Can Art Save Us?

Time Travel and Art to Reclaim Your History

A first for the series, a mother and daughter, discussing parallels between their work. They have both successfully bypassed conventional and formal routes into painting and publishing winning awards and five star reviews. Following her teaching career, Yeside Linney, is a mostly self-taught artist who has quickly accrued multiple awards, including two national awards in The Women in Art Prize. Yeside was born in Nigeria but sent to Britain to be educated at a very young age, where she has lived since the age of 4. Her paintings, be it landscapes or portraits are free of convention and layered with textures, history, emotion and courage. She found she could only paint her autobiography and investigated her Nigerian heritage, particularly the cultural riches of the Yoruba tribe. She, herself is often painted too and her portrait by artist, Peter James Field, has also recently been hung in the National Portrait Gallery. 
Her daughter Claire Linney, author of children’s books, brings to life historical people of black and mixed heritage. Claire is writing black history back into Britain’s historical narrative that has been mostly excluded from the school curriculum. Our new Labour government is now conducting a review of the national curriculum with important questions about equality, diversity and inclusion still to be answered. Claire’s first book, The Time Tub Travellers and the Silk Thief, has 5 star reviews from both the buyers and young readers. It’s a fast paced adventure that returns to Tudor England and best friends Zula and Milo, encounter Reasonable Blackman, a significant, historical figure. He was one of the earliest people of African heritage working as an independent business owner in London at that time, a black silk weaver with rare and sought after skills enjoyed only by aristocracy. It’s an adventure in healthy curiosity, openness, exploration and learning.
We talk about historical representation and the impact on identity today, the dominant beauty narrative versus diverse, cultural expressions. We look at how history is what is and isn't painted on a canvas, or is and isn't written on a page. This is a celebration of healthy curiosity and courage from a mother that is "insatiably curious" and a daughter who is "constantly curious." It's an inspirational journey of their courage, bypassing gatekeepers, rules and barriers, to paint and publish with their own permission.
Images from the Scarification series © Yeside Linney
Images of the Time Tub Travellers, book cover illustration by Onyinye Iwu,
with kind permission of Claire Linney.
Discover Yeside Linney: www.yeside.com
Discover Claire Linney: www.clairelinney.com/
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all audio interviews in this series.
Read only, text transcripts of every interview, news, reviews and your host, Paula Moore,  are available here: www.canartsaveus.com
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Dancing Scientist Unleashes his Inner Roo! Global Winner.

This episode is about "Joyful madness" and a brilliant collaboration between Science and the Arts. Dr. Weliton Menário Costa, also known as Weli both as a scientist and as a recording artist, is the global winner of the "Dance Your PhD" competition. Complex academic research is communicated through dance to reach new audiences. It’s a tough but inspired challenge and a joy to see science celebrated through the Arts. The visibility of this relationship is especially important when a divisive political approach between the Arts and Sciences has dominated here in the UK; but it’s not a natural division. What is and isn’t natural is also a critical finding in Weli’s scientific work. His three year study of wild kangaroos has evidenced the natural diversity of kangaroo personalities and without conflict. He was able to conclude, “Kangaroos are different, just like us. Differences happen in all species, it’s just natural.” And this is what you see in Weli’s video, a group dance that includes a Drag Queen with Brazilian funk, classical Indian and ballet dancers all performing to his own song, Kangaroo Time.
We draw on parallels between his scientific study of wild kangaroos and human behaviour. Weli shares powerful, personal stories of his own challenges with identity and mental health. As a young gay man growing up in a conservative rural area of Brazil, being different alerted him to how the social environment can also shape our behaviour. He talks about his personal fears and anxieties and how his life changed dramatically in Australia where he now lives. We talk about his meditation practice and the importance of acceptance and letting go whilst understanding these aren't passive states. His practice has been core to his cultivation of courage and to developing responsiveness rather than reactiveness. There are clear acts of courageousness in Weli's journey, including his decision to become a full time recording artist and his current EP, "Yours Academically," chronicles that transition. Watch the video, dance along and find your inner roo!
 
