Inspirational Young People – Oxford’s own Romeo and Juliet (Joe and Zara )
I can’t believe that the young people in this film including my grand-daughter Amber will be at university next month. Polly Biswas Gladwin, Victor Glynn and I organised these filmed workshops of Joe and Zara –Oxford’s own Romeo and Juliet . I love Philip Hind’s short film of our Shakespeare in Oxford Project . I was impressed by their perceptive and intelligent discussions and some of the participants were only 14 at the time.What do you think?
https://vimeo.com/123886243
Two of the students want to be professional actors. Akasha Daley is studying at Stratford and is already taking part in Mandala Theatre performances . Hartley Bannister Parker is off to study drama in New York. Amber has chosen to study history at Warwick – I hope that isn’t anything to do with me !
Talking about Life Storytelling and why you should do it – on That’s Oxfordshire TV
I don’t like watching myself on TV but it was in a good cause. Dominique Cadiou and I were promoting the launch of The Sobell House Come4 Tea fundraising campaign, It will be launched at The Vaults (Radcliffe Square) on July 4 at 5.30pm . We will suggest ways of encouraging your guests to tell short stories from their lives adding a castaway element to the tea party ! But it’s entirely optional. You can just pick up or order a starter pack from the hospice and just share tea and cake with your friends. That’s fine too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa8UloZrxrM Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuXsJuI4vpc part 1
Tips about Life Writing. Kennington May 3@11am
For my author talk for the Friends of Kennington Library I’ll share what I have learned from writing 170 life stories for books and for The Oxford Times
FOKL author talk .
The poster was made by a lovely young Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteer Michelle Landau. Its heartwarming to see enthusiastic young readers volunteering in the library.
Do you like her poster design? Click on the 3 minute video on the home page to get an idea of the diversity of people whose life stories I have had the privilege to write. They are from 5 continents but what they have in common is a connection to Oxford.
Exciting new work by Weimin He (Bodleian Weston Library January 7)
Fifteen exciting new works of art by Weimin He went on display in the Bodleian Weston Library on January 7. Here is a taster. One of them has inspired me to write a sonnet which I have titled ‘The Mists of Dao’. (see below) Seeing Weimin working on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site inspired my poem ‘An Artist Observes’ which is on a hoarding just off Walton Street. Weimin designed the cover of Oxford Castaways showing all the castaways’ chosen objects on Oxtopia .(see below) His castaway choice was a folio of prints from Rembrandt to Ren Bonian Wu . See Weimin in Castaways Revisited some Poets , Authors and Artists .
The Mists of Dao by Sylvia Vetta
I reach out to touch it, real but not concrete.
Celtic mists swirl in with rain from the West
to shower the East, clouded in the spirit of the Dao, and meet
in the mind of the artist. Fingers grasp the brush to request
the muses for movement, swift and light.
Brushstrokes colour the paper red with his spirit.
Memories of Shanbei come in shades of black and white.
Amid the stones of Oxford past and present he paints it.
His being connects time and his energy fires
a gateway from the past to the here and now, and clear
ahead cranes point skyward with the dreaming spires.
Visions of a future beyond hard lines appear.
To the music of a new time in a new place
This is a pic of Weimin and I by the hoardings in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. They are likely to remain there for another year. I hope the title An Artist Observes isn’t too awful a pun given the close proximity of the hoarding to the glorious 18th century Radcliffe Observatory .
The Radcliffe Observatory : Do you notice the mists of Dao in this fabulous painting by Weimin ?
Brushstrokes in Time Events (end 2016)
The London Launch of Essential Audio Books : Senate House the University of London on Thursday 17 at 6.30.
On Wednesday 16 Katie Isbester and Catherine O’Brien the founders of Claret Press and Essential Audiobooks were in Oxford appearing on local TV. oxford-press-release https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_RYEXL9960&list=PLA7BT6X6QX-wVpAnedPnm9wpYMR76yJk4 -Katie and Catherine on Talk Oxfordshire. This picture was taken at a party for Catherine and Katie at my home the day before the launch.
