About the Book
This is a book about fires - figuratively speaking.
The ones that entrance us. The ones that gather us. The ones that consume us.
The ones we find ourselves at the center of. The ones we set ourselves.
In this we can find the light to make our way to the Deep Work from personal crisis to self-renewal.
Controlled Burn is a part memoir, part DIY manual, part Call to Arms from Jeremy Fiebig. This offering both shares the author's journey and honors the one we all must take through thick forests and thin places to emerge as the one the world needs us to be.
In a departure from the usual self-help modalities, Fiebig offers us his journey of self-discovery and self-renewal through trauma and personal crisis to the rich possibilities of embodiment and creativity, first by examining what in our lives are on fire, and then inviting us to convert the destruction and danger of our fires to the creative, sustaining work of community, belonging, and art. A theatre artist, teacher, and "Renaissance man," Fiebig mixes big visuals with practical guides as he navigates issues from personal deconstruction to meditation, Alejandro Jodorowsky's Shamanism to church cathedrals, thin spaces to fairy tales, Carl Jung and active imagination to motivation and inspiration.
Controlled Burn moves from autobiography to workbook, prompting us along the way to form bodies of togetherness and transformation, envisioning a metaphorical "Bonfire Experience" as the place where our humanity is revealed -- and where the magic of our communities and selves may be truly known.
About the Author :
Jeremy Fiebig (he/him/his) is a maker of bonfires and the communities around them. As a working artist, teacher, organizer, coach, consultant, and seeker, he creates and facilitates moments of joy, reflection, and shared humanity. In his work, he helps folks delight their communities through transformational events, stories, design, and content that earn vibrancy, value, and investment.Jeremy is a Renaissance man. Having trained in theatre, cultural performance studies, Shakespeare, directing, dramaturgy, and a host of liberal arts, he is now Professor of Theatre & Directing at Fayetteville State University, and works professionally in the theatre as a director, actor, and singer, all while serving as Artistic Director and Playmaker at Sweet Tea Shakespeare, a small theatre company he founded in 2012. He's published articles on Shakespeare and the intersections of audience studies, company training, team formation, and project management. In college, he spent time as a music and religion major before settling on theatre and cultural performance -- just enough time to make him dangerous, you might say -- and he continues to fold in thinking from these and other areas into his work.Jeremy is a community builder. As a founder, nonprofit arts and civic leader, and student of the world, he's served on and helped to develop boards for small arts organizations, public libraries, historic resource commissions, and sports venues. As a writer, educator, facilitator, coach, and consultant, Jeremy works with a range of students and clients, from college undergrads and high school students to adult learners in the community to entrepreneurs and "solo show" operators to small businesses, nonprofits, and religious institutions. His work centers on helping folks discover and facilitate authentic moments of their own humanity by engaging senses of wonder, presence, and vulnerability. Jeremy brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in how audiences think and feel -- and how we can create moments of pause, relief, and challenge to them so that they may, in turn, make even more moments of impact.Jeremy resides in Fayetteville with his wife, Nan, and their daughter, Elliott, son, Owen, and dog, Sandy.
Review :
"Controlled Burn is both a vulnerable memoir and a functional workbook centered on setting your life on fire (in a good way, as the author reminds us.) Fiebig uses fire as a flexible language for presenting kindling to the reader and, perhaps most importantly, invites the reader to light some fires of their own." - Adrienne Trego, Visual Artist & Arts Administrator
"Through his illuminated descriptions of his own experiences with 'active burning', the author allows us access to alternate perspectives and viewpoints into the duality of the nature of creation and destruction, and why both are necessary in order to find true balance in all aspects of one's life." - Jessica Johnson, MA, MA, CCC-SLP, Artist, Scientist, & Humanist
"Jeremy's book is a moving account of the sort of growing crisis that can creep into someone's life unnoticed until they look around and realize it has become pervasive and debilitating. In describing his path out of his own unhappiness, Jeremy hits on a potent metaphor of burning and bonfires, and the healing power of creative energy, spiritual renewal, community, and carefully managed destruction. It is a valuable work of personal memoir and a helpful guide for anyone looking to break free from corrosive and unfulfilling patterns of behavior, and replace them with sources of warmth and renewal." - Robert John Gibbs, MFA, Screenwriter & Educator
