It’s been quiet on this blog, but there as been a lot going on in the world outside, so much that time has been short to catch up on it all. I have been busy with my new commission for The Shape of Things, which I am also blogging.
However, in terms of this R+D, Saj and I have just reached the end of a series of workshops with Woven, a group of BME women we met through Eleanor, brought together through some history of depression and also a a love and use of textiles. So really the perfect match for us! It has been a real privilege to work with these women. They are a very powerful and vibrant group of humans beings and we both felt so at home with them. We used weave, (individual and communal), writing and a lot of discussion and sharing to open up dialogue around intercultural identity issues and the connection with well-being and emotional transformation.
Today was the last session for now (I a coming to the end of my GFA period) but it was very clear on both sides that it feels just like a beginning and we do not want to part. We produced a gorgeous communal weave and the dialogue we wove covered so many areas, like a dance, personal narratives of great range and intensity, much laughter and some painful tenderness , a lot of insight and self-reflection , often referencing the intercultural self as a resource and a rich struggle.
There is so much to explore and I only got through half of the material I had planned as there was a lot to talk about out of the creative activities we did so. I am confident that we will find a way to continue, when there is such a strong connection the universe has a way of finding the means. If I do start a PHD this autumn this will be the perfect platform for developing further ideas around meaningful engagement using woven and emotional structures and deepening what has been a striking and intimate conversation so far.
I am off on holiday now and will have a chance to reflect and evaluate what happened,(in preparation for my GFA final report) and to see how to take it forward. I will be meeting with Saj and Eleanor in August and plan to start something up again in late September. For now, my head and heart are in need of a re this has been the most intense 6 months of my working life, wonderful and often on the verge of overwhelming. Motherhood has made it so, even though it is often the root of my drive and focus.
