A Ukrainian Christmas

December 14, 2022Allyship, Christmas, Democracy, Flowers/Blossom, Human Rights, Refugees, Ukraine

Business Ukraine Magazine reports that Kharkiv’s main Christmas tree has, this year, been put up in an underground station – to protect it from Russian air strikes. The magazine also retweeted the Washington Post’s report about Volodymyr Zelensky becoming Time’s Person of the Year: That a leader with no previous military experience chose to remain … Read More

Environmental Racism & COP27 Loss-and-Damage Discussions

November 14, 2022Antiracism, Climate Change, Environmental Racism, Equality, Human Rights, Living Standards, Racism

Environmental Racism is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of colour. That’s Joycelyn Longdon’s succinct definition. