Negative Capability spins A Positive Note

VERY INTERESTING INDEED...I LOVE LEARNING NEW STUFF!  And I also love when what I learned actually might be a solution to what I was needing.   

I was brainstorming with myself (yes, something I often do) in order to create ideas for a name for a new event.  The event will highlight the talents of the artists in the Conservatory's "A Positive Note" musical program for kids with disABILITIES in a NEW partnership between the CS Conservatory and The Resource Exchange.  So this is what I found poking around on Google:

"Negative Capability"  

Basically my understanding/interpretation is that "negative capability" means:  being able to live with uncertainty and that beauty is found in allowing the mind to be open and not only on a quest for knowledge.  This seems very creative and artistic, right?

Future philosophers said that "negative capability" allows us to empower ourselves beyond society's constraints or what is deemed "acceptable".    NOW, doesn't that sound like what building indpendence for people with disABILITIES is all about!?!?!

So I learned that John Keats used this term only once, but it was a great influence on Romantic and philosophical thought. Here is a link to a copy of the letter he wrote in 1817 where he uses "negative capability": http://www.mrbauld.com/negcap.html

Here's what "the authority" (Wikipedia) has to say ... (Yes, I KNOW I need to study this further and get better references!)

"Negative capability describes the capacity of human beings to transcend and revise their contexts.^{[citation needed]} The term has been used by poets and philosophers to describe the ability of the individual to perceive, think, and operate beyond any presupposition of a predetermined capacity of the human being. It further captures the rejection of the constraints of any context, and the ability to experience phenomena free from epistemological bounds, as well as to assert one's own will and individuality upon their activity. The term was first used by the Romantic poet John Keats to critique those who sought to categorize all experience and phenomena and turn them into a theory of knowledge. It has recently been appropriated by philosopher and social theorist Roberto Mangabeira Unger to comment on human nature and to explain how human beings innovate and resist within confining social contexts. The concept has also inspired psychoanalytic practices and twentieth-century art and literary criticism." More at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability

This all may be too nerdy to turn into a catchy title for a concert on a Thursday night, but it got me excited nonetheless!

Update: here's a lovely video explaining "Negative Capability" http://youtu.be/B3tzz6V0lL0