Photographs courtesy of Nic Vevers, The Australian National University.
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Kangaroo Time Club Mix, video - www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoSYO3fApEc
Discover @WeliMusic on Instagram, check his bio for links, including Spotify or head to Youtube: 
www.youtube.com/channel/UCBpUI9oMUYmIl0wcTsD1Lkw
 

The Art of Incarceration - Groundbreaking Prison Art and Documentary

What happens when the judicial system we're taught to trust is in fact part of a complex web of systemic failure and structural discrimination on vast scales? My guests in this episode have raised one of the most important spotlights on systemic failure in Australia's prison system. Indigenous Australians are one of the most incarcerated people in the world. Alex Siddons is the director of the groundbreaking feature documentary, The Art of Incarceration, which is currently available on Netflix. He won unprecedented access to film at the Indigenous Unit of Victoria's Fulham Correctional Center. Christopher Austin is a lead participant in the documentary and he was incarcerated from the age of 11. And by the time he was 46, the longest time he had spent in society at any one time was nine months. There's nothing sketchy about this documentary and crime isn't excused. But the repeat cycle of crime and over representation of Indigenous Australians is explored in order to find solutions. Through the personal stories of in-mates the documentary raises the relevance and legacy of colonial history of 'Stolen Generations,' the displacement and disadvantage that feed into the prison system today. Alex spotlights how hope and positive change is literally painted through The Torch, a ground-breaking art program. The program connects indigenous inmates to their culture and strengthens cultural identity through the practice of art. It recognizes that people who are disenfranchised from their dominant culture become too disconnected to rehabilitate successfully. Christopher Austin and Alex Siddons take part in this episode. Christopher shares his personal experience of being displaced and incarcerated from the age of 11. He is a unique survivor of the prison system and today is both an artist and pioneer for change. He is now The Torch’s, Indigenous Program Mentor, in itself a huge landmark for change in which he leads. Alex Siddons, is a dedicated filmmaker and his documentary not only raised a vital spotlight on this human rights issue but a brotherhood too. The consent and collaboration of prisoners is further testimony to the Torch Arts Programme, successfully cultivating connection, cultural respect, real change and a future outside of the traps both in and outside of prison. 
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host, Paula Moore, are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover The Art of Incarceration on Netflix and the Director Alex Siddons: www.alexsiddons.com
Support and Discover The Torch Art Programme: www.thetorch.org.au
Buy art by First Nations people, vouchers and gifts: www.thetorch.org.au/shop-2/

Acting, Awards, Arts, Activism, a loved Actress - Julie Hesmondhalgh

Julie Hesmondhalgh is one of Britain’s most loved actresses, she plays roles for stage and screen that tackle important issues and reach out to the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere. Her roles in drama have included sexual violence, the calamity of hate crimes, the representation of transgender people, exploring the right to die and more recently, exposing one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice in British history, The Post Office Scandal. This hit ITV series, Mr. Bates versus the Post Office, has had an unprecedented reaction forcing new political urgency to resolve this scandal. In theatre her work has responded to war, austerity, cancer, mental health, refugees and currently, her personal and emotionally courageous, one woman show, These We Love, a hymn to her working-class childhood. Julie’s work as an artist is part and parcel of her activism for positive change, a fairer society and equality, including access to the Arts. Whilst her famous and ground breaking television role as Hayley Cropper, a transgender woman in Coronation Street, often dominates her career, her work is bigger than this very famous soap opera. Julie is also full of fun and she understands the importance of daftness. She thinks deeply about hope and what it means in how we navigate our lives. We talk about finding her dad's diaries, the huge investment in Arts for the privately educated but devastating cuts in state education and what that means in a democracy. We discuss the Arts in relation to mental health, being able to connect, not feel alone and to combat fear with joy. Julie discusses why hope and optimism are essential in personal and political struggle and how the Arts encourages us all to thrive.
Photos courtesy of Julie Hesmondhalgh
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover:
Julie  Hesmondhalgh www.loucoulson.co.uk/talent/julie-hesmondhalgh
Arts Emergency www.arts-emergency.org
Take Back Theatre www.takebacktheatre
 

The Inner Spirit of Story and Soul of Literature

Dennis Clausen, is a professor of American Literature and Screenwriting at the University of San Diego in the USA. He’s a highly respected, award-winning author of many works of fiction that reflect his lived experience and special interest in American small towns. He’s also written, Storytelling as Art and Craftsmanship, offering practical strategies for Screenwriters and Creative Writers. The emphasis on storytelling as art and craft is critical which is reflected in his regular contributions to Psychology Today. He discusses the threat of Artificial Intelligence and technology to our own thinking skills, neurological development, mental fitness, our imagination, having an authentic voice and questioning, who’s soul will be in literature? We talk about the relationship in his current trilogy between social injustice, economic inequality, homelessness and how Art is critical to finding truth, purpose and human existence. Dennis shares powerful personal stories including how his father, Lloyd Clausen, was adopted to be a farm labourer, not a son, who was extremely deprived. In the 1920s, the Great Depression and droughts also made for his crushing existence. Dennis unravelled his father's life story before he sadly died from cancer and he consequently published, "Prairie Son." All of his work is a great act of humanity and an important reminder why the humanities must have freedom to survive, to respond to authoritarianism and exercise the health of our own minds.
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover Professor Dennis Clausen: www.dennisclausen.com
Professor Dennis Clausen, contributor to Psychology Today magazine: www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/dennis-m-clausen-phd

A BBC Poet Chef! Survival, Life Affirmation and You.

