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Navigating authenticity
The struggle for authenticity in this work was the last thing I was expecting when I entered into the Living Words process two weeks ago. As an artist and animator I am used to a solitary, controlled studio existence, so I was prepared for an emotional and physical response to such a different new working…
Read MoreBeginnings and equality
So, we have begun this enquiry into what it might feel like to be living with a dementia that affects the senses. As part of the project, we will be devising a performance piece in response to a nursing home residency, and it’s the first time I have been commissioned to write/devise a performance piece.…
Read More2015
It’s been a busy year for us. Following our ACE funded training project, the summer saw our co-curation of Normal? Festival of the Brain and Susanna performing Crackpot. Following this the piece was performed for NHS AGMS, and Patients Association Gold Standard event. In the Autumn, alongside our regular work, Susanna chaired sessions at the UK Dementia Congress, and…
Read More‘Crackpot’ part of Normal? Festival of the Brain at the Folkestone Quarterhouse, 22nd May
We are presenting a new work, Crackpot, at the Quarterhouse in Folkestone on 22nd May, as a part of the larger Normal? Festival of the Brain, co-curated by Susanna Howard from the 21st-24th May. Crackpot is a funny, bold, insightful theatre show featuring the words of people experiencing dementia and living in care homes in…
Read MoreNormal? Festival of the Brain, 21st-24th May
The Festival of the Brain brings science and art together over four days to explore the brain. What happens when connections, chemicals and catastrophes send things off course, and is there such a thing as normal? Meet the archivists inside a brain, trying to keep dementia at bay whilst they sort through a lifetime of…
Read MoreLiving Words mentioned in the Huffington Post
Living Words was mentioned in an article addressing how the way we treat those experiencing dementia reflects on the whole of society. To read more at the Huffington Post, click here.
Read MoreLooking Back
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Carl Jung If I am lucky enough to continue this work I have a feeling that each person I spend time with will stay with me. That each encounter will be vivid and will…
Read MoreCarers
I look forward to every day I spend in Westmead with C. and J., and I’m beyond exhausted every time I leave. By the time I get home I usually need an hour to not talk, not think, not do anything. The focus and patience invested suck out most of my energy. I visit C.…
Read MoreAlmost goodbye
Our time at the care home is coming to an end. I introduced myself to A as always: ‘Lovely to see you A, I’m Shazea and we’ve been working together – I’ve been writing your words down and putting them in a book.’ When I took out the book to show her, with the photo…
Read MoreTuning In
Putting the books together is a new challenge. I wrap the person around me, the rhythm, tone and meaning of their words eddy round me as I edit. I feel like a composer as I pick out the stories I have been told. P’s humour, M’s silences, B’s droplets of wisdom. I’m trying to get…
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