Home Cooking: Trauma Genes by Sammy Brough

Congratulations to Sammy for her commission to produce the latest Apples & Snakes Homecooking podcast.

Sammy was inspired to create this project on the subject of Trauma Genes after studying and responding to Audre Lorde's poem "Litany for Survival" during our recent #StatesOfViolence 5-day intensive arts/activism course at the Stephen Lawrence Centre.

This spoken word collaboration is made up of original pieces from Shake! participants and London-based poets featuring contributions from Wangu, Nicole, Haneen, Sai and Zena.

Sammy describes the podcast "opening up conversation on the subject of inherited trauma from a limitless number of viewpoints..." and intends to follow up with an event on the same theme.

Home Cooking: Trauma Genes by Sammy Brough by Apples_And_Snakes on Mixcloud

Follow Sammy on social media to find out more about her and her work:
Twitter: @sammybrough
Blog: tellastorypodcast.wordpress.com
Mix cloud: Sammy Brough

Climate change: who should we trust?

By Orla Price

On 30 September this year the Free Word Centre held a discussion on the topic ‘Trust and the environment’. The discussion centred on what sources of information we could trust in the face of climate change, and how education, the media, politics and the public perceived threats to the environment. What I found most innovative and indeed engaging about the nature of the discussions was the choice of speakers and the input from the audience. Chairing the discussion was comedian Tiernan Doueib, and the panel included seventeen year old student and activist Claudia Delpero as well as Tony Birch, an Australian novelist. Also, they happened to have me doing a poem.

Often when trying to access debates and discussions on political subjects we are confronted with ‘experts’, academics and politicians who distance us from subjects that affect us constantly. Speaking in languages of their own, these arenas become intimidating, we are made to feel opinions on these matters are ‘left to the experts’ fostering a culture of helplessness at best and complete detachment at worst. By the end of the discussion an audience member pointed out that if the opinions of front line communities that are experiencing the worst of climate change were taken more into account in the media, as well as having their opinions heard by politicians, the public would find it easier to trust the information about climate change and our future, and would then become more engaged with these issues.

Tommy Clark, "Harnessing Nature"

Taking part in this event and also participating in SHAKE! has shown me there are alternative ways to communicate, and that experiential knowledge and telling our stories can have as much –indeed, probably more- impact than passively listening to expert opinions purposely convoluted to distance us from engaging properly with important issues, just in case we pose a threat. 

We're told Change and flux are a part of nature

So nothing or no one can be sure

No magic calculator

Calculating the sums of the future

No equations to justify pure

So we go round in circles with no end

Inaction, the only theory to defend

Can't see the destination, this road has too many bends

People are showing us the answers

Others tell us to step back

Say we can't understand

Palms up, overturned hands

Cash is passed on

They're passing the blame on

Thinking how long this will go on

And I'm doing my bit

But truth is, I'm getting scared of the news

And truth is, I don't know what more I can do

Cause I'm following the advice

But the TV's shouting crisis

Worrying how much time there is

In a society with no off switch

So I'm doing my recycling

But they're making more packaging

Taking the bus to work

Elsewhere they're selling mercs

Checking the labels on my food, trying not to import

Climate refugees moving country, trying not to get hurt

Somewhere in the back of my mind,

I'm thinking it wasn't us that overstepped the line

We're coming to a point where doing our bits not enough,

There's got to be someone out there we can trust

Headspace - Shake #5 Poem - "Dear Beauty in the Rubble"

Headspace: when we think about how the amazing capabilities of the mind to imagine and  agility of the brain to calculate, reason and deduce, we always imagine it to be an electrifying place to be. It should and always be.

Shake's Headspace 2014  is about how we connect with these abilities, how we learn and how the brain and mind should be maintained as healthy places. Shake thought about the brain and mind in relation to the human spirit and the well being of the body.

Environment and relationships will influence how the headspace interprets and creates the world we live in. So all that said what did Shake Headspace discover or reveal? 

For one week we explored how the education system and the environment young people learn. Often learning is exciting. Often they feel stressed and pressurised. We spoke about how when a regimented, conformist, often discriminatory  hyper-consumerist and oversexualised society becomes too much, confidence and esteem are so affected, the body will react. The human spirit might be distracted but the mind is an amazing thing and will create all kinds of coping mechanisms to keep the body alive and "safe". Here is where assessing and taking care of our mental well being comes into play. 