David Attree is a ‘people’s poet,’ he’s also known as a ‘Poet-Chef,’ ‘Famous Dave,’ and more recently as the voice of the ‘Week in Words,’ aired on BBC Radio across three counties. His poetry is also currently on buses in the city of Brighton, known internationally as a centre of creativity. But fame isn’t what interests Dave, it’s connection; it’s you. Dave’s BBC, on-air introduction, was clear from the start: “I’m not writing for a crowd.” He’s interested in every individual that makes up a community. He finds “hope in disguise” and he takes “the time to measure what really counts.” Dave “links news and stories with poems and rhymes,” he creates a calm space where we can stop and think and even Time can rest a while. Dave is also an active poet in other ways; he walks and cycles for charitable causes, he speaks up, with us and for us. He’s also a funeral celebrant. He celebrates a person’s life as though he has always known them, with the skill and insight that poets possess. And what lies behind it all? Courage. Dave knows tragedy and fear, he’s had life-saving surgery that sadly, many don’t make and he’s also recovered from a stroke. Through all this he serves the value of life, for all of us and he champions his amazing, para-Olympian daughter too. This is a family that isn’t shy of beating the odds. Dave lets you know you are heard amongst all the noise, he invites you to pause and I’m sure, like me, you’ll feel, you’ve always known him too.
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover Dave Attree on BBC Sounds. The Week in Words and other clips with Dave are uploaded here as part of the Allison Ferns, Sunday Breakfast Show: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7v5/clips

The UK's First Professor of Dance Education

Do you like dancing? Do we dance enough? Or maybe the question is, why don’t we dance more? Dr. Angela Pickard is the UK’s first Professor of Dance Education. She has worked with talented dancers and choreographers across a multitude of theatres and sites in the UK and internationally. From toddlers to The Royal Ballet School, Angela has a wealth of knowledge and she is now the Director of the Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts and Health, here in the UK. The Centre makes an internationally leading contribution to critical scholarship, research, and practice in the field of arts and health. She is interested in the relationship between dance and psychological, social and artistic outcomes and responding to barriers of exclusion. Who is and isn’t included in dance, even in contemporary forms that we might assume are much more accessible? Who participates in dance is problematic, there’s a ring of elitism around it. Different generations may have memories of the traditional Friday night dance at the village hall, the school disco, the glamorous prom, the explosion of street-dance or maybe at weddings only. Have you ever been to a 'Daybreaker,' a morning dance rave to feel energized and well? Are you a fan of the hit TV series, Strictly Come Dancing? Whatever is happening, it seems our relationship with dance is fragmented, yet it has brought us joy, forms of protest and phenomenal social change. So, let’s get curious about dance and who better to ask than the UK’s first Professor of Dance Education?
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover Dr. Angela Pickard, Director of the Sydney de Haan Centre www.canterbury.ac.uk/research/research-centres/sidney-de-haan-research-centre-for-arts-and-health
 

Ballet Black. Be Free to be the Artist you Want to be.

Cassa Pancho, MBE, founded Ballet Black in 2001, Britain’s most diverse ballet company celebrating dancers of black and Asian descent. Today it’s one of the most prolific commissioners of new and critically acclaimed ballets here in the UK. The journey in between however, has been huge. Racist barriers in the industry were high and it was only six years ago that the world leading designer, Freed of London, in collaboration with Ballet Black, developed the UK’s first range of point shoes for dancers with darker skin tones. The exclusively pink or pale ballet shoe had long reigned as the symbol of a white-centric ballet world. It was trying to write her dissertation for a degree in The Art and Teaching of Classical Ballet, that Cassa realised she couldn’t interview black women in British ballet, because there weren’t any. As a young graduate, Cassa started Ballet Black, it was a brave under taking. Starting a new company is normally built around a star dancer and no-one was likely to take her seriously. But, Ballet Black offered a space where black and Asian dancers could come without feeling othered or marginalised and even a basic dance class was hugely popular. This is the work of a pioneer leading positive change. Black ballerinas being told they could only be cast in male roles or to break their feet because they didn’t fit a preferred, white, body type, are racist traumas to be left in the dust of this trailblazing work. Ballet Black is making a fundamental change in the diversity of classical ballet and to audiences in Britain. We talk about the freedom to be an artist, the stories that are told and who by, creative collaborations, the Ballet Black junior school and Ballet Black on Film. 
Photo Credits:
Image of Cassa Pancho, solo, credited to Holly McGlynn
Images of the Ballet Black Company on stage and with Cassa in a Studio, are both credited to Photography by ASH
 
