tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46210120386628685522024-03-27T06:37:32.486+00:00Nicole Moore's BlogThis blog is a writing hub for those who are interested in Black literature and the literary arts in general. Includes Nicole's published articles, visits to a variety of literary events with photographs and a reflective narrative. Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-14452578851987959572023-10-30T00:19:00.008+00:002023-11-18T16:44:29.884+00:00Anthony Joseph in Conversation at the London Buddhist Centre<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLcfqdvOoQIprD-Dw15qa2hHlL4nzfnwAYKRZ2E4i-g5dXEJhHGGnEFK9M5Z1Zm4YgwvOk4xLAzdOdfsOU_9mSJ6jP3SanOQhIKLEvcqEdXxn3sclJnsOrsuUBq6zSG3vhp5oftODtwWo1IfaFdUz6WSOQJE6W9M4WG9OpPirzOAjtw93WKvX_p7B-iw/s2143/IMG_3087.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2135" data-original-width="2143" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLcfqdvOoQIprD-Dw15qa2hHlL4nzfnwAYKRZ2E4i-g5dXEJhHGGnEFK9M5Z1Zm4YgwvOk4xLAzdOdfsOU_9mSJ6jP3SanOQhIKLEvcqEdXxn3sclJnsOrsuUBq6zSG3vhp5oftODtwWo1IfaFdUz6WSOQJE6W9M4WG9OpPirzOAjtw93WKvX_p7B-iw/s320/IMG_3087.jpg" width="320" /></a>This time last week I was still reflecting on Anthony Joseph who read from his T S Eliot award winning collection of poetry <i>Sonnets for Albert </i>(2022). This really was a wonderful evening where Anthony was in conversation with Maitreyabandhu at the London Buddhist Centre, in East London on 21 October. This was part of a series of <a href="https://www.londonbuddhistcentre.com/poetryeast" target="_blank">Poetry East</a> events that the centre organise, held in the beautiful Buddhist Temple, which is adorned with an ambience of candles in abundance and vases of flowers that were remarkable to view.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My friend and I arrived early enough so as to get a front-row seat. Anthony was blessed with a full house and we were blessed with hearing many of the poems from <i>Sonnets for Albert</i>, written after the death of Anthony's father. The poems mainly stemmed from the absence of Anthony's father due to a range of factors including the fact that he had twelve children. Here's the first poem in the book's inside cover that sums up this theme perfectly:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">FLACK AND HATHAWAY</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My father would be gone.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Months into mystery.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But he persisted</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">in our longing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We saw him</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">maybe once, maybe</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">twice a year. We sang</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Flack and Hathaway,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">that he would come running.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And while we waited</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">the myth of him grew,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">till the anticipation</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">of his return</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">would fill each room. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3kdr3zaBGZNG-MzkhDy2xDnLccHI3J8pqXVjQFmAFyzFOw_hzYNe3zpG7zlog2-hq6a-rx-bQJfmTU0GaG6YeKm_8l0sjskq7ozyDf6jzeV-LoQTR5ibEz49indLpYHI_XvqFMsACqlx14FjbhHwJR2v4vp44cfARQNKOw0YlP9MQ9RBpe_WGEN4Cqw/s2072/IMG_3088.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2072" data-original-width="2052" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3kdr3zaBGZNG-MzkhDy2xDnLccHI3J8pqXVjQFmAFyzFOw_hzYNe3zpG7zlog2-hq6a-rx-bQJfmTU0GaG6YeKm_8l0sjskq7ozyDf6jzeV-LoQTR5ibEz49indLpYHI_XvqFMsACqlx14FjbhHwJR2v4vp44cfARQNKOw0YlP9MQ9RBpe_WGEN4Cqw/s320/IMG_3088.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>This event was so inspiring. I was moved by the emotional content of Anthony's poems, especially that despite the absence of his father, he grew to love him, which may have had something to do with Anthony living with his grandmother, his father's mother, who also experienced the same absence in her relationship with her son. Maybe growing up with his grandmother in Trinidad ensured that the connection with Anthony's father was less likely to be severed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anthony also discussed how the personal can be universal. I really like the way the book is structured; the shortness of the self-contained poems and their related themes didn't detract from the significance of their depth and breadth. I know it's a cliche but less is definitely more with this book. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bJ0UgeBmM3gRqwOzoo_L_e6u1Rdk26KThBd1JG-_1IVW_Ipe4y8_Z2hxIkuxROSySYwEkIR8I28ub-JkmKSyzKHtuI7o_uS3f_uo_OJRQxh2iY-D3Yy3pflMuH8BEuaMEuGLW4mgKCcA3pqbRqxctrfcPyF8S8X0dNE9PrlQi917D-pqt2VmXWip1A/s2277/IMG_3086.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2277" data-original-width="2150" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bJ0UgeBmM3gRqwOzoo_L_e6u1Rdk26KThBd1JG-_1IVW_Ipe4y8_Z2hxIkuxROSySYwEkIR8I28ub-JkmKSyzKHtuI7o_uS3f_uo_OJRQxh2iY-D3Yy3pflMuH8BEuaMEuGLW4mgKCcA3pqbRqxctrfcPyF8S8X0dNE9PrlQi917D-pqt2VmXWip1A/s320/IMG_3086.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><br />Some of the sonnets exceeded fourteen lines — I love a rebel poet! This was a deliberate action on Anthony's part, a kind of of rule-breaking, a manipulation of the form, acknowledging the imperialism of not just the sonnet's form but its history. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Black and white photographs taken in Trinidad and sprinkled throughout the book, was also a nice touch as we could see Anthony's father in a range of guises as well as other family members and garner a real sense of nostalgia. The white space behind each image worked really well to provide a slight distance from the text, a refreshing pause.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dgGGOO73z8s" width="320" youtube-src-id="dgGGOO73z8s"></iframe></div><br />I also thought it would be really interesting to explore writing in the sonnet form myself at some point, in exactly the same rule-breaking way. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This Poetry East event was so refreshing and thought-provoking, especially as I could resonate with the absent father theme although I didn't quite grow to love my father. Maybe it is a different scenario when you are growing up with your father's grandmother. How lovely that must have been for Anthony to at least find out about his father through his grandmother. It must be nice to be that close when you're growing up with your grandmother. I grew up with my grandmother so I totally understand that element.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>No Q&A!</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I mentioned this to Maitreyabandhu as I was leaving and he nodded as if to say yes I get you. There was more than enough time for a Q & A, since the event was two hours long, and included a tea-break too, so this was a missed opportunity. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I got around this by making sure to ask Anthony a question while I was getting his book signed. My question was: How much artistic control did you have when putting the collection of poetry together. Anthony responded by saying that he did have artistic control which included curating the order of the poems and the book's landscape and inclusion of imagery. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you get a chance to see Anthony Joseph, don't hesitate. You will enjoy the experience!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Author Bio:</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Anthony Joseph is a Trinidad-born poet, novelist, academic and musician. He is the author of four poetry collections and three novels. His 2018 novel <i>Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon</i> was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award, and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. In 2019, he was awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. As a musician, he has released eight critically acclaimed albums, and in 2020 received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Composers Award. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at De Montfort University, Leicester. Anthony was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize for <i>Sonnets for Albert </i>(2022)<i> </i>his first poetry collection since Rubber Orchestra in 2013. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><p></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5072178 -0.127586223.196983963821154 -35.2838362 79.817451636178845 35.0286638tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-2864958040549829702023-06-20T15:47:00.002+01:002023-06-21T14:05:44.922+01:00Claudia Rankine In Conversation with Nicola Rollock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVZph1cvt8EfrG4cwnaHmsO1nauKBwHlywyo7g4t8UDqcpXRWx3CTk5xNC-srytRvekJPMTpz6mbqyoaI7hhHTOdpA6rKC6_WTrpYs8mzlEMpE2RY14LwQZkLcrlkYePrGSdwtqA-Y4cetc47nAtdxuQ0Pqo0N29dq1DWm-WTteQAQWFjbNUmM8A/s4032/Claudia%20R%201.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVZph1cvt8EfrG4cwnaHmsO1nauKBwHlywyo7g4t8UDqcpXRWx3CTk5xNC-srytRvekJPMTpz6mbqyoaI7hhHTOdpA6rKC6_WTrpYs8mzlEMpE2RY14LwQZkLcrlkYePrGSdwtqA-Y4cetc47nAtdxuQ0Pqo0N29dq1DWm-WTteQAQWFjbNUmM8A/w262-h372/Claudia%20R%201.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">On 14 March 2023, I went to see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Rankine">Claudia Rankine</a> In Conversation with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Rollock" target="_blank">Nicola Rollock</a>, at the <a href="https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/" target="_blank">London Review Bookshop</a> (LRB) which holds 20,000 titles on two floors in Bloomsbury, London, plus there's a cafe that serves cake and tea!</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This was one of the best literary events I had been to in years. To say I'm a fan of Claudia Rankine is putting it mildly, so I made sure to sit at the front.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Claudia Rankine, poet, essayist and playwright, was at LRB to discuss a new forthcoming revised and re-issued version of <i><a href="https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/plot-claudia-rankine" target="_blank">PLOT</a></i>, (2023) her third collection of poetry, initially written in 2001, before Claudia Rankine had a child, as a thought experiment around what it means to decide to be an artist and to be a parent and the challenges that brings. <i>PLOT</i> is a poetry collection concerning pregnancy and motherhood told fictiously by using a couple named Erland and Liv to drive the narrative. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The text of <i>PLOT</i> crosses genres, existing at times in poetry, at times in dialogue, in order to arrive at new life and baby Ersatz. At most, the text explores what it means to be human and to invest in humanity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Excerpt</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">1</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Submerged deeper than appetite she bit into a freakish anatomy, the hard plastic of filiation, a fetus dream, once severed, reattached, the baby femur not fork-tender though flesh, the baby face now anchored.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What Liv would make would be familial, not foreign, forsaken. She knew this and tried to force the scene, focus the world, in the dream. Snapping, the crisp rub of thumb to index, she was in rehearsal with everyone, loving the feel of cartilage, ponderous of damaged leaves, then only she, singing internally, only she revealed, humming, undressing a lullaby: bitterly, sinkholes to underground streams ...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the dream waist deep, retrieving a fossilized pattern forming in attempt to prevent whispers, or poisoned regrets, reaching into reams and reams, to needle-scam a cord in the stream, as if a wish borne out of rah-rah's rude protrusion to follow the rest was sporded, split, and now hard pressed to enter the birth.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the dream the reassembled desire to conceive wraps the tearing placenta to a walled uterus, urge formed complicit.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">* * *</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilTY8wJTVW6kWGqf-DXhwVL3fNY6ewLdslNePA-CT4BI0ohjC7GFAGRIsHc7YNGt-rps_kMhxWo0xJzkEK5iPdZf-PgJ3FnS4j4b2QjBCIj9WzFAyloCNELOapYcdEokUYhp4ahZ7N0iuBivogNDEQS6x_BGLMsJXDAtJsTgHRER_GnVeb0cS0mez0-A/s4032/Claudia%20R%202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilTY8wJTVW6kWGqf-DXhwVL3fNY6ewLdslNePA-CT4BI0ohjC7GFAGRIsHc7YNGt-rps_kMhxWo0xJzkEK5iPdZf-PgJ3FnS4j4b2QjBCIj9WzFAyloCNELOapYcdEokUYhp4ahZ7N0iuBivogNDEQS6x_BGLMsJXDAtJsTgHRER_GnVeb0cS0mez0-A/s320/Claudia%20R%202.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">The event lasted 45 minutes and was also streamed live online. In the Q&A at the end, I was keen to ask a question:</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">NM: It's great to see you in the flesh as I've been watching you on YouTube for a long time. It actually feels like I'm in your front room.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">CR: Because you are! This is my home. I'm really enjoying reading.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">NM: I wanted to ask you about <i>Just Us</i> — the process — because I also make art and I'm a writer and poet, so all of that is working well for me. Do you think there will be any more books like <i>Just Us</i> in the future?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">CR: Right now, I'm failing badly at trying to work on a new book ... I've been looking at all of these people ... <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Mahsa_Amini" target="_blank">Mahsa Amini</a>, people who do things ... in grasping life they also have to grasp death at the same time, that you can't separate the two things. [NB: Mahsa Amini, aged 22, died in custody on 18 September 2022, three days after her arrest by the notorious morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic Republic's strict dress code for women] Mahsa Amini, the woman who lowered her headscarf, was killed in Iran. But the people came out in objection to her killing, but, they too in coming out to value Mahsa's life, had to grasp their own death and know that the moment you do that, is the moment that the State no longer has control over you.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hyde" target="_blank">Lewis Hyde</a> once said, 'Poetry is outside of the market economy so it allows that freedom for the writer to do whatever they want.' So, I've always felt that in the realm of poetry, it's the one genre that has not needed market controls or influences. The world of poetry is the most open place"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">When asked about the meanings of the title <i>PLOT</i>, Claudia Rankine said:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">CR: The title was chosen because of the multiple meanings and it contained both the idea of a storyline and a plan and also a grave — all thematically relevant to the possibilities of where we were going, i.e. whether following <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf" target="_blank">Wolff</a> to the River Ouse or fighting in scenes of a marriage or using language to describe my own husband. Throughout the book, there are moments when the titles are words that are contained in other words. I wanted to show how the word lives independently and also in relation too.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The final question was 'Do you have any advice on how to broaden the readership of poetry?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">CR: Poets like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot" target="_blank">T.S. Eliot</a> used to be able to fill stadiums. I think poetry should be heard on the radio. It's an oral activity ... the music ... there's so much work that goes into the cadenza... we could have five-minute sections in mainstream radio, just before the 12 o'clock news, to listen to a poem. I think when people begin to hear it, they'll become less afraid because poetry is just language but because it defies the rules of grammar, of expectation, there's a kind of 'I don't get it.' But you do know, and you will get it if you're open to it. You have to let down the guard that says, because this isn't functioning like a newspaper article, I'll be able to understand this. It's just habits of reading and listening.