humanities Kansas has awarded a grant via Lawrence Creates for a short documentary now in pre-production.

Queen Bee: African American Women Stitching Freedom. This film and public screenings will feature the history of African American quilting styles and practices in Kansas, particularly the stories of well-known quilter Marla Arna Jackson and her contemporaries.

Thanks also to our colleagues at Spencer Museum of Art.

Dr. Nicole Hodges Persley Director
Erika Kjorlie Geery Art Director
Jane' Franklin Pre-Production
Stephen Deaver Editor...production support from Jeremy Osbern and Chris Blunk.