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover Ballet Black: www.balletblack.co.uk
Ballet Black on Film: www.bbonfilm.balletblack.co.uk
Performances and Dates: wwww.balletblack.co.uk/performances/
Reference also made to Justice 4 Windrush: www.justice4windrush.org

Attitude in a Straight Jacket? LGBT+ History Month

Described as “an obscenely talented man.” Matthew Todd is a multi, award-winning writer, playwright, broadcaster and sometime performer. He was also the editor of the UK’s best-selling gay magazine, Attitude, for 8 years. During this time, Matthew interviewed countless celebrities, idols and icons, including Madonna, Elton John and Lady Gaga. For his very last issue in 2016, he made history. HRH Prince William was photographed for the front cover of Attitude, making his first appearance in the gay press and issuing the first Royal statement against homo, bi, and transphobic bullying. This was statement publishing. The Art of the Attitude front cover was glossy, distinct and stylish, it featured photographs of both gay and straight celebrities; everyone was welcome. But what lay behind those front covers was an even bigger and personal story, one that has informed what some would say, is life-saving work today. Matthew’s insights into gay culture and his own lived experience, was telling him a very different story; not everyone did in fact, feel welcome. He was witnessing a disproportionate number of gay people suffering from anxiety, depression, addiction, suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Despite big life statements, perfect bodies, out and proud gay attitudes, there was a dysfunction which Matthew identified as the ‘straight jacket of shame.’ In his book, Straight Jacket, How to be Gay and Happy, he examines the socio-political history that lies behind gay culture and how secrecy, being othered, criminalised, bullied and relentlessly judged, became defining characteristics of the straight jacket. No amount of striving for perfectionism can replace shame and Matthew’s book, Straight Jacket, is described as a ‘revolutionary call.’ It's reviewed by Sir Elton John as “an essential read for every gay person on the planet." This interview also marks LGBT+ History Month. References include:
Conservative, Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's, homophobic legislation, Section 28 in 1988 and harmful attitudes of the tabloid press.
Progress from limited rights in 1967 to the Marriage Same Sex Couples Act in 2013
Making history with HRH Prince William's first appearance on the front cover of a gay magazine, Attitude, in 2016. The first royal statement against homo, bi and transphobic bullying was also issued.
The tragic murder of a transgender girl, Brianna Ghey, in 2023, motivated in part by hostility towards her trans identity and impact of the dark web. 
Attitudes in the 70s and 80s, captured in the current, multi award-winning film, All of Us Strangers. Digital streaming is now available in 2024. 
In LGBT+ month and every month, Matthew Todd's landmark book remains as relevant and as important today. This is a book for anyone interested in good mental health, healthy relationships, a kinder society, human rights and not hatred and discrimination.
You can also see Matthew's successful play, Blowing Whistles, 25 April - 25 May at The Turbine Theatre, London. Blowing Whistles is set on the night before Pride in the Park, a gay couple Nigel and Jamie, grapple with the complexities of modern gay relationships. @TurbineTheatre Book soon!
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: www.canartsaveus.com
Discover Matthew Todd: www.matthewtodd.net/
LGBT+ History Month: www.lgbtplushistorymonth.co.uk/

Musa Motha, Dancer of Hope, Makes TV History

Musa Motha is an outstanding, world class dancer and a master of making the impossible, possible. Despite a leg amputation at the age of 11 due to cancer, Musa's dance techniques and innovations exceed all ideas of what we typically think able-bodied means. Musa Motha has won the hearts and minds of thousands around the world, he is celebrated as a national hero in his home country of South Africa and now based in London, England, he is equally loved. Musa made television history with his breakthrough, UK, performance on the hit TV series, Britain’s Got Talent. The first ever, group golden buzzer was struck after the hysterical insistence of the audience. A shower of love and gold saturated the stage in return for a dance performance that was one of awe and disbelief. His ballet posture could hold up a skyscraper, but the essence of his core strength is courage, firm self-belief and faith. We talk about transformation in his personal life and in South Africa itself. Musa was nearly one when Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president. We talk about losing a leg and becoming a dancer, his near death experiences, positive thinking, visualisation, his firm belief in manifestation and unwavering faith in God. 
Photo Credits: @ViktorErikEman
Series Audio Editor - Joey Quan.
Series Music - Courtesy of Barry J. Gibb
Closed Captions are added to all interviews in this series. Read only, text versions of every interview, news, reviews and your host are here: https://www.canartsaveus.com
Discover Musa Motha: www.harboursidemgmt.com/artists/musa-motha-artist-page/