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Claudia Rankine recommended <i>Poor</i> (2020) by <a href="https://www.calebfemi.com/" target="_blank">Caleb Femi</a>, winner of The Forward Prize Best First Collection (2021). "Unlike me, he doesn't have to buy in images, he takes his own photographs that are in the book. It's really phenomenal."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Claudia Rankine is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. She has won numerous awards, too many to list here. I particularly enjoyed reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Us:_An_American_Conversation" target="_blank"><i>Just Us: An American Conversation</i>,</a> a brilliant arrangement of essays, poems, and images, which includes the voices and rebuttals of others, e.g., white men in first class responding to, and with, their white male privilege; a friend's explanation of her infuriating behaviour at a play, and much more.</span></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5072178 -0.127586223.196983963821154 -35.2838362 79.817451636178845 35.0286638tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-4903923273074354352023-03-17T12:49:00.001+00:002023-06-20T15:53:30.478+01:00Sara Ahmed in Conversation with Sunny Singh<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSgdefTVUpA4P6XeU7PvlTye8QgNJr9xuXukjFzZwX-5ETPUrhmIq6qnBdEN-7WmG0vd7XABV9JRkW89Awk2bIdYvKhOcuj18VyOlwp1RT14YPL0iA5UuoWWQ9bXij6weosB-Ij8jgu_06Iespf4T1o49oEqKnecaQnXJWFsjKxwLrD5wDY81GuOA/s4032/IMG_1739.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSgdefTVUpA4P6XeU7PvlTye8QgNJr9xuXukjFzZwX-5ETPUrhmIq6qnBdEN-7WmG0vd7XABV9JRkW89Awk2bIdYvKhOcuj18VyOlwp1RT14YPL0iA5UuoWWQ9bXij6weosB-Ij8jgu_06Iespf4T1o49oEqKnecaQnXJWFsjKxwLrD5wDY81GuOA/w400-h300/IMG_1739.HEIC" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Credit: N.Moore L: Sara Ahmed, R: Sunny Singh<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">On 9 March 2023, I went to see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Ahmed" target="_blank">Sara Ahmed</a>, one of the world's leading feminist thinkers and writers, in conversation with academic and writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Singh_(writer)" target="_blank">Sunny Singh</a>, who teaches English Literature at London Metropolitan University, with a special interest in feminist and postcolonial theory. The conversation was about <i>The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, </i>followed by an audience Q&A and a book signing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The event was held at <a href="https://www.foyles.co.uk/shops/london-charing-cross-road" target="_blank">Foyles</a> in Charing Cross Road, London, one of the UK's most famous booksellers, comprising five floors of books, with a dedicated events space on the sixth-floor hosting author events, in conversations and more.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Sara Ahmed spoke about the stories, theory and history that inspired <i>The Feminist Killjoy Handbook</i>. This book calls on those dismissed or ridiculed for calling out sexism and division, to find solidarity and empowerment.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBBSY5x5E6buROZzNTKU8qDrATugX7LYfG1VziJa9V-1y7fCF_-0_yRyM8yoUgEb9llev3ijl047F24CScFMAA5VAcXXjPgFdcy0A-zPzD8fx_PGPNqpgc1GZ-TTtoHApiK8w5DIzEHSL0ZevNBratV-waWyV555SAoNVtsvruw4nz9W-2m5uBFw/s4032/IMG_1738.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBBSY5x5E6buROZzNTKU8qDrATugX7LYfG1VziJa9V-1y7fCF_-0_yRyM8yoUgEb9llev3ijl047F24CScFMAA5VAcXXjPgFdcy0A-zPzD8fx_PGPNqpgc1GZ-TTtoHApiK8w5DIzEHSL0ZevNBratV-waWyV555SAoNVtsvruw4nz9W-2m5uBFw/w400-h300/IMG_1738.HEIC" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I first came across 'A Killjoy Survival Kit' and 'A Killjoy Manifesto' in <i>Living a Feminist Life </i>by Sara Ahmed where she unpacks the term 'killjoy' in ways that open up a whole different way of seeing how those experiences of being or becoming a killjoy:</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"can feel, sometimes, like making your life harder than it needs to be. I have heard this sentiment expressed as kindness: as if to say, just stop noticing exclusions and your burden will be eased. It is implied that by not struggling against something you will be rewarded by an increasing proximity to that thing. You might be included if only you just stop talking about exclusions. Sometimes the judgement is expressed less kindly: disapproval can be expressed in sideways glances, the sighs, the eyes rolling; stop struggling, adjust, except. And you can also feel this yourself: that by noticing certain things you are making it harder for yourself.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">But the experiences we have are not just of being worn down; these experiences also give us resources. What we learn from these experiences might be how we survive these experiences" (Ahmed, 2017 p. 235).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Having read <i>Living a Feminist Life </i>I was enthusiastic about the Foyles event since that book had me making copious notes on yellow post-it notes so as to capture the many insightful theories and practicalities of living a feminist life. However, I must admit the actual conversation between Sara Ahmed and Sunny Singh was a bit flat in places as it lacked context and depth, which I think was due to the questions which arose quite randomly almost out of thin air, so a bit of a missed opportunity. Some of the questions could have been better framed. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Sara Ahmed is the author of many works including <i>The Cultural Politics of Emotion</i> and <i>Complaint!</i>. Her work occupies the intersections of feminist, queer and race studies. She was Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, until 2016. She resigned from her post in protest at the failure to deal with the problem of sexual harassment.</span></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-37332598129845165272022-05-30T13:32:00.004+01:002023-06-20T15:58:08.968+01:00Art and Literature in Conversation with Irenosen Okojie — Whitechapel Gallery, London<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhU9g-0Tx73awR9D5MaD6AOXRkuyEm5iqf-cwQ7hH5N4TQ-B3Htxtym44HNtc39A3mJnvkP_aBnNALZGn4c9THl9gQyZ6_Gpk1L5Pq2OkhnnC6-2UoHBhOMVwgRCkywmCyigGOC3xqfAEhrULkIG3D7Zrq3bGYkm5S5nJ8Nx0NHrIrUxjUtzpR-s/s1453/butterfly%20cover.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Butterfly Fish Novel's Front Cover" border="0" data-original-height="1453" data-original-width="934" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhU9g-0Tx73awR9D5MaD6AOXRkuyEm5iqf-cwQ7hH5N4TQ-B3Htxtym44HNtc39A3mJnvkP_aBnNALZGn4c9THl9gQyZ6_Gpk1L5Pq2OkhnnC6-2UoHBhOMVwgRCkywmCyigGOC3xqfAEhrULkIG3D7Zrq3bGYkm5S5nJ8Nx0NHrIrUxjUtzpR-s/w206-h320/butterfly%20cover.jpeg" title="Butterfly Fish Novel By Irenosen Okojie" width="206" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">On 10 February 2022, I went to an Art and Literature Conversation held at the Zilkha Auditorium at the <a href="https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/" target="_blank">Whitechapel Gallery</a>, East London. This was both a discussion to celebrate the latest issue of leading arts and literature magazine <i><a href="https://www.thewhitereview.org/" target="_blank">The White Review</a></i> and a conversation between editor Izabella Scott and <a href="https://www.irenosenokojie.com/" target="_blank">Irenosen Okojie</a>, author of the award-winning novel <i><a href="https://www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/products/butterfly-fish" target="_blank">Butterfly Fish</a></i> published in 2015 by <a href="https://www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jacaranda Books</a>. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKm8wpkcoc-649ZTUuNHmju2NpaV4rU9C7nuQwzRNmHap4Wc5pl8yk_vNlc4PGc8RJOSqhl36nsStLLAHS3KX4hiLYIlMmyXhwSHQB_nnsVHiDe7JLVcPCoyjpWeWn7_CbsCzesAJuQXhl4JjuB7uMNHTmDierys4VBqNLk89lkpfKPUPGGMqhH1c/s3767/IMG-0262.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photograph of Irenosen Okojie at Whitechapel Gallery" border="0" data-original-height="3767" data-original-width="2216" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKm8wpkcoc-649ZTUuNHmju2NpaV4rU9C7nuQwzRNmHap4Wc5pl8yk_vNlc4PGc8RJOSqhl36nsStLLAHS3KX4hiLYIlMmyXhwSHQB_nnsVHiDe7JLVcPCoyjpWeWn7_CbsCzesAJuQXhl4JjuB7uMNHTmDierys4VBqNLk89lkpfKPUPGGMqhH1c/w188-h320/IMG-0262.jpg" title="Irenosen Okojie Author of Butterfly Fish" width="188" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose experimental works create vivid narratives that play with form and language. Her debut novel <i>Butterfly Fish</i> and short story collections <i>Speak Gigantular</i> and <i>Nudibranch</i> have won and been shortlisted for multiple awards. A fellow and Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, Irenosen is the winner of the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for her story, <i>Grace Jones</i>. She was awarded an MBE for Services to Literature in 2021.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What attracted me to this event was the combination of art and literature — both fields of the arts that I am particularly passionate about on many levels. It was fascinating to hear of Irenosen's writing process for <i>Butterfly Fish</i> and how she weaved art and literature within fiction to tell a unique and innovative story. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiE0n7Pmnb7QyA0yPyFfwNyl48FcZSktoaWZNi7nDa3YcwKI-rmovfvd0Kf_iJI0M9b29V-hkR0mxip5xlzgg10IB2OPm9LSD5uhZNiNLqhQrfCEwGCgsDejCOeqS06hI-j8uQnr1-xHwp5llsUttN3BBRnevxVMaM9RiZ3ss9X4YArnFuUW25sM/s4032/IMG-0261.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photograph of Irenosen Okojie and Nicole Moore at Whitechapel Gallery" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiE0n7Pmnb7QyA0yPyFfwNyl48FcZSktoaWZNi7nDa3YcwKI-rmovfvd0Kf_iJI0M9b29V-hkR0mxip5xlzgg10IB2OPm9LSD5uhZNiNLqhQrfCEwGCgsDejCOeqS06hI-j8uQnr1-xHwp5llsUttN3BBRnevxVMaM9RiZ3ss9X4YArnFuUW25sM/w320-h240/IMG-0261.jpg" title="Photograph taken at Whitechapel Gallery" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Myself and Irenosen Okojie at Whitechapel Gallery</div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />I was keen to ask a question at the end, in fact I was one of the first to ask! My question was related to form, especially because Irenosen uses many different forms in her writing. I asked her how she negotiates those forms; do they conflict with each other? Irenosen responded by saying she brings in art to her writing even if it's a setting, e.g. museums which she often visits; places where inspiration is available even to write poetry. Her favourite art form is film. Conflict is not necessarily a negative and can be a way of balancing the forms.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Novel's Synopsis:</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">"After the sudden death of her mother, London photographer Joy struggles to pull the threads of her life back together, with the support of her kind but mysterious neighbour, Mrs Harris. Joy's fortune begins to change when she receives an unexpected inheritance from her mother: a huge sum of money, her grandfather's diary and a unique brass warrior's head from the ancient kingdom of Benin.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Joy's search for the origins of the head take us on a journey through time as dark family secrets come to light. Joy unearths the ties between her mother, grandfather, the wife of the king and the brass head's pivotal connection to them all.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A spiritual successor to the tales of Marquez, <i>Butterfly Fish</i> masterfully combines elements of traditional Nigerian story-telling and magical realism in a multigenerational tale of the legacy of inheritance." — Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Novel's Structure:</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There are many aspects to <i>Butterfly Fish</i> that I like — the rhythm, texture, vivid imagery, richness of the writing style, and the beauty of the language: </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"I ran myself a bath longing for the peace the water held out for me. Lying there I watched an insect circle the light bulb on the ceiling and envied its frenetic flight. For years I'd been fed on incongruous things; smudges on windows washed away by rain, static from the TV, white lines just before traffic lights, wilting in shaky, paced train carriages. On the need to hold my loneliness, watch it change shape yet essentially stay the same. I felt woozy, faint. In the tepid water my grip on things slipped. The small, silvery, distressed figures I'd seen earlier in the kitchen offered their limbs to the dropped, bloody razor as the frantic black eyes of the dice spun." </span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: large;">The short chapters work well too, amounting to a few pages and a few words, yet are packed full with storytelling that pays attention to detail that keeps you in suspense. 'Less is more' means that it is far less about the amount of words and far more about the depth of the novel and its intriguing form, multilayers, and pace of plot. Added to this is the actual physicality of the hardback copy of the book with its stunning front cover design. Presentation is key, especially as the book has a tactile feel about it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Butterfly Fish</i> is an extraordinary novel with a dual narrative set in contemporary London and eighteenth century Benin in Africa — thereby making use of Irenosen's West African heritage. Reading this book was strangely satisfying as the writing possesses an elegant prose yet is quite humorous and playful, which keeps you grounded in reality yet you are able to savor the magical elements that do not feel out of place. Past and present are full of mystery and yet they quite skillfully and craftily make sense and work well together.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I was thankfully able to have a brief chat with Irenosen at the end of the event, where I made sure to get her to sign the hardback copy of her book.😊</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Comments Welcome!</b></span></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-14104569194167167132022-03-03T21:18:00.002+00:002022-06-04T12:51:34.630+01:00World Book Day 2022<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2hIy2duUy4uc96gfruL9iasJnhIlb-c1PVZh-BG7WeXm4FneblmJAHjsUWYt56U3y338EZtylqfgezmbshtf8xBRx_TOiwdC_JoPPvKNYjZl96cFahbMyKHqLb4re6_-PCrEo3pnwWNwf3XRS38UQ_KzyAeObnp3RiR1GQVpOKR61RrojPgrK1VQ=s2893" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2254" data-original-width="2893" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2hIy2duUy4uc96gfruL9iasJnhIlb-c1PVZh-BG7WeXm4FneblmJAHjsUWYt56U3y338EZtylqfgezmbshtf8xBRx_TOiwdC_JoPPvKNYjZl96cFahbMyKHqLb4re6_-PCrEo3pnwWNwf3XRS38UQ_KzyAeObnp3RiR1GQVpOKR61RrojPgrK1VQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;">Books by Nicole Moore</div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Today is <a href="https://www.worldbookday.com/" target="_blank">World Book Day</a> (WBD) which happens annually on the first Thursday of March. This year marks WBD's 25th anniversary. The theme this year is a message for all children: <b>You are a reader!</b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Today, I am remembering and celebrating the books that I brought into fruition between 2005 and 2010, which were independently published collections of creative expressions by Black and mixed-race women:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">*<b><i>Brown Eyes</i>, 2005<br /> <i>Sexual Attraction Revealed</i>, 2008</b><br />*<b><i>Hair Power Skin Revolution</i>, 2010</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">*</span><span style="font-size: medium;">Funded by an Arts Council England <i>Grants for the Arts</i> Award</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">These anthologies included poetry and personal essays from a diverse group of Black and mixed-race women — everyday women expressing themselves in their own unique style, without the white gaze. The writers offered empowering and creative ways of understanding and relating to a range of themes including gender, 'race', ethnicity, identity, hair, colorism, culture and heritage, with strong and reflective voices, some unheard; some previously published.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Full details are listed under 'Books' on the right of this blog.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In my childhood days, my reading was somewhat limited to books that I could read in my grandparents house — the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica">Encyclopaedia Britannica</a></i> a general knowledge book, which I would tackle occasionally; a few editions of my grandmother's <i><a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/" target="_blank">Readers' Digest</a></i> magazines (grown up stories that I would dive in and select something appealing) plus children's' novels that I loaned from my local library, which I really enjoyed visiting on Saturday mornings. Then there were comics like <i>Bunty</i> a British comic for girls, which consisted of a collection of many small strips, the stories typically being three to five pages long. