Upcoming Events and Opportunities: 24 April 2021

Welcome back to The Disability Issue’s upcoming events and opportunities. Today is Saturday 24 April 2021, and I am excited to tell you about what events and opportunities are currently available. Admittedly, there are less events listed than I originally planned to show today, but sometimes they do sell-out. However, it seems quite obvious to me that more events are being prepared for when we’re free to enter galleries and museums once again. Just three and a half weeks to go, people! We will make it to the finish line, and we should be proud of ourselves when we do.

Plus, what I’ve got lined up to read about below sounds so interesting to me. One of the events immediately appealed to me when I took a glance at it earlier this week. Read through the events and opportunities to find out what I’m talking about, as it’s both accessible out in the open and viewable online too.

I hope you enjoyed the interview with Revell Dixon I released earlier this week. He’s a man who makes so much effort for others with his filmmaking. The immense efforts he’s made for disabled artists over the past year could not be ignored. He’s someone else to appreciate that’s continued to stay active and help keep disability arts alive and well at this moment in time.

Once again, the events and opportunities listed below are available for readers to experience in some way. You might watch them, you might hear them, or you might get involved with them yourself. People can access discussions about various disability arts online. There are also plenty of ways to get involved in viewing, hearing or expressing visual artwork, music, film, performing arts and literature due in the future.

If real-time interaction is needed, most people currently speak face-to-face via Zoom. If you need help setting up Zoom, then click here for help via their website. YouTube is also regularly used to show videos, and webpages often give plenty of information about the event or opportunity too.

So, once again, I have more interesting events and opportunities to share with you this week. Please, find out more; you’re so likely to enjoy.

Iberodocs Presents In A Whisper Online

When?

6:00 pm, 19 April till 2 May.

How much?

£5 (£3 Concessionary)

What does it involve?

Once upon a time, two children named Patricia and Heidi were brought up in Cuba. After they both befriended, they also united with one another as they attended the film academy together as well.

At the time, a brighter future within a communist environment was promised within their nation in the 1970s. However, difficulties continued to flare in their home country. They were two great friends, but their precious time spent together was sadly split in two. Decisions were made, and they went on to follow their families towards different countries sat in Europe. Heidi ended up in Switzerland, and Patricia settled in Spain. After that, no contact was made between them both for quite some time.

Now both 40 years old, they hold a connection and seek a way to communicate as much as possible. They found that making video letters was the best route to take, and the activity continuously played a prominent role in keeping them both busy as time continued to pass.

The two linked websites put this frankly, and so will I: the result of the letters, ingeniously edited into a chronological yet freewheeling whole, is a sensitive, two-sided account of uprootedness, motherhood, love of film, friendship and freedom. A new, critically acclaimed film named “In a Whisper” has been born because of them and is available to watch via the Iberodocs.

A Q&A will follow the film on Monday 26 April . with Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez and led by Mon Rivas. Closed captions are available.

Babylon Arts Present Inside Out Online

When?

2:00 pm till 3:45 pm, 28 April.

How much?

£5 per person.

What does it involve?

Delivered via Zoom, Inside Out is about taking an indoor show to an outdoor audience and creating performance work for outdoor spaces.

Theatre and dance specialists Spinning Wheel Theatre and Kate Flatt Projects are offering this online seminar to guide participants through all each of the steps needed in order to produce an outdoor performance from an indoor one. It shares advice to guide you towards creating performance work among outdoor spaces in particular.

The topics discussed during the online seminar include:  

• Converting work from indoors to outdoors, featuring two case studies – presented by Becca Gibbs from Spinning Wheel Theatre.
• The creative and artistic approach to making outdoor work and what inspires the work – presented by Choreographer and Movement Director Kate Flatt OBE.
• The practicalities and considerations for making work for outdoors and where to show it – presented by producer Lia Prentaki.

The session should be considered if you’re less experienced but interested in learning about how to turn indoor theatre and dance towards outdoor areas. A Q&A will follow the seminar that last for 30 minutes. Click here to find out a bit more about it and book your place.

Sick! Festival Presents MINDSCAPES: Manchester Mood Drawings

When?

19 April until 16 May.

How much?

Free.

What does this involve?

If you know enough about me, then you might know this work will gain my attention. I live in Manchester, and know I’ve made great use of the free public transport I receive. The one I’ve used the most comfortably is the Manchester Metrolink. It began when I started to gather many more physical and mental health problems after entering adulthood due to my epilepsy. By now, I must have jumped on the Metrolink thousands of times. Not everybody buys tickets, but if I had it would have cost me tens of thousands of pounds by now.

But just one thing that impresses me even more about Manchester now is MINDSCAPES: Manchester Mood Drawings. They’re now available to view at each of the Metrolink tram stops in Manchester until the 16 May. As well as that, the drawings can be viewed online, and I recommend finding a way to check them all out.

Visual artist Jan Rothuizen has used distinctive and intricate drawing to express the mental health issues currently being experienced by many people across five different neighbourhoods in Greater Manchester. As a visual artist, Jan’s work gives details about the physical environment with deep research in the personal experiences of people who live there. He combines drawing with text and creates these unique projects that have been presented in film festivals, museums and galleries alike.

Right now, his posters are placed in locations around Manchester City Centre. Sick! Festival website gives information about where you can head to in order to view them if you’re able to leave your home and live within Greater Manchester. However, if that’s not the case, then there is online access to “Janimations”, which shows quotes and drawings that highlight the difficulties that people with mental health issues live with the use of animation online.

A video chat with Jan Rothuizen is also available on the web, in which he discusses Manchester’s neighbourhoods, public transport, parks and mental health. BSL is also available if needed.

Snapshots of London: Creative Writing with Roger Mills

When?

6:00 pm till 8:00 pm, 29 April until 3 June 2021.

How much?

£60 for all six workshops/£45 concessionary, £12 per workshop/£10 concessionary.

What does it involve?

Do you have something to say? Well, I truly know that sometimes it’s not easy to get your message across. However, Roger Mills is an experienced creative writing tutor. Right now, he’s offering people the opportunity to join him for up to six workshops that start from 29 April 2021.

Snapshots of London is a course available for beginner to intermediate levelled students. Roger Mills has previously led courses and sessions at Eastside Arts in Whitechapel and the Mary Ward Centre in Bomsbury. He has also ran history workshop courses, organised conferences, and has been involved in writing and editing films produced in London for Channel 4 in past as well.

The course has been organised by Dizzy Press as part of the Blue in Green project. Tickets are available to purchase now via Eventbrite. You can also find out more about the workshops via the Dizzy Press website.

This Week Certainly Floats My Boat

Although there are only four events and opportunities mentioned this week, they all sound extremely appealing to me. Different arts spread nicely with two events and two opportunities equally balancing each other out. Film, theatre & dance, visual art and literature are all included among the list of what’s available. It all sounds appealing to me, and if I had the free time to do anything new with my life, I would certainly be willing to view and participate in them all.

However, I have more written work to complete! This time around, my interview with a disabled artist will include a conversation I had with musician John Kelly. John is a well-known character among the disability arts community, and ever since difficulties arrived for us at the start of the first lockdown, he’s played a leading role towards the formation of the UK Disability Arts Alliance.

He had plenty to talk to me about when it came to discussing how #WeShallNotBeRemoved began last year, and I’ve asked him questions regarding his history, how he’s become inspired, and what plans he has ahead too. If you’d like to learn more about John, head back to this blog on Tuesday 4 May. Interviews are currently stalled on the #WeShallNotBeRemoved website, but this is one of four I’ve written that will be made available there in due time.

Thanks for reading this post, and I hope you enjoy the week ahead.