Well hello my friends!
I am back. I want to say a big thank you to Lilly for driving the old blogmobile for the past couple of weeks whilst I have been sunning myself and dreaming new dreams for Jasmine Street!
In the meantime I did of course come back home to product - with the exciting but at times daunting task of curating the visit of ARKA Teatr from Poland on their way home from the Edinburgh Festival. This was always a hairbrain notion - I had no funding and no real support to start with. But then that support came and it keeps coming in abundance. People have joined me in making it happen from the most surprising of quarters and I am now blessed with a group of true supporters and a volunteer team who believe in making the apparently impossible - well - possible. Thanks to Maciej, Amari, Mya,Josh, Anoula, Cameron, Carl, Val, Ann, Michael, Tata, Farah, Anne and Edgar and others who are all giving of themselves to the realisation of this bonkers idea! Without them maybe the impossible might have just stayed - well - impossible. And to the over 40 people who have generously donated to my fundraising appeal - thank you - so far we have raised £1200 - I still need another £1300 so if you feel you can support the project please do donate at https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/bXhke
So ARKA's visit means this to me - a gathering of community to break bread in a simple but profoundly human way. And I am so excited about the show too because it looks at tough stuff. Set in the interior landscape of an imagined
Stephen Hawkings - it opens the continent of love, sex, disability, creativity and intellect in the context of an apparently broken body. Its edgy and painful but ultimately joyful and renewing! Please do come along to a performance next week - you can get tickets by calling Arc on 0208 594 1095 or book online
I am back. I want to say a big thank you to Lilly for driving the old blogmobile for the past couple of weeks whilst I have been sunning myself and dreaming new dreams for Jasmine Street!
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| I am really pleased with this pic taken at 6am at CR |
This could be a rather long and newsy blog..... or not? I hesitated to start it this morning - so much to marshall, so I visited that old procrastination habit, answered a few emails, posted some photos and drank too much coffee.
So now its 9am and a little late to start, but hey ho here goes!
The week in Cortijo Romero http://www.cortijo-romero.co.uk/ was extraordinary. In truth I did wonder if I had died and gone to heaven. Nestled in the arms of the Andalucian mountains - well at the very least it was a secret Garden of Eden!
The sun burned for most of the day and the small group of fellow travellers each did their own thing. I met and made friends with some wonderful people too!
My purpose for being there was to take some time out from the hustle and bustle and to renew and restore and mostly to write. I joined the group led by playwright Diane Samuels http://www.dianesamuels.com/ - she of Kindertransport fame and many other wonderful plays. She leads a regular course called Write for Life at Cortijo Romero.
This was not a course in getting published, or even refining or structuring already written works, no it was a course in process. It was both highly structured, following a clear methodology and at the same time, and because of this of course - a truly authentic process of accessing the unconscious mind. Diane uses a way of accessing writing called proprioceptive writing http://www.pwriting.org/ What is it?
Proprioceptive Writing (PW) is a method for facilitating emotional health, creative breakthroughs, and better writing. A technique for exploring the mind through writing, it is so easy that anyone can learn it.
The sun burned for most of the day and the small group of fellow travellers each did their own thing. I met and made friends with some wonderful people too!
My purpose for being there was to take some time out from the hustle and bustle and to renew and restore and mostly to write. I joined the group led by playwright Diane Samuels http://www.dianesamuels.com/ - she of Kindertransport fame and many other wonderful plays. She leads a regular course called Write for Life at Cortijo Romero.
We were a motley crew of six people, some of whom were at CR for the twentieth time! Our days began with breakfast (usually after a dawn swim in my case - my room being right next to the pool) followed by a morning session of writing from 10.30am-1pm. We sat in a small comfortable room and played.The afternoons were free to swim, lie in the orchard in the shade of palm trees, read, write, chat, take photos - have a massage, whatever! The course resumed each evening with a 'write', 25 minutes of non stop writing.
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| Diane Samuels |
Proprioceptive Writing (PW) is a method for facilitating emotional health, creative breakthroughs, and better writing. A technique for exploring the mind through writing, it is so easy that anyone can learn it.
PW is widely recognised as:
- an adjunct to the therapeutic arts
- a form of meditation
- a valuable writing tool, both for people wishing
to write and for those facing writing blocks
PW was developed and perfected at the PW Center in Maine from 1978 to 1995. From 1996-2006 it flourished in the heart of New York City. In 2006, it moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where it is situated today.