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Thankfully, over the last twenty seven years I have widened my reading and with modern technology, I have a vast selection of books on my Kindle. I still have a yearning to buy 'real' books and have a small collection that are of sentimental value mostly because they have been signed by the authors.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Happy World Book Day!</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Comments welcome!</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-81289998391058944132022-02-20T14:00:00.010+00:002022-06-04T12:52:23.713+01:00Akala in Conversation at the Southbank Centre<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAIK3HcizBDBbNnb7jIgp9GRr0GgW368ZufeFZFMpQiAfsiUj5RgKdJkgDxE8Tta9joNADtvRfourhO3IEFiuSUEH3dKi3WHHUrzfppOCegZSwvZvjftNaio-E-sQK_EyTT0qp43KeTKJYD_KFdlcTaPgv4gAhrLsa38X83qzJhrGiefO62BO7ysQ=s2560" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAIK3HcizBDBbNnb7jIgp9GRr0GgW368ZufeFZFMpQiAfsiUj5RgKdJkgDxE8Tta9joNADtvRfourhO3IEFiuSUEH3dKi3WHHUrzfppOCegZSwvZvjftNaio-E-sQK_EyTT0qp43KeTKJYD_KFdlcTaPgv4gAhrLsa38X83qzJhrGiefO62BO7ysQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">L: Akala; R: Mustafa the Poet / Photo: Abundant Art</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">On 6 February, hip-hop artist and author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akala_(rapper)" target="_blank">Akala</a> appeared at the Southbank Centre to launch the paperback release of </span><i style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-dark-lady/akala/9781444942972" target="_blank">The Dark Lady</a></i><span style="font-size: large;">. I had left it too late to actually obtain a ticket for the live event as tickets sold out fast, so the next best thing was to buy a live stream which turned out to be as good, although I would have preferred to be there in person, especially as Akala's entrance caused a riotous and rippling applause from the audience!</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Akala was joined in conversation with Canadian poet and singer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_the_Poet" target="_blank">Mustafa</a> who was such a breath of fresh air to watch. Mustafa's perspective and questions to Akala were so nuanced and thoughtfully prepared on the novel's content about 'race', identity, class and society, that I witnessed an unforgettable dialogue between the two of them. It was like watching a good film; I was hooked from beginning to end!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCgBURpJCjd6FbKGj4r9vnY_rTpkAkXNR-ElTLDNJJKzGTLEDpEoKbsJS8SRI167GNjqGC0gsmwKjs4C2-lClRw2asKAq3wBit4dOx7TClxhFa1GaVkOosr6k5CX_3R3x2HyhCxQ7d57U1IHva95wS-DzSj2LQYl1fIBiQ7DtprgND6A9nMdUpQLE=s2625" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="2625" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCgBURpJCjd6FbKGj4r9vnY_rTpkAkXNR-ElTLDNJJKzGTLEDpEoKbsJS8SRI167GNjqGC0gsmwKjs4C2-lClRw2asKAq3wBit4dOx7TClxhFa1GaVkOosr6k5CX_3R3x2HyhCxQ7d57U1IHva95wS-DzSj2LQYl1fIBiQ7DtprgND6A9nMdUpQLE=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Akala - Photo: The Times</span></div><span style="font-size: large;">Akala's debut novel for teens and young adults, </span><i style="font-size: x-large;">The Dark Lady</i><span style="font-size: large;"> is a magic realism book about a young, Black, orphan boy called Henry, an outsider, a thief, a fifteen-year-old invested with superpowers, living in the streets of Elizabethan London, who is haunted by dreams of the mysterious Dark Lady. Inspired by Shakespeare, the novel refers to Bard's Sonnets and attempts to paint a realistic picture of street life in Renaissance England. </span><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlPoVs6pHoA3HLEs0Biy7RHMxZpRitD1tNjJeDNSegrbuukjKicZXm46p1SWL0ws_0IEA4mFpW9i5FtmRkPwZIqXtd77itz7_1PgphgN71DOXDodzKdpKaiihx24rDF66q_PwzyN3Ppq5e0BA-mmUR4XuVeGbg7niIphzh-ocaHqJc5Mf5Cu0YaRA=s946" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="946" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhlPoVs6pHoA3HLEs0Biy7RHMxZpRitD1tNjJeDNSegrbuukjKicZXm46p1SWL0ws_0IEA4mFpW9i5FtmRkPwZIqXtd77itz7_1PgphgN71DOXDodzKdpKaiihx24rDF66q_PwzyN3Ppq5e0BA-mmUR4XuVeGbg7niIphzh-ocaHqJc5Mf5Cu0YaRA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Akala - Photo: Ents 24</div><span style="font-size: large;">I mostly enjoyed hearing Akala discuss his writing process and how hard he found the task. Although <i>Dark Lady</i> is his debut novel, he had already written <i><a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/natives/akala/9781473661233" target="_blank">Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire</a></i>, (2018) a <i>Sunday Times</i> Bestseller non-fiction book that I really enjoyed reading and would definitely recommend. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>There's levels to this thing ...</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mustafa:</b> "What were the challenges of moving into fiction and attempting to maybe draw a thread between <i>Natives</i> and your novel. How do you explore without losing the essence or the clarity that you write with in <i>Natives</i>?"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Akala:</b> "As anyone who has ever written a book will know, brother, my whole definition of what I thought was hard work has been altered by these last three years working on these two books, and you're confronted by the fact that you realise you're no way as near as smart or as important as you thought you were when you were twenty-five ... I think about how difficult it was for me to write these two books and then I think about <i>War and Peace</i>, or Toni Morrison, or James Baldwin ... there's levels to this thing ... as a writer you realise just how difficult it is to complete a book that is even readable, forget good. Anyone who completes a book that's readable deserves a medal. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I read Stephen King's book <i>On Writing</i> and when he was talking about "I'm fifty books in and still when I read my first draft I think which kind of idiot wrote this foolishness?" And I was oh thank God, it's not just me. The first draft I sent to my publisher they could've legitimately slapped me. Part of this was feeling pressured to send in something; it wasn't really a draft, just a few words and there was that one scene that was "sick" and they was like we know you can do it as this scene is "bad". </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">And so I think the technical craft of learning to write a novel is like being the director, the actor, the editor, and the scriptwriter all in one. You've got to decide where the camera is positioned, you've got to decide when to cut from scene to scene, you've got to decide what angle the person sees the film from, you've got to inhabit the emotional universe of each of your characters to get the best out of them like a director does, you've also got to act and be the characters ... man, it's hard brother. And you finish it, and it's not even satisfying when you finish! </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Being a musician I spent the whole of last year driving around bumping these mixes and enjoying listening to my music. I don't think I've ever got that level of joy from my own books. You finish writing them and it's like a gaping wound in your soul. You ask yourself what am I going to do with the rest of my life. You feel distraught; there's this weird kind of melancholy. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The process of research is wonderful, reading books, making notes — wonderful! Then you get down to writing — awful! Unbelievably hard, like training for the Olympics and then you come 75th! So I think authors are a bit pseudo-masochistic. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Don't get me wrong, I still appreciated both of the processes. </span><span>There is a very different creative headspace to writing a novel and writing a nonfiction book. I personally feel like I'm naturally better at nonfiction but that may just be because </span><i>Natives</i><span> was longer ago and so the distance of it being five years ago in 2017 makes me feel like the process was easier than it was at the time, because at the time I don't think I felt like that, whereas brother, I'll be honest, the novel was hard! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I'm not going to sit here and pretend to you ... I think I did nine drafts of 80,000 words, that's work ... and I think it's a very good book, I'm very proud of it but it's not <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison" target="_blank">Toni Morrison</a> and I'm not going to delude myself and think it is ... maybe one day in twenty more years I might get there. Writing a good novel is a huge achievement but there's levels to this thing."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I totally understand how Akala felt ... when I independently published my first anthology <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brown-Eyes-Selection-Creative-Expressions/dp/1905237146" target="_blank">Brown Eyes</a></i>, it felt as if I had given birth and then put my baby up for adoption! Very similar to the 'gaping wound in your soul'.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Tickets are available for the Akala in conversation livestream to watch online until 6 March - price £8.50. It's a must watch!!</span></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-41584587469611684482021-12-19T15:42:00.004+00:002022-06-04T12:53:49.538+01:00On bell hooks<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcyaT5g-_SLnwSRlSpHai_pHMZmEvz3PMbfpwO0-sYb5-THPBh6uhui57GymuyEdCHaA688vAVe204BnGKObpXY1dY5Zan4jB-n_MGk4qu2RTDYoCgRgJmhELqWeeUg2pXI4Ii9JtL1syZKiVPBLOihYiL3rJsCEotp8-wWPlwhvNOaN3Ye0UCp2c=s700" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjcyaT5g-_SLnwSRlSpHai_pHMZmEvz3PMbfpwO0-sYb5-THPBh6uhui57GymuyEdCHaA688vAVe204BnGKObpXY1dY5Zan4jB-n_MGk4qu2RTDYoCgRgJmhELqWeeUg2pXI4Ii9JtL1syZKiVPBLOihYiL3rJsCEotp8-wWPlwhvNOaN3Ye0UCp2c=s320" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Photo: Joyce Dopkeen / The New York Times / Redux</span></div><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When I heard the sad news of African American author, professor, feminist and social activist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks" target="_blank">bell hooks</a>' passing on 15 December 2021, aged 69, I was completely taken by surprise. I couldn't believe it. I'm only one year younger but it wasn't that. I really liked her ... still do. This is such a great loss. I was, and still will, remain one of her admirers.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">My knowledge of bell hooks started in the 1990s when I was studying two Birkbeck College, University of London courses: Black Women's Writing and Motherland to 'Motherland': Black Women's History. I read bell hooks' amazing work, in particular her critical thinking on imperialist, capitalist, white supremacist, patriarchy. I continue to read and reference her in my current studies: <a href="https://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/2022/postgraduate/programmes/TMADIASP_C/0/culture-diaspora-ethnicity-ma" target="_blank">Culture Diaspora Ethnicity MA</a> at <a href="https://www.bbk.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Birkbeck College.</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhldzJdfFN5FHVnnVzlXSUb9LX4dbf4HmCxOCqbcF-mHsXfjupY5_20n94mhwSf8GeXAS859gO_Z0tAJemyrbWWuMHFFyRlO__gx_0y23z18TeuHHzpM1JdeOCq-jKJmnfMNcJpkrp3pyH3MbKJOMigfUdkeJa8vvlXnKTeVVZJFAzqaFXtbyGocSA=s870" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="870" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhldzJdfFN5FHVnnVzlXSUb9LX4dbf4HmCxOCqbcF-mHsXfjupY5_20n94mhwSf8GeXAS859gO_Z0tAJemyrbWWuMHFFyRlO__gx_0y23z18TeuHHzpM1JdeOCq-jKJmnfMNcJpkrp3pyH3MbKJOMigfUdkeJa8vvlXnKTeVVZJFAzqaFXtbyGocSA=s320" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Image Source: Radical Reads</span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">bell hooks was the author of 40 books, whose topics covered race, feminism, capitalism, and intersectionality. By the way, bell hooks was discussing intersectionality and writing about the subject long before the term was even conceived or coined by Kimberle Crenshaw. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here is a selection of favourite books from my bell hooks' collection, which I'm going to re-read and can definitely recommend:</span></span><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism</i> (1981)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>Talking Back: Thinking feminist, thinking Black</i>. Between the Lines (1989)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>Black Looks: Race and Representation</i> (1992)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work</i> (1999)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i>Where We Stand: Class Matters</i> (2000)</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdNI3ppt0fYKyWZ8d-3me95ztP3kc23qcUNJvlwV9okAXu8M3OGvZ24oEiexVyzlRO088vKSH-YF8hPj4EWLRvCrvEjj93Nhwdk6gY2s5dEod3O4W7IlkCotr7UAhxKHc2i-DZ8Q27tZuPfWLrMyxknGlEhI8AW8dxFDXO3y2qdg8gCKVs1I8QXWo=s497" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjdNI3ppt0fYKyWZ8d-3me95ztP3kc23qcUNJvlwV9okAXu8M3OGvZ24oEiexVyzlRO088vKSH-YF8hPj4EWLRvCrvEjj93Nhwdk6gY2s5dEod3O4W7IlkCotr7UAhxKHc2i-DZ8Q27tZuPfWLrMyxknGlEhI8AW8dxFDXO3y2qdg8gCKVs1I8QXWo=s320" width="308" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Image Source: bell hooks institute</div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">I've watched bell hooks deliver cutting edge talks many times from a distance in the comfort of my own home. On one unforgettable occasion, I actually met her face-to-face, at Hackney Town Hall, East London, during one of the numerous <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_96_1133" target="_blank">1997 European Year Against Racism</a> events, where I had the privilege of being photographed with her. I'm saddened that I cannot locate that picture.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">bell hooks was one of those black female academics who transcended many disciplines to speak her mind both personally and politically. Sometimes she was misunderstood and this led to her being verbally attacked while she challenged the status quo. I'll remember bell hooks most of all for speaking her mind — talking back — I'm going to miss her.</span></p></div>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-63574528024633303132021-10-21T12:40:00.006+01:002022-12-02T12:50:18.184+00:00Bernardine Everisto — Manifesto: On Never Giving Up <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjioy7k9CM1Ce3ohLOek-tuNrlIJPxzjwmsooaH7Sc3a2dZ5TH6fJ5K4Vble1lp40ssXkBJtV9xX3tSXEPfP0vYgANHyk-05sxe_fsT5ru3zgTNNK_H0uYBwCBFd3O0y3D59x6TaGuD37s/s688/BEvaristo+image.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="688" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjioy7k9CM1Ce3ohLOek-tuNrlIJPxzjwmsooaH7Sc3a2dZ5TH6fJ5K4Vble1lp40ssXkBJtV9xX3tSXEPfP0vYgANHyk-05sxe_fsT5ru3zgTNNK_H0uYBwCBFd3O0y3D59x6TaGuD37s/s320/BEvaristo+image.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Source: Southbank Centre</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">On 3 October, I visited the <a href="https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/" target="_blank">Southbank Centre</a> (again!). This time to see one of my favourite Black British female writers — Bernardine Evaristo. This event was held at Queen Elizabeth Hall, and I have to say that I really did prefer this space to the Royal Festival Hall. This time our seats were much closer to the stage.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For those of you who may not know, Bernardine Everisto was the first Black woman to win the <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2019" target="_blank">Booker Prize in 2019</a> for her novel <i>Girl, Woman, Other</i>. I say win; she shared the prize with Margaret Atwood, which Bernardine did not mind in the slightest since her fandom has expanded dramatically:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“I am happy to share it, especially with Margaret Atwood who is such an inspiring feminist, environmentalist, legendary writer and generous person. I certainly don’t feel that I’ve won half a prize. My name alone appears on the Booker plaque sent to me, just as hers will do the same.” (<a href="https://bevaristo.com/" target="_blank">bevaritso.com)</a> </span></span></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrZnj_6oRhFg_SkYwIzfrxughRKJwy24HxBrCYCZ4bwEPYEh4qQPvdm8bF9uJERa1QkC4ZlcD47UvvaElfnRk_KKmTBW1qMWsI-U5m4wu-yi2tvZiYdpRA5cJYO8TwRrzzbvLAKEjg0h8/s1300/2019_Booker+Evaristo%253AAtwood.