The Two of Us - some great interviews from the archives !

During Mental Health Awareness Week I would like to share some previous interviews from my podcast and Reel Rebels Radio show The Two of Us where I talk to writer and artists about their work and how it relates to mental health. If you enjoy the show why not subscribe on your favourite podcast app.

Writer and editor Chimene Suleyman shares new work, her wisdom about using therapy wisely before depression hits, the importance of being foolish and why allowing a fluid and non-binary approach to race and gender changed things for her.

Writer, poet and performer, Inua Ellams talks about what it means to live on the cusp, and the feeling of not belonging anywhere. He describes himself as having a nomad spirit which is reflected in his having multiple disciplines in which to express himself creatively. He reads from his unpublished work f**k boys.

Photographer and Artist Director of Free Space Project, Daniel Regan, talks about how friendship can help facilitate change. He shares his experience of being unwell and isolated as a young person, his eventual breakdown in his 20's, and how photography has been integral to his well-being.

Poet, playwright and performer Joelle Taylor reads from her book 'Songs my Enemy Taught Me' She discusses the experience of disassociation and living outside of the body as a result of trauma, and how poetry can bridge that gap.

Artist Diane Goldie talks about making art to help people tell their own stories and how she found feminism after divorce. She shares the way in which she carries the memories of her daughter after her death from suicide.

Poet Peter Raynard shares his experience of living with depression and chronic illness. He reads from Precarious published by Smokestack books. He discusses his son's depression as a young teenager and the moment he self-defined as disabled.

Naomi talks to poet, podcaster and carpenter David Turner. He discusses the idea of joinery and collaboration with his wife Lizzy Turner.

I am an Alchemist

A fascinating interview with healer, muse and therapist Laurence Sessou. Laurence also has a wonderful workshop coming up exploring the Crone phase, treat yourself !

The Two of Us !

My Reel Rebels Radio show, The Two of Us, is now a podcast ! I talk to writers and artists about mental health, wellbeing and their work. All my guests have been very generous and often share intimate and compelling stories about their inner worlds. If you are a podcast fan hop on over to Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, Overcast to hear some very special interviews.

My guests so far include : Inua Ellams, Miriam Nash, Diane Goldie, Yomi Sode, Leone Ross, Musa Okwonga, Chimene Suleyman, Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts, and very many more.

Juxtapose

More from my portfolio of photographs, All my Bad Work, where I share things I usually don’t want people to see, mostly because of shame. As much as I want to ignore it a lot of my conditioning around social acceptance comes from looking a certain way. I have recently had a dramatic flare in my chronic ill-health symptoms leaving me fatigued and in pain. I have been talking photographs of my environment and of myself. I decided to juxtapose these images with snap shots of me as a child, as a young woman, and earlier in my Lyme Disease journey where I look healthy, happy and vibrant.

This has been a pretty painful experience and I still wonder if it’s a good idea to explore my illness trauma this way. I’m very much in two minds about it. My other concerns are that these juxtapositions are too on the nose, that there is little room for interpretation and that they are just too damned miserable.

Anyway for all of this I still feel the pull to carry on with the creative adventure I find myself on.