The Arthur Probsthain Book Shop: Great Russell Street opposite the British Museum on Wednesday 24
This charming bookshop which specialises in Chinese Art is the perfect place for me to talk about the Stars! My motivation for writing Brushstrokes in Time was that I wanted the world to know about these brave artists. Why, in 2005, their relative international obscurity? Did the description ‘self –taught’ marginalise them? If they are self-taught, they had amazing teachers ! Works by Qu Leilei and Ma Desheng are currently on display in room 91 of the British Museum where you can decide for yourself. ( My talk takes place opposite the BM) At the Atkis Gallery you’ll discover sculpture by Wang Keping.
In 1979, he was a ‘junior’ Star but the Star of them all is Ai Weiwei .Brushstrokes in Time seems to be making waves because of the relationship of my fictional artist Little Winter and her mixed heritage daughter. Depicting that came from within me because my own sons are of mixed heritage. The years of research went into the Stars! (There were female Stars – Li Shuang and Shao Fei. )
Joy Zhang of the Meridian Society recorded this interview with me. The Meridian Society has a public facebook page
Joy Zhang made this video of me talking about how my 10 year obsession with the Stars Art Movement began. The result was surprising even to me – a novel called Brushstrokes in Time. It is the memoir of a fictional artist told to her teenage American daughter but readers are saying they start to believe it is real. The background detail is authentic and historical and so their reaction is understandable.
Watlington Library Oxfordshire
Friday 18 at 7.30pm . Watlington would like me to focus on the Cultural Revolution. 2016 is the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the Cultural Revolution which lead to inter- generational conflict and is the background to Little Winter’s teenage years.
The Green Fair : Oxford Town Hall December 2016
Green Power!
On July 15 Nancy Hunt and I were interviewed for 20 minutes on Talk Oxfordshire. It is about the latest book I have been involved with. GREEN POWER The Spirulina Cookbook brings together many elements in my life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mfDi8Cia70&list=PLA7BT6X6QX-zLHM8mmx4eLc6ZOS6LZOWi
I chair a rather unique organisation. For 48 years my village of Kennington has chosen to raise money annually for an overseas project which we select by vote. When KOA met in January 2014, we discussed three possible projects but the one which won the vote was the Nasio Trust’s spirulina project. It may seem strange that KOA chose to raise £25,000 to fund a unit comprising 40 tanks to produce a food supplement called spirulina? If you read Green Power the Spirulina Cookbook you will discover why.
This book is the eighth I have written or contributed to . Scroll down my BOOK PAGE to see them all.
The founder of Nasio, Nancy Hunt and I are not sure exactly how the idea for this recipe book was broached: it was probably me who raised it as as possibility. But who better to develop clear appetising and beautiful recipes than Helen Peacocke who has produced a recipe every week for 25 years for The Oxford Times. She volunteered her time and talent absolutely free of charge and this book would not have been possible without her. Philip Hind has also been generous with his time. I tell the inspirational stories of lives changed both in the UK and in Kenya and of friendships made across continents. I think Philip has produced a beautiful clear and colourful book. It will be on sale for just £4.99 from June 18: an absolute bargain!
To read more about KOA go to www.koa.org.uk and about the Nasio Trust go to www.nasiotrust.org.uk
Helen and I go back a long way! She writes walk books with dogs to dog friendly pubs. Her dog’s perspective on the walks is memorable. We finished the Free Kennington Literary Festival 2010 ( when I organised such things before we became a community library and had to concentrate on raising money!) with a walk to see the fritilleries on Iffley Meadow.
Helen, Nancy and I celebrated when the digital copy winged it’s way to ssmedia for printing.
Green Power’s first outing was at Kennington Fete and on Tuesday June 21, Emma Jane Taylor interviewed Nancy and I for Talk Oxfordshire TV.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3649890/Africa-summit-tackles-violence-against-albinos.html
I met Nancy through KOA . My village of Kennington, through KOA, funded the skin care programme implemented by Standing Voice mentioned in this feature. We have introduced Standing Voice to the Children’s Radio Foundation and part of the 2016 KOA project is the training together of young people with and without albinism to be radio reporters to broadcast to 3 million Africans in the hope that it will reduce prejudice.
CRF’s director Charlotte Bannister Parker is a castaway!
To buy copies of Oxford Castaways 2
Go to
http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk
and click on the cover image.