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="1300" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrZnj_6oRhFg_SkYwIzfrxughRKJwy24HxBrCYCZ4bwEPYEh4qQPvdm8bF9uJERa1QkC4ZlcD47UvvaElfnRk_KKmTBW1qMWsI-U5m4wu-yi2tvZiYdpRA5cJYO8TwRrzzbvLAKEjg0h8/s320/2019_Booker+Evaristo%253AAtwood.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Source: thebookerprize.com</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />My friends and I thought she <i>should</i> and <i>could</i> have been awarded the whole prize especially as Margaret Atwood had already won the prize in 2000. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5DiEdDh0l0s" width="320" youtube-src-id="5DiEdDh0l0s"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bernardine Evaristo On Writing / Vogue Visionaries / British Vogue / YouTube 2021</span></div></div><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've met Bernardine face-to-face a couple of times, most recently on 9 November 2019 at a <a href="https://www.wasafiri.org/" target="_blank">Wasafiri</a> event at the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/" target="_blank">British Museum</a>: '<a href="https://www.wasafiri.org/article/an-island-full-of-voices-is-almost-here/" target="_blank">An Island Full of Voices</a>', where she was featured in a panel on authorial activism and literary collectives with Rachel Long, Nikesh Shuka and Susheila Nasta. I literally bumped into her in the ladies’ toilets! This was just after winning the Booker Prize so I felt compelled to engage in a few quick words to congratulate her and remind her of the time in 1997 when she did a reading of her semi-autobiographical novel-in-verse <i>Lara</i>, at the <a href="https://www.ahackneyautobiography.org.uk/about.html" target="_blank">Centerprise Bookshop</a>, an iconic community centre where she signed my copy. Sadly, Centerprise closed in 2012 after Hackney Council seized its premises after four decades, during which it was a hub for all things book related. I facilitated a creative writing workshop there during the nineties as part of the Black Literature Development Agency.</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj51F_mV85tkunDHJFPzYlgDPRdfmuhh6xz5lUuWFhh-gXJnVxDAIJH9LW_EZDdZXg4tZl4u29x5guhWuKEBV3Hp1U-SeXZ0wIcTSRr3nI0LpoyY2WdZvgPjhCZ4hpKEpnBsH7OV5nRzvQ/s499/Manifesto+book+cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="311" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj51F_mV85tkunDHJFPzYlgDPRdfmuhh6xz5lUuWFhh-gXJnVxDAIJH9LW_EZDdZXg4tZl4u29x5guhWuKEBV3Hp1U-SeXZ0wIcTSRr3nI0LpoyY2WdZvgPjhCZ4hpKEpnBsH7OV5nRzvQ/s320/Manifesto+book+cover.jpg" width="199" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Source: Amazon</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />I'd been looking forward to seeing and hearing Bernardine discuss her powerful new book <i>Manifesto: On Never Giving Up</i> ever since I heard of its existence when she shared the news on Twitter, especially as she would be in conversation with another one of my favourite Black British female writers, <a href="https://www.afuahirsch.com/" target="_blank">Afua Hirsch</a>, also a journalist and broadcaster, known for her book <i>Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging.</i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigENS7hvadsciqjVk2C3tYVf19gOEN1tzA2ynqv4yiuA5UCF9kzsfKcpJ1qNZkgDKZB3CKubV6oDWjhw_S_s-nhmPoZ_3HD7_UcKlGpNJt-cPEnLUggeTziG0jgwbq8UhXjT2XZ5TwuNk/s2048/20211003_221648.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1674" data-original-width="2048" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigENS7hvadsciqjVk2C3tYVf19gOEN1tzA2ynqv4yiuA5UCF9kzsfKcpJ1qNZkgDKZB3CKubV6oDWjhw_S_s-nhmPoZ_3HD7_UcKlGpNJt-cPEnLUggeTziG0jgwbq8UhXjT2XZ5TwuNk/s320/20211003_221648.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bernardine Evaristo</span></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Bernardine started with a reading, some of which charted coming of age and leaving home after living within a family of eight children and two parents:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“When I think of it now, I landed very easily as an eighteen-year-old. I wanted a boyfriend, and had one; I needed a home, and walked into one; I needed a job, and found one. The only problem was that the boyfriend and I weren’t really at the nesting stage, but he was the easiest route out of my family home so what did I care? We briefly shared his room in this communal property until the one next door became available and I nabbed it. Finally, I had a room of my own. My first one. Up until this point, I had never slept a single night in a room on my own.”</span></span></div></blockquote><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I could so resonate with the yearning to leave home, although for me the motivation in the 1970s was because I wanted to return to a culturally diverse dynamic city to live in. After spending eight years living in Northamptonshire, due to no fault of my own, I strongly felt the need to move back to London to re-establish myself. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAe_nZ1BPDF67kUIIc5DYeQyTP6-RtSB-W5-cdgjaYeZw4eSSvhOUkc5iCTvXeHajQOWg7izI5gsbqCWmoEp5g8RcmRaCwIsMNqXgVaOLN4BkYnH8orOWsJVtBuLzWb6eBYGZG2RjhI4/s2048/BEvaristo+image1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1271" data-original-width="2048" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisAe_nZ1BPDF67kUIIc5DYeQyTP6-RtSB-W5-cdgjaYeZw4eSSvhOUkc5iCTvXeHajQOWg7izI5gsbqCWmoEp5g8RcmRaCwIsMNqXgVaOLN4BkYnH8orOWsJVtBuLzWb6eBYGZG2RjhI4/s320/BEvaristo+image1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">L: Afua Hirsch R: Bernardine Evaristo</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bernardine went on to tell us how her life of creativity, spanning four decades, included being an actress, playwright, teacher, and activist. Her book <i>Manifesto</i> provides a detailed account of how she lived her creative life, refusing to let any barriers get in her way, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to buy a copy as I could totally relate. This idea of never giving up despite social issues such as race, class, feminism, sexuality, and ageing is all-inspiring and particularly relevant in the society we live in.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8TZpzw0puZk" width="320" youtube-src-id="8TZpzw0puZk"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Booker Prize Winner, Bernardine Evaristo / Full Q & A at The Oxford Union, 2020</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Manifesto</i> is such an inspiring read. I love that Bernardine never gave up and kept going with her writing amongst other pursuits. Her lifelong commitment to writing those original stories — novels, plays — that were often explorations and experimentations that took many years to write, were executed with a sheer determination and diligence that I admire and respect. So if you are creative and struggling with where you are at, you <i>must</i> keep on going, for you never know where your creativity may end up. You might one day win a prize! And even if that doesn't happen it will be well worth the ride.</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Bios:</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bernardine Everisto is the author of nine books and numerous other works that span the genres of verse fiction, short fiction, poetry, essays, literary criticism, journalism, and radio and theatre drama. Her writing and projects are based on her interest in the African diaspora. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at <a href="https://www.thebrunelmuseum.com/" target="_blank">Brunel University</a> London.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Afua Hirsch is a writer, journalist, and broadcaster. She is a columnist for <i>The Guardian,</i> and appears regularly on the BBC, Sky News and CNN. Her first book <i>Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging</i>, was awarded a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Comments welcome!</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Feel free to share this post.</span></b></p>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-31991350684498203312021-10-14T12:30:00.012+01:002021-10-14T23:14:51.776+01:00Chimananda Ngozi Adichie: Notes on Writing<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRBfBgkfTEQmLXWe9chVbyaBZ_DOBI6s_6-3cb-0QYS_iXbvg1iWSWTmauGZmZlnifzl_OCuKpsBi7op_m84yVciONwGH8xoWMn-M7QwVC-mHB3DhrTwrLaKSBCXAX2ZlYWr8jfK0fek/s563/fbj91cmerepo1mce3chcvrpqqc._SX450_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRBfBgkfTEQmLXWe9chVbyaBZ_DOBI6s_6-3cb-0QYS_iXbvg1iWSWTmauGZmZlnifzl_OCuKpsBi7op_m84yVciONwGH8xoWMn-M7QwVC-mHB3DhrTwrLaKSBCXAX2ZlYWr8jfK0fek/s320/fbj91cmerepo1mce3chcvrpqqc._SX450_.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, <br />Image Source:The Washington Post</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">What a few years it has been?! I hope you have kept well during such challenging times. I along with many people I know are now enjoying what was once taken very much for granted — socialising. Going out to a restaurant, theatre and jet-setting away on holiday have all taken on a new kind of norm. Although we are still living with the global pandemic, I hope that the pandemic has now deferred to living with us, temporarily of course.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It is with much joy that I can actually write and share my recent literary shenanigans in the name of 'going out'. The last time I visited the <a href="https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/" target="_blank">Southbank Centre</a> in south east London was to see Benjamin Zephaniah. So when I heard that places and spaces were opening up again, I eagerly checked out the listings and found some gems.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">On 24 September, <b>Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Notes on Writing</b> was held at the Royal Festival Hall. Chimamanda is the bestselling author of <i>Americanah</i> and <i><a href="http://shawana-lulu.blogspot.com/2012/07/half-of-yellow-sun.html" target="_blank">Half of a Yellow Sun</a></i>. On the night, she reflected on writing and storytelling in conversation with Yomi Adegoke. She also discussed her most recent book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Notes-Grief-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie-ebook/dp/B08W9DHZ57/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=119447536022&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqp-LBhDQARIsAO0a6aI0iU-xNRxVSiaY2BBG0Dx7WHgqHBR8_gpLGg1nNCvLBmhQ-f-1CC0aAtbHEALw_wcB&hvadid=520564269738&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9044965&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=130778900022498677&hvtargid=kwd-1300397829509&hydadcr=24461_1816156&keywords=notes+on+grief+chimamanda+adichie&qid=1634210654&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Notes on Grief</a> </i> written following the death of her father last summer.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz50ht1xts9wg5EZR2tsM_wAcV1QaHiCeVgxOIm4b53Jbcfktj2n86Duj0mc1KjTAnErrqQ8c44k5IdjD0-aQ7KUlOzo7yviWyZy7qO-GQiS_t8szjlNtoEDmw2BiXnTR8uJ828y3-J7g/s645/9780008470302.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz50ht1xts9wg5EZR2tsM_wAcV1QaHiCeVgxOIm4b53Jbcfktj2n86Duj0mc1KjTAnErrqQ8c44k5IdjD0-aQ7KUlOzo7yviWyZy7qO-GQiS_t8szjlNtoEDmw2BiXnTR8uJ828y3-J7g/s320/9780008470302.jpg" width="198" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Source: Blackwells</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">My friends and I arrived thirty minutes early so as to soak up the exciting atmosphere in the Royal Festival Hall's foyer. The time soon passed and before we knew it, we were locating our seats. Whilst keeping an eye on the two empty armchairs in readiness, I thought how lovely it was that we would soon be in the presence of such an iconic writer, who I've watched numerous times on YouTube. Now it was a whole different reality, I was going to see her in person.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">As soon as 7.30 pm hit, Chimamanda and Yomi appeared and the whole audience woke up with welcoming roars and waves of applause. It was easy to get caught up in this momentous occasion and we enjoyed this warm rush of appreciation as much as she did.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chimamanda started with a reading of chapter one from <i>Notes on Grief. </i> I was struck by Chimamanda's openness and honesty as to how she felt, how angry she was that her family were getting prepared for her father's funeral proceedings:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language."</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9IzKDPpYP1hS_vo3hNxXFBUQOgdPssSd_dikWieuFPdwDmEAqoKSmSwdPb44ERcc_iEHMMiZK01bBA7jgfGJudhKxD1ejc-QRiRVn0sNNk7oXam089R8-FHJJY901G5sVbah6jHpDSw/s1342/20211014_110929.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1342" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit9IzKDPpYP1hS_vo3hNxXFBUQOgdPssSd_dikWieuFPdwDmEAqoKSmSwdPb44ERcc_iEHMMiZK01bBA7jgfGJudhKxD1ejc-QRiRVn0sNNk7oXam089R8-FHJJY901G5sVbah6jHpDSw/s320/20211014_110929.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">L: Yomi Adegoke R: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was as if relatives speaking their condolences added more to the pain, the reality and finality of her loss. Chimamanda wanted time to stand still for a while rather than go through the motions of liaising with family and friends although they meant well. She also had to mourn at a distance during the pandemic. During the lockdowns that spiralled like a domino effect around the world, Nigeria's airports weren't open which meant her father's funeral was constantly being postponed.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Notes on Grief</i> written during the weeks and months following her father's death at the age of eighty-eight, is such a unique read. On the one hand, I can resonate with her words entirely yet she brings a kind of nuance to the language, reflections that are dignified and spiritually nurturing. In terms of her openness, I don't think I have heard death spoken about in such a poignant and realistic way to such a large audience. I listened intently to her mixture of sadness and humour at the way she wanted to resist dealing with grief itself seeing it as some kind of 'performative' action required of her:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Grief is not gauzy; it is substantial, oppressive, a thing opaque. The weight is heaviest in the mornings, post-sleep: a leaden heart, a stubborn reality that refuses to budge. I will never see my father again. Never again."</span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Notes on Grief </i>is a wonderful tribute to Chimamanda's father, James Nwoye Adichie, who was Nigeria's first professor of statistics. Having now read a substantial amount, I found the book's structure of short, almost self-contained chapters works particularly well. It's as if grief can be divided into bite size chunks. Less is more. The book<i> </i>isn't just for readers who have lost loved ones. Readers of Chimamanda's newest creation will not be disappointed as the story is a universal one. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Bios:</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She has written novels: <i>Purple Hibiscus</i> (2003), <i>Half of a Yellow Sun</i> (2006), and <i>Americanah </i>(2013), the short story collection <i>The Thing Around Your Neck</i> (2009), and the book-length essay <i>We Should All Be Feminists</i> (2014). Her most recent books are <i>Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto</i> <i>in Fifteen Suggestions</i> (2017), <i>Zikora </i>(2020) and <i>Notes on Grief </i>(2021). In 2008, she was awarded a MacArthur 'Genius' Grant.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yomi Adegoke is a journalist for <i>British Vogue</i>, <i>The Guardian </i>and <i>The i Newspaper</i>. In 2018, she co-authored the book <i>Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible </i>with Elizabeth Uviebinene, for which she was named a Marie Clair Future Shaper and was awarded the Groucho Maverick Award. She is also a trustee of Arts Emergency, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 honouree.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0United Kingdom55.378051 -3.43597327.067817163821154 -38.592223 83.688284836178838 31.720277tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-63093081504219563542019-08-24T16:10:00.001+01:002022-06-04T12:56:24.894+01:00Remembering Toni Morrison <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR20YIXQdmhaZUVbfgBBKoZRYFTNUiG7XCpWiKPluV5LYfdZ5CNwOMsS2eLE0HIu05nhw0If_eFfoTdxBRCgUTUPCJkhDWiByZadYYH6XlxgAYLY7IiCYn922N6uKIx0KRVWJP0p4o7z8/s1600/ToniM-01-400x400.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR20YIXQdmhaZUVbfgBBKoZRYFTNUiG7XCpWiKPluV5LYfdZ5CNwOMsS2eLE0HIu05nhw0If_eFfoTdxBRCgUTUPCJkhDWiByZadYYH6XlxgAYLY7IiCYn922N6uKIx0KRVWJP0p4o7z8/s320/ToniM-01-400x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Source: naacp.org (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison" target="_blank">Toni Morrison</a> passed away on 5th August. </span><span style="font-size: large;">I started to write this post on 12th August but felt somewhat reluctant; it seemed too early to write something. I felt numb, stuck for words ... the right words that is. There were no tears, just a sense of loss.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A week later, after watching and re-watching many You Tube videos of Toni Morrison, I felt more prepared to express my thoughts and feelings. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Toni Morrison was an African American writer whose outstanding literary work significantly influenced the development of my literary journey; be it reading and/or writing. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I've always admired Toni Morrison's literature. </span><span style="font-size: large;">It was
