A Complex Day In Montreal

Yesterday, we went to Montreal, a marvelous, if notoriously inaccessible, city for the day. We had planned to be in a workshop focused on using puppetry for working with businesses. Montreal is about two hours from here, so we were up early, aiming to leave by 6 o’clock. We finally made it out of the house about 6:30. The drive up was uneventful, and traffic in the city was delightfully negligible.

Usually we can find our way around Montreal with relative ease; yesterday, perhaps because we were already feeling a bit crunched for time, we were unable to find the workshop site. Even using a map, our destination proved illusive; we found ourselves driving around in circles, passing old haunts, and running into newly one-way streets and, this being the season, construction.

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Kaite O’Rielly Shares a Conversation with John McGrath About Disability and the Arts

Manchester International Festival’s Artistic Director, John McGrath has been a long-term collaborator with disabled artists and disability-led companies. John shares his thoughts on the artists who have most influenced both his own way of working and the wider arts ecology. These include Kaite O’Reilly, Claire Cunningham and David Toole. An audio description of the interview is […]

via In Conversation with John McGrath – Disability Arts International — kaiteoreilly

Damson Poets on World Poetry Day and Brexit

This is a reblog from Damson Poets about their recent celebration of the human spirit in the midst of our collective meltdown!

On Wednesday 29th of March, Damson Poets hosted a special event for World Poetry Day showcasing poetry in 13 different languages: Russian, Italian, German, Japanese, Greek, American, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Portugese, and Welsh. There were also English readings on the open-mic.

The event took place at the Ham & Jam Coffee Shop and was organised by Martin Domleo (Damson Poets) and Feixia Yu (UCLan Confucius Institute) who brought together most of the international readers. Our finale was performed by Clwb Siarad – Preston’s Welsh Club. Seventy people attended in total. My role was MCing.

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Kaite O’Reilly Muses About The Impact of Environs on Writing

Does where we write colour what we write? Do our surroundings impact on our work without us truly realising? And how about the weather – or the quality and intensity of sunlight? These are the questions I was asking myself on my morning walk today, beside the River Glomma, in Norway. One month ago I […]

via The Year of Writing Peripatetically… Does place impact on writing? — kaiteoreilly

Reblog: closing doors & opening windows

Award winning  poet, Vera Wabegijig, published her first book, Wild Rice Dreams, after 20 years of writing poetry. She shares poems, and her life, with readers through her blog of the  same title.

This week she posted about her ongoing journey of art making, service and healing. I am grateful to her for allowing me to share it with you. She began:

For four and a half years I had the pleasure to work at a local Indigenous women’s centre here in Ottawa as a cultural programmer. Over the years I put my energy in service of Indigenous women and children who came through the doors. The mandate is to serve Indigenous women and their families who are escaping domestic abuse, healing from intergenerational trauma, survivors of residential school, and who want a place to feel safe in an urban world. I learned so much about myself, my path, and my passion. The work itself was rewarding and it helped me to clarify where I really want to go with my love for language and my passion for writing. It challenged my worldview, ideologies, and beliefs. It was really life changing.

Read more.

 

A Letter from Ruth Hill

Ruth Hill sends along these thoughts. Ruth is a poet living in Canada.

Ruth Hill

Hi, Michael. Thoughtful interactive conversation can heal great divisions. It is important to air out concerns. Anyone who studies zen knows there is seldom only one right answer. I am an American by birth who is living and working in Canada. I refuse to be called an ex-pat, because I have never lost my love of, or loyalty for, my homeland and what it stands for, or used to stand for. In both countries, value priorities have polarized in different areas and in different media choices. This has created exclusive sub-cultures who are not serving the whole.

Andrea Stephenson on February’s Doubts

Andrea Stephenson’s writing and photography are grounded in place, and in her deep and abiding sense of spirituality. In this post, February’s Doubts,  she considers the light and shadow that is February, and reflects on creativity in difficult times. I am grateful to her for allowing me to share it with you.

February is the fag end of winter.  Though I love this season, this is the point when I’m ready for spring, for light, for warmth.  This is the point at which the cold and dark tires me and I trudge through the days simply surviving.  When it is no longer as easy to connect with that self I find in the rich, dark dreaming.  I have woken up, but rudely.  February is the alarm that wakes me when I’m not ready to wake, interrupting a peaceful sleep.  It is the truculent moment when I haul myself out of bed before I’m ready, to a day that I’m not looking forward to.  A transition time, but not the lazy transition of summer into autumn, or the barely perceptible change from autumn to winter.  February is hard work. Read more!

Reblog: Daily Struggles of a Disabled Woman

Visual Storyteller Gaia Calcagni Merlini is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From project ‘Anna‘. Earlier this year, probably around February, a friend told me she was working as a carer for a lady met on the street. I was instantly interested in meeting this woman. I can’t […]

via Daily Struggles Of A Disabled Woman In Hackney, London — Edge of Humanity Magazine

Reblogged from Gaele Sobott:“I Think of Dance as My Most Honest and Purest Form of Expression . . .” An interview with Christelle Dreyer — Gaele Sobott

Christelle Dreyer is a freelance graphic designer and dancer who lives in Brackenfell, Cape Town. She took up competitive ballroom and Latin dancing in 2004, then moved onto contemporary dance in 2010, performing in Dance Joint produced by Jazzart Dance Theatre and choreographed by Jackie Manyaapelo, Infecting the City, choreographed by Tebogo Munyai, and Unmute Project, […]

via “I Think of Dance as My Most Honest and Purest Form of Expression . . .” An interview with Christelle Dreyer — Gaele Sobott

Raise your banners — Shoddy exhibition

Political banners, with their traditions reaching back through the labour movement, have something in common with the Shoddy exhibition. Being fabric-based is the obvious connection, with a skillful use of embroidery, appliqué and painting to convey a strong message. Banners often carry a message of protest or resistance, but are as often about identity, pride, […]

via Raise your banners — Shoddy exhibition

Being Atypical at London’s Southbank Centre, 6th September 2016 — kaiteoreilly

AWe need more of this! Thanks, Kaite! (The photo is from Kaite’s post!)

I love a good chat, so am delighted to confirm I’ll be in conversation on 6th September at Southbank Centre, with the London launch of my selected plays Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors. The event is part of the Unlimited Festival 6-11 September 2016: “a festival of theatre, dance, music, literature, comedy and visual […]

via Being Atypical at London’s Southbank Centre, 6th September 2016 — kaiteoreilly