identity – and so she thinks

Motherhood Matters

admin — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 19:08:21 +0000

It often feels (to me at least) that motherhood is one of the last social taboos. Can you have it all? Are full time mothers wasting their potential? Are those who choose not to have children wasting denying their sex? Is it the best thing ever? Can you find it wonderful and woeful all at the same time? Does it change you? Does becoming a mother affect your sense of self? Does this change in life change who you are? How are the physical, social or political aspects of your identity altered by motherhood?

The Motherhood & Identity Project explore all of this and more. Ahead of their recording, zine, workshop and showcase as part of International Women’s Day, I have a chat with one of the founders of the project Katy Lockey.

Why do you do what you do?

There is no short or witty answer to this. This is one of a few projects I have running and they all boil down to one thing really, which is bringing people together in community, encouraging and facilitating groups and spaces where people can make authentic connections and share their own experiences. A few years ago Catherine (Sangster) and I attended a Think In as part of International Women’s Day, where they were asking ‘how can we engage more local women with this programme and these issues?’ We noticed that there was no provision for mothers caring for young children , often a barrier to attending cultural events . We proposed a workshop that parents could attend with their young children present, in 2015 on Raising Children and Resisting Sexism , then in 2016 we focused on Motherhood and Identity in particular.

Do we still need feminism? h yes.

Oh yes.

Do you think that creative events can be useful, or is just masking over the structural and political issues?

I think that consciousness raising is never wasted. Forums for the discussions of ideas and ideologies are essential . Art is a powerful tool for comment and provocation .

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘be bold for change’ – how is your work bold and how does it encourage others to be bold?

I had not considered before what is bold about our work. There is a certain boldness in claiming public space for women with babies on their hips and noisy messy small children to be welcomed in and to have their ideas heard. So much potential is lost when we treat women in this stage of life as only care givers, or only value their contributions when they leave their family elsewhere.

The women who opened up and shared their very honest reflections and responses to the project have been extraordinarily bold. We have been so privileged to have been entrusted with these very personal and intimate stories.

I hope that it does encourage others to be bold. I hope that women reading our work and coming to the Brewery Tap to hear the sound pieces and to interact with the project will feel emboldened by the stories of our participants. And I also hope that the project itself will encourage others to get involved, and make art, respond creatively to what they care about. Catherine and I are both mothers and the whole project has been done in the margins of our work and family responsibilities. It’s easy for women to be swallowed up by these demands. I was so encouraged when a woman who had contributed to the 2016 project wrote to me to tell me how inspiring she found it, and how those reflections have led her to start to find her new, post baby, creative voice and practice. She has an exciting project in the works right now. That is a kind of boldness I am happy to claim for our project!

Who am I?

admin — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 19:47:00 +0000

My parents always brought me up to do what felt right for me. Career choices, friendships, hobbies and study, the direction of my life should not be wholly dictated by other people, but in tune with the desires and needs that I as an individual have. Happiness and contentment is the goal, not accomplishment or achievement.
You would think that this might make things easier. But it’s a fallacy of the modern world and the younger generations that with all the opportunities and choices available, we are becoming more and more confused about the directions to take in life. A well paid job, a nurturing family, an artistic lifestyle. Living in a city or a village. A sandwich or a salad for lunch. Wearing heels, trainers, or loafers. All these choices are influenced by who we are. But who we are is not so simple.
Read the original on Alt Magazine.

True Brits

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 13:20:00 +0000

‘Do you feel British?’ Rahul asks the audience, as he bounds onto the stage in t shirt and jeans, with a twinkle in his eye, looking like any other teenager. True Brits is an exploration of identity – how it is formed, the different facets influencing it, and what it means to individuals and the groups in which they live. Taking place between the bombings of July 2005 and the London 2012 Olympics, writer Vinay Patel has created a play in which Rahul, an 18 year old second generation Asian from Bexleyheath, South London deals with life, facing up to bullying, family expectations, university, and dating. In short, all the normal things that a teenager experiences – even a British Asian one. The main message is that maybe, despite his looks and heritage, he is not that different. In fact, according to a study that Patel read, the group most identifying with being British are young British Asians.
To many in the audience it seems ludicrous that this point needs to be made. But as the play unfolds we start to recognize certain things. The unease felt when someone appearing to be Muslim gets on a train. Fear triggered by a bag in a crowded place. The assumption that certain life paths are there for some people. The belief that marriage must be to someone from a similar background. ‘Innocent’ racist jokes become more sinister when uttered by children singing on the bus. We might like to believe that we live in an enlightened world, but stereotyping, ignorance and prejudice still play out on the streets and in the lives of so many places and people in Britain.
Patel is clearly writing from experience: the two inspirations behind True Brits were “that the society I grew up in had tossed me aside after 7/7, and that during the Olympics this was my home, always was and likely always would be”, he said in an interview with A Younger Theatre. It’s clear how disaffection might embed itself in young people, and not everyone channels it creatively like Patel. Despite evident pride in his country, jubilation at the Olympics, his best friend fighting in the British army, we’re left with a sense Rahul will always experience that feeling of being an ‘other’ even as he identifies as British. He may appear to move seemlessly through the choices of Thames or the Ganges, Reeboks or turbans, London or Bombay, chips or rice, but deep down it is not so easy. The kind of feverish and potent pride in the country that we see on stage does not always mean acceptance, and equally embracing British culture does not mean a denial of heritage and family.
Actor David Mumeni is engaging throughout the 70 minute one man show, shifting accents between the posh voices of his girlfriend and his family, the cockney rhymes of bullies, and the discriminatory tones of police pretending to be friendly during their random checks. The set design is minimal and unchanging, the attention very much being on the words and emotion conveyed. Rave reviews followed its first outing in Edinburgh, and will do after this run at the Vaults. Whatever you do, don’t miss out next time.
The first play from new talent Vinay Patel, True Brits is directed by Tanith Lindon, produced by Rich Mason Productions and supported by HighTide Festival Theatre.