Toni Morrison who set this amazing legacy, a landscape that is
universally vast and yet meets the needs of many black and brown people,
especially the black women I know.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Toni
Morrison's writing is imaginatively crafted and artistically excellent
and yet representation and meaning is at its core. </span>It didn't matter that her imagination and novels focused mostly on the African American historical experience. I could relate, especially as Toni Morrison spent her entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of her books.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwIyGGK_jh-KMbsnmhn9g63xue2WeuZCxO3-XP00VJ32-UeAV7RtBqap01hCJJhg0wUI41N483C7XPHeFskthCwGlxyp9JIlVe7Rr78g8_mIEbOiTEy_xePM54g3IEJwe1Cibze3ZZ58/s1600/TNY-ReadingToniMorrison.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1508" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwIyGGK_jh-KMbsnmhn9g63xue2WeuZCxO3-XP00VJ32-UeAV7RtBqap01hCJJhg0wUI41N483C7XPHeFskthCwGlxyp9JIlVe7Rr78g8_mIEbOiTEy_xePM54g3IEJwe1Cibze3ZZ58/s320/TNY-ReadingToniMorrison.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Source: theguardian.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Also, in the light of Toni Morrison's passing, I remembered my blog post dated 15/10/12 <a href="http://shawana-lulu.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-action-day-toni-morrison-writers.html" target="_blank">'Blog Action Day - Toni Morrison - A Writer's Influence.'</a> The theme for that year's Blog Action Day was the Power of We. It was a no-brainer choosing Toni Morrison and the focus of writing within a 'community'. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Bluest Eye</b></span></i></span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here's an excerpt from that blog post where I discuss Toni Morrison's debut novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bluest_Eye" target="_blank"><i>The Bluest Eye</i></a> (published 1970) still my favourite:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"...The novel focuses on Pecola Breedlove, a lonely, young Black girl living in Ohio in the late 1940s. Through Pecola, Morrison exposes the power and cruelty of white, middle-class American definitions of beauty. Pecola is driven mad by her consuming obsession for white skin and blonde hair – and not just blue eyes, but the bluest ones. A victim of popular white culture and its pervasive advertising, Pecola believes that people would value her more if she weren't black. If she were white, blonde, and very blue-eyed, she would be loved. Pecola is abused by almost everyone in the novel ... my focus here is with the way that Pecola, a little Black girl in the 1940s, still resides in a few Black girls and women around the globe now, in our modern 21st century."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I look forward to the time when I can pass on my copy of <i>The Bluest Eye</i>
to my granddaughter (now aged 12), when she reaches the age of 15, 16,
or 17. It's not that I think my granddaughter couldn't take on the
reading; it's that I think a few more years and she'll be even more
adept at appreciating and working at, and understanding those
multilayered musings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <b><i> </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Beloved</i> </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">My
admiration of Toni Morrison deepened when I facilitated a two-hour
session as part of a Creative Writing course for African-Caribbean women during Black History Month 2004 in Wellingborough, Northamptonsire.
In that session we focused on passages of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beloved_(novel)" target="_blank">Beloved</a></i> (published 1984),
which became one of my most favourite and memorable teachings.</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Given the eternal life of the written word, and Toni Morrison's presence on the Internet, we will continue to be enlightened as we read and tune in to gain yet more insight into the magnitude of her literary legacy as she goes down in history as one of the world's greatest writers.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>* * *</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">How did you feel when you heard Toni Morrison passed away?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What did she mean to you? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Let me know in the Comments section below.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-81635997498004686952019-04-12T17:09:00.003+01:002019-04-12T19:16:45.140+01:00How to Let Go of Your Old Journals<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioqdieKbPCh_hQsrpQNZBJFJhCzh7QGX8Cr3aStpWzFq1QvPuk-qo5ZWRbFL3PD8dJPwnUSMEnV7rcsquUeJ0e8bsitunqT17IOp0jaykkObWTyxxFtAb_AkaVAQFtnDjaRru112SrbxI/s1600/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1600" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioqdieKbPCh_hQsrpQNZBJFJhCzh7QGX8Cr3aStpWzFq1QvPuk-qo5ZWRbFL3PD8dJPwnUSMEnV7rcsquUeJ0e8bsitunqT17IOp0jaykkObWTyxxFtAb_AkaVAQFtnDjaRru112SrbxI/s320/002.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> My old journals spanning 24 years.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My first ever journal was a small notebook, started in 1995. In those early days, I felt restricted by that size and leapt to A4 size notebooks. Later, I settled with A5 size ones. You can read more about my reasons for starting </span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://nicolemoore2014.blogspot.com/p/journalling.html" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So why some 24 years later, have I shred most (not all) of those 30+ journals? It has alot to do with my journey towards a minimalist lifestyle, which started at the beginning of March this year. I've never been one for keeping a lot of clutter but I soon realised that minimalism is a lovely way to actually sniff out all those hidden places where clutter resides.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My journals had been packed away in a box after moving house a few years ago and it now seemed crazy to keep them. So when I opened that box, it was with an intention to let go of paper clutter. I certainly didn't want to read them and I definitely didn't want to leave them as some kind of legacy ... that would've been a burden for anyone inheriting them. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2MJIwVUa4p09jA4BSLmkWKwo_2w0HLRtQ4zRef9BQvB1t8T_n42toEia06AHJJDfhu7uBzwd4FDqioQeivqfK9ROKVJASxl3y3vodOIiIzQDQff3-5M2AWi1eeFkPRXM3-OGfNzsID40/s1600/20190329_113414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2MJIwVUa4p09jA4BSLmkWKwo_2w0HLRtQ4zRef9BQvB1t8T_n42toEia06AHJJDfhu7uBzwd4FDqioQeivqfK9ROKVJASxl3y3vodOIiIzQDQff3-5M2AWi1eeFkPRXM3-OGfNzsID40/s320/20190329_113414.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the numerous bags of shredded <br />
journals now headed for recycling.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>How did I feel whilst shredding my old journals?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I must admit I did spend a minute or two scanning the opening pages, which transported me right back to the past for a while, but I wanted to stay focused on the task of shredding. Letting go of the past felt like a great move in the right direction, the deal being I was working towards my newfound minimalist lifestyle. This has been an amazing journey and I love where it has taken me. I feel light in mind, body and spirit and have released more positive energy and more clarity than I could've dreamed of. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Did the journals have any sentimental value?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Surprisingly no, the journals had no sentimental value attributed to them, therefore no relevance in keeping them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I would've liked to burn those 30+ journals as that may have been more of a symbolic, ceremonious way to let them go, but then I thought that wouldn't of been something easy to do. So I decided on a system of shredding the pages of three journals a day over a period of a few weeks. The final journal was shred on 3rd April.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Did I keep any journals?</b> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, I did keep a few only because there was still enough empty pages when I'd shred the full ones. I won't use them for journaling but for making notes when the need arises.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Have I completely given up on journaling?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiy56smzYMn-N1P0Z7saSQj1S10U-p7HqI35WKCEgxgF3aYysRyycfttLtHzom4ZFsB6g-YLE0G_8bKrRuaMJu4Z5M3jgxe-X5NYbu3Kiw69s1mLrlzx8xqCMddE9bfR3rUYfqonrjM0/s1600/20190412_140141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1037" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifiy56smzYMn-N1P0Z7saSQj1S10U-p7HqI35WKCEgxgF3aYysRyycfttLtHzom4ZFsB6g-YLE0G_8bKrRuaMJu4Z5M3jgxe-X5NYbu3Kiw69s1mLrlzx8xqCMddE9bfR3rUYfqonrjM0/s320/20190412_140141.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new Bullet Journal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">No, but I keep only a few current ones. The most interesting one is my new </span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bullet Journal</b>, a rather new development started on 30th March. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A bullet journal is an analog system created by Ryder Carroll, a designer based in New York. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In his words, the Bullet Journal is meant "to help you track the recent past, organise the present, and plan for the future." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">A bullet journal is an amazing system that keeps a record of whatever you want. It's entirely up to you how you design your page spreads. I have been in my element setting up my bullet journal with layouts that include the following:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Year at a glance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Goals 2019</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">New Month spread (here you can design an image or doodle)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Monthly spread (yes, more designs and doodles)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Weekly spread</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Future Log</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Mind Dump (rather than Brain dump)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Quarterly Editorial Planner (for my blog posts)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Minimalism Lifestyle Goals</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Mood & Habit Trackers (very revealing)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Meditation Weekly Schedule</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Books/Articles to Read</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">My list of page spreads along with everyone's bullet journal spreads are unique. I'd definitely recommend keeping a bullet journal. I have found mine to be very inspiring and the experience has definitely improved my way of organising.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For all those diehard journal junkies out there, I totally get that you may want to keep your journals that date back some years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'd love to hear from you if you've been able to let your journals go. What was the catalyst that sent you, like me, to shred them all?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>5 Tips for Letting Go of Old Journals:</b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">If your journals have been in a box for a year, then it's time to let them go.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Keeping journals 'just in case', is a waste of time (and space). If you suddenly need one of them, will you remember where that particular journal is?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Recycle them by shredding them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Don't try to shred them all at once. There's no need to rush this process, after all it took you long enough to create them. But don't give up ... it's best to shred a few each day, but keep going until you've let go of all of them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">If letting go of all your journals feels too much, you could scan a few of them and create a photobook of specific pages.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>For more on letting go of your journals:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/fashion/burning-your-diaries-first-person.html" target="_blank">Burning Your Diaries: First Person - The New York Times by Dominique Browning</a></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>For more on Bullet Journaling:</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/lifestyle/homes/how-my-bullet-journal-saved-my-life" target="_blank">How My Bullet Journal Saved My Life - Article by Sarah Maber</a></span></b>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-54387712015836584232019-01-01T18:45:00.003+00:002022-11-23T23:21:33.658+00:00Ntozake Shange Memorial Event<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-H3xHrc2cfXUqj3v2YHS1xCTLV25UYaeU-_fr1YtcPNOmTOZ3H2lGaJBCjkQVGiaNOrHxYZammWGRxGGR0BiAHfIo6e0eWD2S9DF4nPyFIZFi4sOrsvYpBuwi_murESiqF2RhUuiI8tA/s1600/20190101_175018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1138" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-H3xHrc2cfXUqj3v2YHS1xCTLV25UYaeU-_fr1YtcPNOmTOZ3H2lGaJBCjkQVGiaNOrHxYZammWGRxGGR0BiAHfIo6e0eWD2S9DF4nPyFIZFi4sOrsvYpBuwi_murESiqF2RhUuiI8tA/s320/20190101_175018.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Ntozake Shange, who passed on 27th October 2018, aged 70, was an American playwright and prolific multi-award-winning poet. As a Black feminist, she addressed issues relating to race and Black power in much of her work. She is best known for the canonical </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Obie Award-winning choreopoem </span><i>For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf</i> (1976), </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">a play about Black women struggling to assert themselves while dealing with the everyday problems of life. </span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqEOQEimTPI2ErVXgiQIUu2RyFJhzOcamCUkESpxHz3r8J_JHdDKghazUCDuGijLU6S8CVvEaloOcFn2nmu5YCk-2iEv9s_7uSZTwE-SNvPmP9mMHGYtNHhiVjWukMsQ6B-zdEeEF3MDM/s1600/20190101_183610.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1043" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqEOQEimTPI2ErVXgiQIUu2RyFJhzOcamCUkESpxHz3r8J_JHdDKghazUCDuGijLU6S8CVvEaloOcFn2nmu5YCk-2iEv9s_7uSZTwE-SNvPmP9mMHGYtNHhiVjWukMsQ6B-zdEeEF3MDM/s320/20190101_183610.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carol Leeming</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">When Carol Leeming – multi-award winning poet, playwright, director, performer, musician, and tutor – rang me and told me she was co-hosting a memorial event to celebrate and honour Ntozake Shange's life and work, with Dr Leighan Renaud (University of Leicester) and invited me to participate </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">at the Attenborough Arts Centre, University of Leicester, </span>on 21st December 2018, I didn't hesitate to say."Yes!"</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-trim1Ioexz3J6KfFe_JOikDOvgwKd-ktD9XFr7L2OuuwctER7gBGkVqsIMyolFUbq5e9gACw4w1gSP7EiHJ__1xWzKbGa6mBdcanCCEy5x_sBN8eCQDNHG_A7ysGJKqnVOKKB-8Ujs/s1600/IMG-20190101-WA0003.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1178" data-original-width="894" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-trim1Ioexz3J6KfFe_JOikDOvgwKd-ktD9XFr7L2OuuwctER7gBGkVqsIMyolFUbq5e9gACw4w1gSP7EiHJ__1xWzKbGa6mBdcanCCEy5x_sBN8eCQDNHG_A7ysGJKqnVOKKB-8Ujs/s320/IMG-20190101-WA0003.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me Reading at Ntozake Shange Memorial Event</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">I also knew exactly what I would be reading, an article: 'Ntozake Knows the Name of the Game' in <i>The Voice Newspaper, </i>May 23rd 1995. The writer of the piece was not cited. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">I had kept this now yellowing article since studying
