Beyond the Clock Artist-in-Residence Podcast Reflection: Brigid Reedy | Gems and a Recipe
By Nikiko Masumoto
One of my hopes as Beyond The Clock’s Artist in Residence for 2026 is that I can continue the deep listening of last year’s incredible artist in residence, Eliza Blue. Ms. Blue’s final creation came in the form of original songs, each one dedicated to an artist who shared their work through Beyond The Clock in 2025. The album is titled Slow Rivering Home - it’s a must listen for so many reasons. Click here to check out the album!
Each song is singular in tone, melody, and lyrics. Some songs feel haunting, others have touches of loss and longing, others fill me with the wishes and softness of a lullaby. Each of them incorporate direct language and core values from each artist. Beauty is overflowing in each verse and note.
For better or worse, I cannot carry a tune. (Once when I was a child in church singing enthusiastically, a patron nearby leaned over to me and softly said that I did not have to worry about singing so loudly.) So I’ve set out a different kind of challenge: to create a ‘recipe’ from each artist’s offering.
The incomparable Brigid Reedy was our first guest! In case you missed it, here’s a link to the BTC podcast episode with Ms. Reedy. Weeks after listening, there are many moments and ideas from the podcast episode that are stuck on me, like honey on fingertips giving lingering sweetness.
The themes in this episode are incredibly wide-ranging from the diversity of cowboy history in the American West, to special experiences of education on the land and through parents who brought Brigid to many arts and culture gatherings in rural life, and the wisdom of relationships with horses and the idea of pursuing life-long learning: “a retreating horizon” mindset. But I want to hone in on one particular perspective that was incredibly expanding for me!
The most surprising moment of the conversation for me was a single moment when the subject of elders came up. I was in awe when Ms. Reedy expressed care and thought about the next generation of cowboy poets. The sentiment doesn’t really seem that unique as I write it now – many of us in our families, towns, farms, landscapes, communities, and cultures are worried about carrying on and passing along traditions and practices across generations; but what is astonishing about Ms. Reedy’s perspective is that she’s only in her 20s!
My developmental consciousness of being a relative elder has only just begun and I think I have almost 15 years of white hair beyond that of Ms. Reedy (and she still might not have a single white hair). Still in the budding decades of her journey, Ms. Reedy has conceptualized herself and her peers and important keepers and transmitters, elders even, of the crafts, arts and cultures she’s part of. For Ms. Reedy, the concept of an elder is less about chronological age and more about relative position. Each one of our lives are like one stitch on a crochet hook; if you miss one stitch, the whole design of the scarf or blanket gets off.
This view invites us to think more creatively and vastly than being bound only by biological family lineage (as a rural queer person, I’m always a fan of the liberation and possibility this invites!). Instead of locking ourselves into thinking we arrive at being an elder at a certain age or when a next generation is born, we can embrace the constant sharing of culture and teachings in many more forms repeatedly with all ages. What a beautiful re-framing of age and consciousness about the flow of knowledge through us!
Here’s a recipe for “Any-age Elderhood.”
This format is meant to mix both playfulness and seriousness. (How many times have you either said or heard something like, “I really should ask so-and-so to show me how to do something before they get too old.” OR, “I really need to share with someone younger how to do this before I forget or it becomes too cumbersome”?). The format of a recipe also is an invitation for your adaptation and substitution.
Please share back with us your thoughts either about the podcast episode and/or about this recipe! I would love to hear about your experiences of learning and teaching across an expansive idea of generations and elderhood.
About the 2025–2026 Beyond the Clock resident Artist: nikiko masumoto
Nikiko Masumoto (she/her) is an organic farmer and artist. She is Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American, and stewards the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic fruit. She’s co-written several books, including most recently a children’s book, Every Peach is a Story, with her father David Mas Masumoto. Nikiko is an arts-leader and co-founder of Yonsei Memory Project, an arts-based initiative to activate Japanese American history in the Central Valley. She served on USDA’s State Committee, and volunteers on various non-profit boards. Her most cherished value is courage and most important practice is listening.