What can I say? she is adorable, I’ve known her for four years now and she always brings you good feelings. I thing there is so much we could learn from people like her… but well, let’s not get in the middle of it. Last Wednesday we talked about art, dreams and experiences, PLEASE CLICK HERE to listen to a brief interview with Charmian, hope you enjoy it.
And the painting…
Hello world from Ten Feet Away Art group. Last Tuesday we recorded The manifesto - voicing our own definitions of art. We will produce more audio in the future, in the mean time, please click here to listen to our manifesto…
Visual Arts group - Ten Feet Away
Well, I think this is it, please click here to listen how the story finished, as I mentioned at some point I didn’t have time to prepare myself, one day I was in, the next it was over. Did it change my life? Yes, I think so. It wasn’t as scary as I imagined but it was tough. I am happy to be out, I am happy to say good morning everyday to Marilo and Kalo, I appreciate my freedom as never and most important of all, I am a happier person.
This story has been written in 7 different episodes you can find through this site.
My next blog? It will be about circus and the performance we are creating for the Ten Feet Away Festival.
Ciao!!
I enjoy writing although I never do it… but in prison? In prison that’s the best thing to do, at least it was for me. I was writing about homelessness and also a love story. I didn’t finished any of them but what I did finished was this poem and that audio file at the end of this blog and a drawing of Kalo, my son, and a drawing of that sexy girl hanging on the wall with a celtic cross. I hope you enjoy them all.
MITOURI
I am bleeding, I can feel how the blood travels from the inside to the outside taking away both our lives.
Am I going to die? Or I am already dead. Oh poor son of mine, you didn’t have the chance to fight!
Oh glorious authorities with endless power. Their frontiers are there to protect them from me; I am the menace, am I?
My dreams – the same as yours. My skin, is it not the same as yours? But not my rights, as I have none; they don’t exist, not in here.
He is bleeding, powerless, ignoring what he will never know. Oh holy authorities, oh powerful frontiers!
I didn’t have the right to cross the line, but did they when they came to my land? Did they? I ask you again, did they!?
I was desperate for one chance to make my dream come true. It didn’t happen, I wasn’t entitled and neither was he; that’s what they said.
He has gone, but still lifeless inside my womb; and so am I, my eyes will stop sweating. Au revoir, beloved authorities, farewell wretched frontiers.
Mitouri Dembele
Mitouri was found dead on the 2nd July 2005, she was homeless and she was pregnant. After looking at her records I found out that she asked for help but due to her legal status in the UK she wasn’t eligible. Mitouri had prostitution records, she was currently sleeping rough, she was from an African country, she came to the U.K. 5 years ago. No one reclaimed her body, they died alone.
Please click here to listed to the next episode at Pentonville Prison. My cellmates (audio file)
The Folk visit their new studio space in South london…..click here to listen
Being in prison was good fun, new, exciting, it was horrible! Through my mind things like “loser”, “useless”, “coward”, “irresponsible” came across all the time. The hardest thing for me to fight against was the image I had of myself. I was aware that my mind could take me down I’ve always known that, but there wasn’t any alcohol or drugs; no “run away”, no nothing… FACE IT! – I don’t want to!! – There is no escape for you, GO ON! … and I did it and you know what, once you face your fears, they just vanished and things became less traumatic.
You know, I think as soon as you are there, inside, in a cell, something inside “clicks” and some sort of process occurs inside which makes you capable to face the facts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy whatsoever, but you can get good things out of it.
I was lucky; I had a wonderful woman out there, Marilo and Kalo – my son - made things easier for me. I was about to start a journey that changed my way of relating with my family and my world. Please click here to listen how a live in a UK prison is!
All comments are welcome,
Billy
The continuing story of Crafty Folk (in full audio) - a collective of homeless and ex-homeless people who run a Friday stall at Spitalfields Market in East London. This episode: The Folk discuss their Christmas party, ‘middle class bollocks’, skills, the arts, experience, food and male prostitution. Click here to hear episode 3
That was it, there was no way I could avoid things. I managed to call Ade who works with me and I told him about the meeting with Steve Rushton, I could talk with Marilo (my partner). I was suppose to go to court on monday and it was friday, things didn’t seem very well for me, a whole summer weekend spent in the cell of a police station. But things didn’t happen that way and on saturday I was produced at court and sent to Pentonville.
You know we normally think “There is no way I can go away from what I’m doing otherwise everything is going to collapse” but things are not that way, it’s a trap of your mind, of my mind!
Saturday, my first day ever inside a prison, click here to listen the transition from one place to another, and another, and another ….
The madness of Crafty Folk continues. listen