Black Women's Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, and was excited that it was now going to be aired
at such a poignant celebration of Ntozake Shange's life and literary
legacy.</span> </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAULB4uao-FbM7JnTewqGp7u9JSovatEhIb02oMitl3WzTWsbcd1soUB2tUdyTyP1KbqvPv1rMTxPIP5Vy3jdRAPoI40o7eGx4sVH64h-QxSyGjeEBC3HGJ9AlA_38xgZWvWmTk3wKhqc/s1600/20190101_174840.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="1600" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAULB4uao-FbM7JnTewqGp7u9JSovatEhIb02oMitl3WzTWsbcd1soUB2tUdyTyP1KbqvPv1rMTxPIP5Vy3jdRAPoI40o7eGx4sVH64h-QxSyGjeEBC3HGJ9AlA_38xgZWvWmTk3wKhqc/s320/20190101_174840.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Voice article</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">The following is an excerpt of the article:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />"What's in a name? Not a lot, according to the 46-year-old writer and poet. Paulette Williams changed her moniker into an African one a quarter of a century ago in 1970, and to her it is no big deal. Not in Africa anyway.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ntozake means "she who comes with her own things" and Shange translates into "who walks like a lion". It seems appropriate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Zaki, as she is known by her friends, is not sarcastic, as her abbreviated name might suggest.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But when I suggest that to change your name like this is a sign of a bold person she roars like a lion. "Ntozake is like Barbara to Africans. It's not bold at all."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Reading the article to a dynamic audience generated a thought-provoking and interactive discussion. In particular, despite the unknown source of the writing, most audience members believed it to be male, as there was biased reporting of Ntozake Shange, for example, "Despite being dressed casually, her nails are long and a glowing red. They look well manicured, as if someone has spent quality time on them." When the reason for the article was that Ntozake Shange was in the UK after publication of her third novel, <i>Lilane</i>, there was little mention of this until the end of the article. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Memorial event was celebrated with African Libation, other personal contributions from leading poets and academics, as well as Poetry readings based on Ntozake Shange's choreopoem<i>, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf</i>, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Participants also included:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Leighan Renaud who works at the University of Leicester. She recently completed her PhD in Contemporary Caribbean Literature.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sandra Pollock, a multi-award winning director, community leader, and founder of the East Midlands Women's Awards.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Michelle 'Mother' Hubbard, a poet, performer, story-weaver, writer, African drummer and founding member of Blackdrop spoken word/open mic event Nottingham.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Michelle Vacciana who has produced small-scale theatre shows, both independently and by commission.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Michaela Spencer, The Plentiful Poet, graduated with a Foundation Degree in Performing Arts. Michaela studied Ntozake Shange while at University. Ntozake had a huge impact on her degree.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Rosa Fernadez is a writer, slam-winning performance poet and freelance editor from Burton-on-Trent. She studied English at Goldsmiths in London. Since returning to the Midlands, she has been warmly embraced by Leicester's cultural scene. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Carol Leeming Bio:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Carol Leeming, MBE, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, is a multi-award winning poet, playwright, director, performer, musician, and tutor. Carol's plays have been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and the Centre for New Writing, University of Leicester, and performed in The Curve, Brighton Dome, and Haymarket. Notable works include her two choreopoems 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Diva'; 'Love the Life you Live ... Live the Life you Love' along with the plays <i>Vex</i> and<i> Women in Pain</i>, co-written with Wendy Christian. Carol published her debut poetry chapbook in 2016 entitled <i>The Declamations of Cool Eye</i>. Her poem 'Highfields Fantasia' is used for teaching at the University of Leicester. Her work is referenced by Dr Corinne Fowler, in the <i>Cambridge Companion to British Black & Asian Literature</i>, edited by Deidre Osborne. Carol is working on a new poetry collection and songs for a music album for 2019.</span>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-43897638690079301382018-08-08T13:38:00.001+01:002018-08-08T13:38:31.707+01:00Hair Power Skin Revolution BBC Radio Northampton Interview 5th August 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hair-Power-Revolution-Collection-Mixed-race/dp/184876393X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519419975&sr=1-1&keywords=hair+power+skin+revolution+by+nicole+moore&dpID=41gShrG3yUL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsoRiM9gvhXjHDLVJfqOwKDmOiKPA3LBuMDq98Pw4tmbFDLJfUGQsCh3A1WdpnWyQHcpsuIGwj6j9fK_Yjdc8YfvIRbTL4HfpNPFn12KMo1Q9UzZGkwqom4yhzV4Ojxm1PW2HLo4GNtb8/s320/Hair+%2526+Skin+Cover.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 5th August, my interview with producer Suki Somal, aired on BBC Radio Northampton's Mark Dean Show, which is a weekly news and events show for Northamptonshire's African and Caribbean community. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Eight years on since its publication in 2010 and the subject of my anthology <i>Hair Power Skin Revolution</i> is still relevant today.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To find out more, you can listen to the interview, which was aired in two parts at 8.10pm and 9.20pm by visiting the following link:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06d8lv2" target="_blank">My interview with BBC Radio Northampton</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Part 1 = 18.45 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Part 2 = 1.12.00</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are 27 days left to listen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-8145226752554934062018-06-07T12:18:00.000+01:002018-06-07T12:18:33.785+01:00Carers Week Poetry Competition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLmoHzWenHsFtI58Q59qsCRLDKwjr_t54VTHLCgyIzGxC0ic_1b6-uhD8VprrzxcGVk4EnyFRaxD09cb_CNh_Igv67dXWO1QLa-JT2FRAdbNJNu0Y6VKY8O-7sBwk1jOHKJYbM7x74LJM/s1600/Scan+35.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLmoHzWenHsFtI58Q59qsCRLDKwjr_t54VTHLCgyIzGxC0ic_1b6-uhD8VprrzxcGVk4EnyFRaxD09cb_CNh_Igv67dXWO1QLa-JT2FRAdbNJNu0Y6VKY8O-7sBwk1jOHKJYbM7x74LJM/s400/Scan+35.jpeg" width="282" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.carersweek.org/" target="_blank">Carers Week</a> is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges carers face, and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The campaign is brought to life by thousands of individuals and organisations who come together to organise activities and events throughout the UK, drawing attention to just how important caring is.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Carers Week runs from 11th to 17th June. This year the theme is 'Keeping Carers Healthy and Connected'. <a href="https://www.northamptonshire-carers.org/" target="_blank">Northamptonshire Carers Centre</a>, based in 123 Midland Road, Wellingborough, are running a range of events, including three competitions, open to everyone, not just carers:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Poetry Competition</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Short Story Competition</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Art & Photography Competition</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have been given the privilege of judging the *poetry competion. If you are interested in entering any of the above competitions, entries must be at the Carers Centre by</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <b><u>Friday 8th June</u></b></span><span style="font-size: large;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Entries for all the competitions can be submitted via </span><span style="font-size: large;">email:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">carers@northamptonshire-carers.org</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">*There are no restrictions on a poetry theme, however, it would be ideal to keep it within an A4 page space for display purposes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Judging will take place on 15th June. There will be an overall prize for each category. Northamptonshire Carers Centre will be displaying exhibits between 11th-15th June.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For further details contact: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Joanna Johnson, Young Carers Service Manager:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">joannaj@northamptonshire-carers.org</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Good luck!</span>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-63532208567700330512018-06-05T12:29:00.002+01:002021-08-29T20:32:04.049+01:00Race Act 40 Exhibition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLMTPA6Vol1Q0X43lTqoesA-9VrZ_pcDwyh6jeMeSiBH33qmf9aZ6_6iPmkuSLnwZW7-D4kNQmYD78f0NLTx1Sew_hA0P5SssG43wxoqMn5k9eBC4nFlUlBFEOmhNsdlEZRRnsq3PfUc/s1600/raceact40+schedule.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1031" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaLMTPA6Vol1Q0X43lTqoesA-9VrZ_pcDwyh6jeMeSiBH33qmf9aZ6_6iPmkuSLnwZW7-D4kNQmYD78f0NLTx1Sew_hA0P5SssG43wxoqMn5k9eBC4nFlUlBFEOmhNsdlEZRRnsq3PfUc/s320/raceact40+schedule.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On Monday, 28th May, I attended the <a href="https://raceact40.co.uk/" target="_blank">Race Act 40</a> Exhibition event held at the <a href="http://www.wacacentre.com/" target="_blank">Wellingborough African Caribbean Association</a>, based in Rock Street. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Race Act 40 is an oral history project organised by <a href="https://northantsrec.org/" target="_blank">Northamptonshire Rights & Equalities Council</a>, funded by the <a href="https://www.hlf.org.uk/" target="_blank">Heritage Lottery Fund</a>, exploring historic racism in Wellingborough. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The two-year project was supported by the excellent contributions of volunteers who were professionally trained to carry out over 40 interviews which will now be archived at the <a href="https://www.northampton.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Northampton.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The event was formally opened by James Saunders Watson also known as the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PC7pPX19sYHEqRSaG5tgOuff8NuNAeT1DJC7wZ4eceDD2OjtjXyth0YfM3aJVEsxJTvBITSpiAMmt4fzfSQu_wuILIL1NB4CQwil67RrpHJUVvPbMtR150aTWSAVOU87NUgpS3YOFDU/s1600/Raceact40+sheriff.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="469" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7PC7pPX19sYHEqRSaG5tgOuff8NuNAeT1DJC7wZ4eceDD2OjtjXyth0YfM3aJVEsxJTvBITSpiAMmt4fzfSQu_wuILIL1NB4CQwil67RrpHJUVvPbMtR150aTWSAVOU87NUgpS3YOFDU/s320/Raceact40+sheriff.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">James Saunders Watson, High Sheriff of Northamptonshire.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Suresh Grover, Director of <a href="http://www.tmg-uk.org/" target="_blank">The Monitoring Group</a>, was the </span><span style="font-size: large;">Guest Speaker. Suresh Grover has been a Civil Rights Campaigner for over 30 years. He spoke about some of the campaigns beginning in 1976 to the present time.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQWZpHUrRnXF_VAdPKZ0PiSxtky7jig3Eu3jTxsBsdUrFT6GBvLkHMrnqqGXzf5iqUqvH-0u043xW7xNwl4b5Cm_r8adrNROl3xGBWWDh9lMc0WakpFSovQidYIjSAPxqSji3vLAT_xU/s1600/raceact40+suresh+grover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="1054" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQWZpHUrRnXF_VAdPKZ0PiSxtky7jig3Eu3jTxsBsdUrFT6GBvLkHMrnqqGXzf5iqUqvH-0u043xW7xNwl4b5Cm_r8adrNROl3xGBWWDh9lMc0WakpFSovQidYIjSAPxqSji3vLAT_xU/s320/raceact40+suresh+grover.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Suresh Grover, Director of The Monitoring Group.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Seventy nine people attended the event which included displays of Race Act 40's research, and poetry by Tre Ventour, Norma Watson, and Nairobi Thompson. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4uaiS33I-FIbSYBhUKgJ2Ajcl5w5Ymr_bWbLFEoweBnCUlbNKQKDAoqZgOvRtAyzi5CcjgBsuIJ8jV8bsC3DqzGrMSC1bjB9-_83L3kX95c3gAyUA7szDGp3O7sZUPh1Gk4AM2PNaxHA/s1600/Raceact40+audience.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4uaiS33I-FIbSYBhUKgJ2Ajcl5w5Ymr_bWbLFEoweBnCUlbNKQKDAoqZgOvRtAyzi5CcjgBsuIJ8jV8bsC3DqzGrMSC1bjB9-_83L3kX95c3gAyUA7szDGp3O7sZUPh1Gk4AM2PNaxHA/s320/Raceact40+audience.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Audience Members of RaceAct40 Exhibition.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a link below to my 10 minute radio interview with Suki Somal on BBC Radio Northampton's Mark Dean Show. I come on 12.35 minutes in (approx) although the whole two-hour show is worth listening to. I like the sprinkling of African and Caribbean sounds - reggae, soca and Afro Beats!</span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0677xd1" target="_blank">My Interview with BBC Radio Northampton</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You have 28 days remaining from today to listen, so I urge you to tune in!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I also shared my experience of racism in the workplace at the Race Act 40 event.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQEZvumHj4OCO0qrqRET5KsYWg7x4PXQLag2lmXtI930s21_DcKRPPm5Cpu9oRegAtpEmyYli0ldQF4cPBHRmrnYmYE8Z0uJYSNkzsMPRDgAjsXOwGjeNaYnPVV8UlYjNmu5Agix4Fuo/s1600/NM+Raceact40.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1222" data-original-width="1230" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQEZvumHj4OCO0qrqRET5KsYWg7x4PXQLag2lmXtI930s21_DcKRPPm5Cpu9oRegAtpEmyYli0ldQF4cPBHRmrnYmYE8Z0uJYSNkzsMPRDgAjsXOwGjeNaYnPVV8UlYjNmu5Agix4Fuo/s320/NM+Raceact40.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sharing my experience of racism in the workplace and how<br />I took my case to a Race Relations Act tribunal and won.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Photographs courtesy of Race Act 40.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-30392255758947776162018-03-09T14:48:00.001+00:002022-06-04T12:59:17.409+01:00Colonial Countryside: Ten New Creative Commissions<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMO0gFl70q1uhy8q3dEod6Ym_T4Elnk3SFKSqO5ysC46AmRAa-XVyzmX1ZQGvnkBrYsCinb2ksVcwh5EVyzWHybd1hEZIUmW9qu6xllAUDuydsM069Il-0g7SpMmoXDWwO3IDK4x3Ft0Q/s1600/charlecote-park-0012.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="600" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMO0gFl70q1uhy8q3dEod6Ym_T4Elnk3SFKSqO5ysC46AmRAa-XVyzmX1ZQGvnkBrYsCinb2ksVcwh5EVyzWHybd1hEZIUmW9qu6xllAUDuydsM069Il-0g7SpMmoXDWwO3IDK4x3Ft0Q/s320/charlecote-park-0012.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charlecote Park, Warwickshire</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>10 new creative writing commissions at £1,200 each for 'Colonial Countryside: English Country Houses Reinterpreted.'</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>About the project</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://nicolemoore2014.