- an adjunct to the therapeutic arts
- a form of meditation
- a valuable writing tool, both for people wishing
to write and for those facing writing blocks
PW was developed and perfected at the PW Center in Maine from 1978 to 1995. From 1996-2006 it flourished in the heart of New York City. In 2006, it moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where it is situated today.
It was simply wonderful. The process invites you to simply write, whatever emerges without stopping, editing, judging, structuring. My experience was that it was akin to jumping into a cool river and just letting the flow take you wherever in the safe knowledge that all is well and that moment by moment little jewels simply present themselves. Without restriction and judgment - apart from the shape of the elegantly led sessions, we dived into the pool of personal and collective unconsciousness. And what jewels we found. All of us without exception. Images and feelings just tumbled in - some leaving us breathless with curiosity - some painful and others joyful. For me it was living evidence of the universal hugeness of the interior continents that live in all of us. I certainly found spaces and places in my own imagination hithertoo unexplored.
I guess some cynics might accuse the process of pandering to self indulgence and absorption. These could be loaded words that imply a need for control perhaps. But watching the elegance of Diane at work can only lead to an appreciation of the rigorous and disciplined practice in her case that gives rise to her authentic and delightful voice which in turn shapes her writing. I have to admit - I got hooked.
There was something in this too for me to learn about the nature of process versus product. I realise that in my job for many many years my emphasis has needed to be on producing work out there in the world. Its quite a male way of doing things - for sure if you want to build a house these are the skills you need. But to write - well maybe just being with the inner stories, narratives and characters is all you need to do for a while - and yes maybe at some future point you will want to use your energy to craft, form and structure a product to take to an agent or a publisher. But what I learned from Diane - was that all things must take their own natural time - if they are to be truly authentic.
So I went to CR thinking I might shape my book - and came away with the knowing that indeed I might just sit and let it evolve for however long it takes - until it may or may not manifest as a manuscript. I am very happy with this. I am going to join Diane's regular Writers Group in London and am so looking forward to it.
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| The Ball at Stephen Hawking's |
Change the world for a fiver!
For me bringing ARKA to Barking isn't simply a question of putting on a show - its about life, art and community and how these things come together to give us an experience of love and belonging. Particularly the Polish thing here in Barking too - living as I do in the middle of a small piece of Poland by the river Roding- I have learned a little more of what it means to be an immigrant.
Its a brave thing to leave your home country, start newly somewhere with no support networks or family, hoping in most cases that you will build a new and better life for your children. It seems to be a human impulse to do this against all the logical restraints. You jump in with no knowing how it will be. And talking to my little friend Veronika (9) over the past months has shown me how tough it is - to be ostracised and told to go home, to be laughed at because of the way you speak English. Not nice or comfortable stuff. But what I also see in this little acorn and her parents is an indomitable belief in themselves, in love and in possibility. Frankly - its inspiring!
So ARKA's visit means this to me - a gathering of community to break bread in a simple but profoundly human way. And I am so excited about the show too because it looks at tough stuff. Set in the interior landscape of an imagined
If you come on the 16th you will get to share in the buffet generously sponsored by Chief Superintendent Andy Ewing, Borough Commander for Barking and Dagenham.
Maciej, Anoula and I are off to Barking market now to meet Tata and do some more leafleting and chatting with people.
Have a great day and its good to be back in the driving seat! Thanks again Lil x
ps 12.30 - just got this message on Facebook from Ted Parker - former Principal of Barking and Dagenham College and Chair of the Barking and Dagenham CVS
'I saw the Arka production at the Edinburgh Fringe on Thursday - it was absolutely phenomenal - 90 minutes of sheer energy, imagination and creativity - brought together disability, sexuality and science in an amazing blend of music, dance and drama - can't recommend highly enough.'
ps 12.30 - just got this message on Facebook from Ted Parker - former Principal of Barking and Dagenham College and Chair of the Barking and Dagenham CVS
'I saw the Arka production at the Edinburgh Fringe on Thursday - it was absolutely phenomenal - 90 minutes of sheer energy, imagination and creativity - brought together disability, sexuality and science in an amazing blend of music, dance and drama - can't recommend highly enough.'
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