We heard stories of first hand experiences with medication for depression and many shared other less mentally aggressive means to get through another day. Sharing our day to day sanity self maintenance was one of the weeks highlights, along with the brilliant games to provoke discussions and debate which inspired some very cool creative work.

Through images, poetry and film, we unpacked one of the most crowded places on the planet - inside our heads. Orla Prices image, which we have used for all Shake August 2014 promotion, is a perfect illustration for our headspace inquiry.

Here is the video of Shake! poets group piece that the Shake! filmmakers produced with our brilliant film duo, Dershe and Patrice from NuWave Productions. 

"Dear Beauty" puts the system we live under in the spot light and praises the subtle energy of  the human spirit resisting modern day pressures.

Powerful stuff as usual...  

Dear Beauty Amongst the Rubble

Eternally conflicted

I pray for the day

They tell you that your beauty can only take you so far

I am breaking through

Burning up inside

The base of a tool you proclaim necessary

The weight of thousands on me

Lost on earth my forefathers reigned the land

My existence displaces that which came before me

abused so freely  with confidentiality 

you created me

A fever constantly rising 

you created me

Your power can beat me?

I might be forgotten, faded now

but the Earth used to be mine

yes I look happy, I feel yellow

But they don;t tell you without their version of beauty

you're given permanent scar

How does my thinness grow green out of this dense grey?

The wind blows the tune

The gentle flower dances happily

Shake February 2014 sharing

 Another February half term. Another Shake Intensive.

This Shake was perhaps one of the most free-flowing organic Shakes we’ve had. The discussions were epic with Adam Cooper provoking us to think about policing when we are aware of our rights as citizens, while Mark Fisher’s discussion was a historical journey through social justice with an understanding of how capitalism and equality have evolved and conflicted over time. We were left asking so many questions to help us re-imagine. Esther Stanford’s (PARCOE)  talk on reparations was mind blowing, educational and so enlightening, opening pathways to how we think about the damage done through colonialism in the light of constructive repairing beyond the money. “There are some things money cannot heal.”  said Heritier.

The poetry created by our Shakers was reflective, moving, soul searching and invigorating. Our poets found a lot of voice through music with the help of Marcina. Best to let them speak for themselves. Here is a recording of three of you Shakers – Heritier, Orla and Zareen.

Heritier has a powerful vocal and his poem is translated by Selina Nwulu, one of our Shake participants from 2010 and now a strong poets and activist in her own right.

Orla’s piece, has a timelessness about it asking the listener to put themselves in her shoes how would they feel about the world they live in - 

 “I want to get lost on purpose…”

And Zareen, writes a hit with a great hook and a strong lyrical flow – 

“Hold on and not be broken,

intertwining, diving, rising, trying here

out in the open.”

Well done all. Will be posting more of February 2014 Shake poems soon!

Zena

Selina at Numbi

Shake!r Update:

 

Just seen this lovely write-up of Selina's performance at Numbi Arts back in July by Funmi Adewole, one of the author's who'll be reading at tomorrow's Numbi Arts book launch with Sai https://www.facebook.com/events/574821395910749/?ref=22

Shake!r's recommendation: Nathaniel's Top 5 Spoken Word Poems

Here are Nathaniel's top 5 spoken word poems. Check them out and let us know what you think? 

5. YOLO - George The Poet
This Made Me Think Once Again People Just Fall Into Place And Are Made To Believe They 
Have No Real Value.

4. Spoken Word - Dirty God
This Poem Made Me Think That People Just Fall Into Church And Religion With Out Believing 
Or Having A Reason To Be There. 

                                                      

3. Rap 101 - Doc Brown
It's Funny But The Message Is To Show The Difference Between Lower Class And Middle 
Class.

Annie and Onysha performing for fundraiser 17th of Aug.

Here's event details of the Poetry Night featuring Shakers Annie Rockson & Onysha - Aug 17th Fundraiser for students in Kenya, Rwanda & Dominica.  Attend and show them some support :)