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/colonial-countryside-english-country.html" target="_blank">Colonial Countryside </a>is a child-led writing and history project about <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/" target="_blank">National Trust</a> houses' Caribbean and <a href="https://www.theeastindiacompany.com/" target="_blank">East India Company</a> connections. Steered by a child advisory board, this three-year project assembles authors, historians, and primary school pupils to commission, resource and publish new writing. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">One hundred primary children will visit ten National Trust properties and craft new writing, presenting it to live, print, and digital audiences. They will present their work at a conference during the Literary Leicester festival in November 2018. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The majority of children will be of Caribbean or South Asian heritage and this project will encourage them to think of themselves as public figures who will reshape the national narrative and make this history widely known.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHS-poElVEMzgEiFQ-OdYEvW3R6ewS32wn4UtsjDe3NQqcQrkYVNedD28LUmW9Fprx2vAI28tpN54Nbu_svSqkUIMSoJ7WhwgmTurl3MGeLbZ878HigBjiVHwLDzQSNnnqIc4DDEI5hM/s1600/logo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="101" data-original-width="668" height="48" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHS-poElVEMzgEiFQ-OdYEvW3R6ewS32wn4UtsjDe3NQqcQrkYVNedD28LUmW9Fprx2vAI28tpN54Nbu_svSqkUIMSoJ7WhwgmTurl3MGeLbZ878HigBjiVHwLDzQSNnnqIc4DDEI5hM/s320/logo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.peepaltreepress.com/" target="_blank">Peepal Tree Press</a> will commission ten authors to write about each participating house. The commissioned work will be published in an illustrated "coffee table" style book containing the ten creative commissions accompanied by accessible historical commentaries written by experts in the field. Commissioned writers will give inaugural readings and appear at literary festivals and black history events nationwide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The National Trust has over five million members and the commissioned writing will have a large readership. These ten high-profile commissions are also designed to stimulate a new wave of writing about this topic. In order to resource this, the Colonial Countryside project will create a writers' resource website, delivered by the historical team, and a massive online open course (MOOC), co-produced by children and historians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The participating country houses are:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. Basildon Parks, near Reading</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">3. Buckland Abbey, Devonshire</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">4. Calke Abbey, Derbyshire</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">5. Charlecote Park, Warwickshire</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">6. Osterley Park, West London</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">7. Sudbury Hall, Ashbourne, Derbyshire</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">8. Wightwick Manor, near Wolverhampton</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">9. Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd, Wales</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">10. Dyrham Park, near Bristol</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>About the commissions:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Commissioned writers will be advised by historians who are experts in the field. The participating National Trust properties provide a varied picture of stately homes' colonial links, telling a range of stories about slave-produced wealth, East India Company connections, colonial administrators, Black servants, slave-trading voyages, colonial business interests, Victorian plant hunters, and imperial interior design.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Commissioned writers will receive a fee of £1,200 and an allowance of up to £400 to cover research, travel, and accommodation. They will attend a work-in-progress day at the University of Leicester. Public engagement is central to this project. Social media training is available if required (writers will post social media content on the project's behalf or the project manager will post approved content on their behalf). In year three of the project, writers may be asked to give an inaugural reading at the country house featured in their commissioned pieces. Commissioned writers will also be invited to attend literature festivals and Black History Month events, with expenses paid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The commissioned work will be published in an illustrated book by Peepal Tree Press. It is also likely to feature in exhibitions in numerous houses throughout the National Trust's Challenging Histories year in 2022.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>How to apply and the deadline</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The commissioned work will be judged by a team of acclaimed writers and historians, to be assembled by Peepal Tree Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Send your commission entry by email to Dr Corinne Fowler csf11@le.ac.uk. Please attach:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A writer's CV </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This should be no longer than one page of A4, font size 12</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A proposal</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In no more than 700 words, explain why you wish to apply for the commission. You should cover: * y</span><span style="font-size: large;">our interest in the topic * your experience * your approach to the commission (including your chosen literary form) * how you will guarantee quality * your experience of social media (please note: this is not a deal breaker but it is helpful to know if you have an author webpage and a social media presence) * confirm your willingness to post project information on social media channels and/or your author website (or have it posted there on your behalf) * your geographical location * your intended audience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There is no obligation to identify a particular National Trust property from the list above, though winning entrants will be matched with one house, even if the commissioned writer wishes to explore connections between participating properties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A writing sample</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This should be no more than two pages of A4, font size 12 or (in the case of poetry) no more than three poems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Eligibility:</b> Non-UK writers may apply, though there is no budget for plane travel to England. The Arts Council expects that the majority of writers should be based in England. As a condition of the commission fee, you must commit to participating in public events during 2020.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Deadline: Midnight on 30 April 2018.</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="1600" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_63lPq-xClguP1Mnr9WSg95rrJdx2lk5zMVbainH53BcAKDFBoeNlY2Uzxdu2gUrq3VSp6lfQljXX4_5KOPeJsYn0o_ce9j-8PuO3AMLRDxf1aZ7gGo5NzPAE9VX7mToHmiIG5Up_WXk/s320/grant_jpeg_black.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-44887468199311188122018-03-02T20:03:00.000+00:002018-03-02T21:04:52.631+00:00Poetanoster: A Collection of Poems<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5Q51wK1ni_RgfZKE6lbgE8SjEbvcjTUTaImkBhZz5vnbAn_HqmWoBviN_cJIEl6DdJb_J_TOPRe_qhXH87yTJYWTkJdLk8GlMiHqXGslekzK9Mo56gMZ21uucSNEMQfG5IF5RXUtm_g/s1600/Patermoster-Web-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="242" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN5Q51wK1ni_RgfZKE6lbgE8SjEbvcjTUTaImkBhZz5vnbAn_HqmWoBviN_cJIEl6DdJb_J_TOPRe_qhXH87yTJYWTkJdLk8GlMiHqXGslekzK9Mo56gMZ21uucSNEMQfG5IF5RXUtm_g/s1600/Patermoster-Web-2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Attenborough Paternoster, University Of Leicester</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">The </span><a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/creativewriting/centre" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Centre for New Writing</span></a><span style="font-size: large;"> at <a href="https://le.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Leicester </a> has commissioned poems to commemorate the Attenborough Tower Paternoster. In my role as Literary Associate,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> I am currently editing <i class="">Poetanoster</i></span><span style="font-size: large;">, a collection of poems, the best of which will be published as a pamphlet, </span><span style="font-size: large;">together with interviews with porters (in a section called 'Portanoster').</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The poems will be archived in <a href="http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Special Collections in David Wilson Library</a>. A forthcoming event will be held with inaugural readings of the poems.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9eCQK2Bwqu0LohUVUk-lGVp3z1PUL7ylPOhyphenhyphenl96PI4Nsk2XF_qV3H4KHoOxxorbuWHKzR7etU30FCQAxCIIUTBQvmy2f3yGrmQx7DBC2gTTS6KqGThsWYkO8BZtWekKNFjv3qeFoRAk/s1600/20171215_144441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9eCQK2Bwqu0LohUVUk-lGVp3z1PUL7ylPOhyphenhyphenl96PI4Nsk2XF_qV3H4KHoOxxorbuWHKzR7etU30FCQAxCIIUTBQvmy2f3yGrmQx7DBC2gTTS6KqGThsWYkO8BZtWekKNFjv3qeFoRAk/s320/20171215_144441.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The paternoster is an open lift, with lots of carriages that are continually circulating so you can 'hop on' at any point. Riding up to the top floor gave great views of the university campus and city.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The Attenborough paternoster was built in 1970 and was one of only three operating paternosters in the UK. It broke down a year ago and will soon be dismantled and replaced with a modern lift. Many have fond memories of this rare and historic lift.</span><br />
<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-16692095986720194662018-02-23T15:44:00.000+00:002018-03-16T15:32:32.695+00:00Race Act 40 - Sharing Stories of Racial Discrimination in Wellingborough <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRESODsEHc6K7TNc5PQtPyInaK3ywiIYAFAsjAJz3oesnGssAtNjhmLpcOk8aSUJRVmICQ18_ZNlfZL5d_HJ2_LIZY-GV4OYkFA05rZs8sjOjBiZP7RWRVNd6nxUccWLGQeN12oAmc8E/s1600/race-act-logo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheRESODsEHc6K7TNc5PQtPyInaK3ywiIYAFAsjAJz3oesnGssAtNjhmLpcOk8aSUJRVmICQ18_ZNlfZL5d_HJ2_LIZY-GV4OYkFA05rZs8sjOjBiZP7RWRVNd6nxUccWLGQeN12oAmc8E/s320/race-act-logo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://raceact40.co.uk/" target="_blank">Race Act 40 </a>is a <a href="https://northantsrec.org/" target="_blank">Northamptonshire Rights & Equality Council </a>(NREC) oral history project, based in Wellingborough. This two-year project is funded by the <a href="https://www.hlf.org.uk/" target="_blank">Heritage Lottery Fund</a> and was created to mark 40 years of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Relations_Act_1976">Race Relations Act 1976</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The project is conducting research to create a collection of stories using people's memories. Audio recorded as 'Oral History', individuals and communities in Wellingborough and East Northamptonshire are able to identify if and how the Race Relations Act has been of benefit. The aim is to gather information from people who have directly experienced racism, as well as, collating witness observations of racism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The project also considers the role of local and national organisations which have been supportive, as well as appropriately highlighting any organisations that have been discriminatory in their practice.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>What does the research involve?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The study involves taking part in a one-to-one interview with a trained interviewer who is sensitive to the subject matter. Lasting between 30 minutes to 1 hour, further appointments can be made to finish if needed. The interviews are recorded with audio equipment.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Interviews undertaken have reached over 40 and are typed up and stored as Oral History. The transcriptions reflect natural speech patterns, such as pauses for reflection and local dialect where possible. It is intended to be read with the recording.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Will other people know what I say in the interview?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The interview will contribute to the heritage of Wellingborough's whole community. Recordings and transcription material arising from this research will be publicly used in articles, reports, and campaigns for racial equality unless stated on the Consent Sheet that you would like to remain anonymous.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>What will happen to this research?</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">You will receive your own copy of the unedited recording and agreed transcription. Public distribution of information will be copyright of NREC. At the end of the project (May 2018), agreed records or artifacts will be kept in the University of Northampton archive so that it is accessible in the future to local people, communities, and academics. Analysis of this research could lead to further projects that enhance the community.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Volunteers</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The project has been supported by many individuals including myself. Dr Paul Jackson, Dr Caroline Nielsen and Daniel Jones from the University of Northampton have also supported the project over the past two years as critical friends, promoting volunteer opportunities to history students. The Law Department at the University of Northampton has also supported the project. A student intern was also funded for four weeks through the Santander SME Internship Programme.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Share Your Story</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">On 15th January 2018, I shared my story of racial discrimination with the project's researcher Jenny Labbon. My interview included incidents of direct racism at school in the 1960s and indirect racism in the workplace in 2003. It was an empowering experience to be interviewed as I had not spoken about these incidents for many years. I also felt a great sense of satisfaction to be participating in such a well-needed project right on my doorstep.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsj1e6xwcubR9znAWMo3hszGj8ytcSHIlpuTHOpw5l0RfXS4fvrWjDNZ64ZOhyM7igi4C86wIFjQu0_odqIY32WyhmFiUkrjfKaFoNvBmNrr_56RVEWM8c1JiZ0GfpOZOkKVm70_7aMo8/s1600/20180224_120808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1144" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsj1e6xwcubR9znAWMo3hszGj8ytcSHIlpuTHOpw5l0RfXS4fvrWjDNZ64ZOhyM7igi4C86wIFjQu0_odqIY32WyhmFiUkrjfKaFoNvBmNrr_56RVEWM8c1JiZ0GfpOZOkKVm70_7aMo8/s320/20180224_120808.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">If you live in Wellingborough and have suffered racial discrimination or have witnessed or challenged it, and would like to participate in Race Act 40 by sharing your story, you can email: </span><span style="font-size: large;">Jenny@RaceAct40.co.uk</span><br />
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<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-73193584752290109932017-12-08T17:34:00.000+00:002017-12-09T13:37:55.202+00:00My Fro & Me: Hair Stories from Women of Colour<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAd7xZyXaZ-18_P9K1vxdflUvKAmPRNGrOwNMycd1c4CCLY5HKeiy_l1QgyplMaGBTR889cNwLDF-JfjqysDVQ8O2IEgETfja_bX4sFmEucXYYP1c4kVPX_0hNJ_Bx95th06BiDAVOvcg/s1600/Dollies-on-the-Windowsill-Old-Friends.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="650" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAd7xZyXaZ-18_P9K1vxdflUvKAmPRNGrOwNMycd1c4CCLY5HKeiy_l1QgyplMaGBTR889cNwLDF-JfjqysDVQ8O2IEgETfja_bX4sFmEucXYYP1c4kVPX_0hNJ_Bx95th06BiDAVOvcg/s320/Dollies-on-the-Windowsill-Old-Friends.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://twitter.com/Diversegifts?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">We used Black Dolls, from Diverse, Brixton, London. 'To speak, hold a doll'. </a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On 28th November 2017, I participated in My Fro & Me: Hair Stories from Women of Colour, a discursive exploration of Afro-textured hair, culture, and identity. The event also explored Eurocentric ideals of beauty on our stage and screens, and discrimination within the context of women and Afro-textured hair. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ayesha Casely-Hayford facilitated the event, </span><span style="font-size: large;">held at the Cottesloe Room in The Clore Learning Centre at the National Theatre in Southbank, London.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9UmJ27FYDvP-Q0gEoCOC3iSOlT-8IH12Jb5mIaYfREihsf9-J9iawdnN3L2IWRhzBSYdbXz8N-F0-8oKJ1ef7L4QJTav0ZQz2HbZ-N12iWGon0et9my2j15YqX-bWtXvQQgYfiBN6fi4/s1600/IMG_7319-e1512163388199-768x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9UmJ27FYDvP-Q0gEoCOC3iSOlT-8IH12Jb5mIaYfREihsf9-J9iawdnN3L2IWRhzBSYdbXz8N-F0-8oKJ1ef7L4QJTav0ZQz2HbZ-N12iWGon0et9my2j15YqX-bWtXvQQgYfiBN6fi4/s320/IMG_7319-e1512163388199-768x1024.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cottesloe Room, Clore Learning Centre, National Theatre.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The event was a sell-out; over 50 likeminded women of colour, including a sprinkling of white women and men, proved an excellent dynamic for an inspiring and thoughtprovoking discussion.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOr0ggGxGBCLO_IeaSNkuWkWNZUhQUBtPfSx0W-5yHt3bmn0LkO5VCpqa_hQo3qUQOlYeob6RR5MhPOxYRh0OPvyWuKVxF-M7hhPXGZoGDvrN9swMRKsLs6H-qHNozJTyQcs0RBtd9-dw/s1600/HPSRsmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="80" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOr0ggGxGBCLO_IeaSNkuWkWNZUhQUBtPfSx0W-5yHt3bmn0LkO5VCpqa_hQo3qUQOlYeob6RR5MhPOxYRh0OPvyWuKVxF-M7hhPXGZoGDvrN9swMRKsLs6H-qHNozJTyQcs0RBtd9-dw/s320/HPSRsmall.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Readings from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hair-Power-Revolution-Nicole-Moore-ebook/dp/B003MC5DKA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398788942&sr=1-1&keywords=hair+power+skin+revolution+by+nicole+moore" target="_blank">Hair Power Skin Revolution</a> included the poems:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'I am my hair' by Fiona Mckinson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Happy ending' by Zakia Henderson-Brown</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://ayeshacasely--hayford-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/ayeshacasely-hayford.com/hair-stories-afro-archives/amp/" target="_blank">For the full details check out Ayesha's insight</a></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/my-fro-and-me-black-womens-hair-stories" target="_blank">For National Theatre publicity information</a></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/dec/06/barber-shop-chronicles-inua-ellams-black-hair-shows" target="_blank">To read the Guardian article: </a></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/dec/06/barber-shop-chronicles-inua-ellams-black-hair-shows" target="_blank">Weaving tales: Barber Shop Chronicles & theatre's wave of black hair shows</a></b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm3fF_naFQCFGye4j-uO6LUER9HPn_tXctz4zxm9IBtPI4p6eh2RrVuQkz_O_d4n4GtCdy-CtIIzZmr2mp1PFDSFoy_pT5M8nD1JDzZ3FkKYSM65O98O3dBC_VOh6JArw4ax4B8_ieeJs/s1600/IMG_7334.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1030" data-original-width="1026" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm3fF_naFQCFGye4j-uO6LUER9HPn_tXctz4zxm9IBtPI4p6eh2RrVuQkz_O_d4n4GtCdy-CtIIzZmr2mp1PFDSFoy_pT5M8nD1JDzZ3FkKYSM65O98O3dBC_VOh6JArw4ax4B8_ieeJs/s320/IMG_7334.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ayesha Casely-Hayford, Martina Laird and Sian Ejiwumniole Le Berre - My Fro & Me</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Ayesha Casely-Hayford's Bio:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Ayesha is an actress and employment solicitor specialising in discrimination. She is an award-winning voice artist and chair of the board of trustees of The Act For Change Project, which campaigns for greater diversity in the live and recorded arts. Ayesha also created 'Afro Archives a Performer's World', a project exploring the experience of women of colour with Afro-textured hair working in the performance industry.</span><br />
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<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-25620908691670786072017-11-06T11:00:00.000+00:002017-11-07T22:57:10.271+00:00John Cleese on Creativity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Much has been said about how creativity works, its secrets, its origins. In this fun and thought-provoking lecture, John Cleese offers a recipe for creativity, delivered with his usual blend of cultural insight and comedic genius. Specifically, Cleese outlines the 5 factors (listed below) that you can arrange to enhance creativity in your lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">According to Cleese, creativity can only happen in open (-mind) mode, when you are free from interruptions, distractions, unlike when you're closed (-minded), which is when you are at 'work' busy with phone calls, stuff to do and there is some pressure, anxiety, and tension.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">Open mode isn't all - there are 5 important elements required too:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">1. <span style="color: blue;">SPACE</span> - undisturbed, quiet, where there are no interruptions, phones ringing, emails being answered, etc, which means no TV!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">2. <span style="color: blue;">TIME</span> - a specific amount of time, at least 1.1/2 hours, which includes say 15-30 minutes for winding down and getting calm - again no TV!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">3. <span style="color: blue;">TIME</span> - yes more time, once you've created an oasis of calmness, you can tolerate the slight discomfort that you may feel until you solve the assignment/issue creatively and get some work done.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">4. <span style="color: blue;">CONFIDENCE</span> - so that there are no fears of making a mistake because nothing is wrong so there will be no mistakes. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">5. <span style="color: blue;">HUMOUR</span> - this gets us from closed to open mode quicker - laughter helps us to relax and doesn't detract from the seriousness of the 'problem'. So laugh, giggle all you want when being creative.</span><br />
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<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-18742705691843919272017-08-09T15:18:00.000+01:002017-08-10T18:39:24.417+01:00Colonial Countryside: English Country Houses Reinterpreted<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdthyQ57Y9NStf-kqGVdVQewieOX_ItYF6iJ7EgCegIWP2ZiDWr4ijJ8gmFDmkwU91Bi4jnHCTl6lKrfo08f4Eftfl0qrs4rSHyl1UT9aVUMivUun4EkXVNwe98l94bZwBIx7mTO0-CXk/s1600/colonial+houses.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="817" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdthyQ57Y9NStf-kqGVdVQewieOX_ItYF6iJ7EgCegIWP2ZiDWr4ijJ8gmFDmkwU91Bi4jnHCTl6lKrfo08f4Eftfl0qrs4rSHyl1UT9aVUMivUun4EkXVNwe98l94bZwBIx7mTO0-CXk/s400/colonial+houses.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">On 31st July, I joined the Centre for New Writing at University of Leicester as a Literary Associate as part of a new initiative to mobilise child historians to develop new audiences for cutting-edge research about British country houses' Caribbean and East India connections.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">This is a child-led history and writing project led by Dr Corinne Fowler at the University of Leicester. The three-year collaborative project entitled, 'Colonial Countryside', will encourage primary pupils aged 10 to engage with country homes with the help of historians and writers. Peepal Tree Press will publish and resource new writing, stimulating widespread interest in this neglected aspect of British history.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">You can listen to an interview with Dr Corinne Fowler on Leicester Radio below:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The Centre for New Writing team is kick-starting the initiative by crowdfunding a pilot event with Colmore Junior School in Birmingham, working with Kenwood and Harewood House.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://goo.gl/LJTnVU">crowdfunding</a> will pay for 20 children to visit country houses and related archives. It will also fund an historian and a writer, plus pay for a podcast narrated by the children, who will recount their experiences.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Dr Corinne Fowler, Director of the Centre for New Writing said, "Children make great researchers. They ask different sorts of questions to adults. This project will be led by children, who introduce parents, children, teachers, and country house visitors to a wide range of colonial connections. The aim is to encourage children to think of themselves as future leaders and historians in the field."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">In the second phase, 100 primary pupils will visit 10 local country houses. They will explore the archives with an historian and work with a writer to produce pithy personal essays which will be communicated to live, print and digital audiences. Peepal Tree Press will also commission 10 high-profile writers to produce new creative work about each of the 10 participating houses. The books will be sold in the bookshops of those houses. The children will attend a conference with panels and keynotes but where only children speak. There will be a child-only advisory board and children will co-produce exhibitions, a massive online open course and they will participate in the training of heritage professionals.</span></span><br />
<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-50408268334532857152017-06-19T11:55:00.002+01:002017-06-19T22:37:32.235+01:00Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The <b>University of Iowa's International Writing Programme</b> is running a free (yes free!) massive open online course (MOOC). <a href="https://app.novoed.com/fiction-and-nonfiction-2017">Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction</a> will focus on writing about identities, communities, and social issues in fiction and nonfiction.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">This MOOC will:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Encourage you to write both fiction and nonfiction</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Encourage you to explore the intersections between the two genres</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Encourage you to explore the intersections of individual, community, and global identities</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Encourage you to examine the effect of current social issues on individual, community, and global identities</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Foreground the principles of short and long-term fiction</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Foreground the principles of three forms of nonfiction: literary journalism, memoir essay, and personal essay</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Support your experience of creative and cultural exchange with writers around the world!</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Opened: May 15, 2017 - there is still plenty of time to participate.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">All I can say is that each week the course continues to blow me away, not just with the quality of the well-established and award-winning writers that share their expertise in the weekly videos but with the excellence of the whole course in the way it has been so well constructed and delivered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I encourage you to take a look and sign up!</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Onward!</span><br />
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Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-88743338340745298852017-03-20T12:41:00.000+00:002017-04-03T12:22:35.933+01:00NaPoWriMo 2017<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1xLD1EGK1kLL9eWEwL8lVwJ2mh5WpGvMnamp8JoBofRvEROa-TDLyHMFHh3mqOHX-RQrbPsksi7utBkae025mVUAfVYs6S9FhwCLrtfXFc4NeVmkZvp_yhoz7mV6RbV6nPgaqm3Bo_7w/s1600/napofeature1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1xLD1EGK1kLL9eWEwL8lVwJ2mh5WpGvMnamp8JoBofRvEROa-TDLyHMFHh3mqOHX-RQrbPsksi7utBkae025mVUAfVYs6S9FhwCLrtfXFc4NeVmkZvp_yhoz7mV6RbV6nPgaqm3Bo_7w/s320/napofeature1.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from: <a href="http://www.napowrimo.net/">NaPoWriMo2017 </a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day, totalling 30, for the month of April.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">It's been ages since I've written any poems, and I did rise to the challenge in 2013, so I'm going to give this a shot!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">So on that note, I'm calling out to all you poets to join me (it can be lonely on your own). Let's get our pens to paper and write those poems.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">I'll be posting (or attempting to post) my poems <a href="http://shangwe2011.blogspot.co.uk/">here</a>, so as to keep them all in one place. Do keep in touch and drop by with a comment, or better still share your poem!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.napowrimo.net/faq/">NaPoWriMo FAQ</a></span><br />
<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-51320628364708795612017-01-12T18:46:00.001+00:002017-01-12T18:54:18.465+00:00How to get your FREE copy of Born Between the Lines<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzUIF1e0bRziCVciVzbE2XYSqoCKhKYkCAMvs7nv8Lpo3d5UDugB6ApMb2NgNN6Eq6Lpuzsu2zGGWmFmfSnx87xNJON6P9QFN_J6DwgvFoQBzjmyEkG8XYihfgq-UXGYgvXulsT1l5HQ/s1600/thumb_IMG_0582_1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzUIF1e0bRziCVciVzbE2XYSqoCKhKYkCAMvs7nv8Lpo3d5UDugB6ApMb2NgNN6Eq6Lpuzsu2zGGWmFmfSnx87xNJON6P9QFN_J6DwgvFoQBzjmyEkG8XYihfgq-UXGYgvXulsT1l5HQ/s320/thumb_IMG_0582_1024.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like a bargain? You can't go wrong with this offer:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For a limited time only ...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My new autobiography, <i>Born Between the Lines</i> is free from 12th - 15th January on Amazon in kindle edition. Get your FREE copy now!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The book launch will be held on 4th February. Watch this space for more information ...</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Happy reading!</span><br />
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<br />Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4621012038662868552.post-69055946395424067942017-01-01T14:09:00.001+00:002017-01-01T15:04:54.594+00:00What Are Your Creative Goals for 2017?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5-gKfAidg0vV69kfbB2mpQoJSr7u_W6Xf8-sBAMbg1e94tpBHI6-fP6k0VFqeIh0z6PSFpHXlqzQxTaWo8HppvDSD_n5W8basGfvY5B8s56FkLCr6XgqEMjWRu9_0ZXQfHio9GrzqW8/s1600/christmas-1862863_960_720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5-gKfAidg0vV69kfbB2mpQoJSr7u_W6Xf8-sBAMbg1e94tpBHI6-fP6k0VFqeIh0z6PSFpHXlqzQxTaWo8HppvDSD_n5W8basGfvY5B8s56FkLCr6XgqEMjWRu9_0ZXQfHio9GrzqW8/s320/christmas-1862863_960_720.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Happy New Year!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What are your creative goals for 2017?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mine are:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Launch my new book, <i>Born Between the Lines</i>;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Post a series of book related YouTube videos;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Write/Publish a New Collection of Personal Essays;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Be more consistent with my blog posts;</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Need help with your creative goals for 2017? Check out a brilliant Webinar Recording, <i>Plan To Achieve Your Creative Goals in 2017</i>, by Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, which covers:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">How to take a step back and decide what you really want for your creative life;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">How to prioritise your To Do list so you stop wasting time;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">How to calculate the time you need to achieve what you want and how to find that time in your busy schedule;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">How to create a production schedule for your writing;</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One specific tip (there are many) I did take from Joanna's video, that I know is going to be very useful—especially for recording writing ideas—is Evernote, an electronic notebook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Happy writing for 2017! </span>Nicole Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08072902134416122370noreply@blogger.com0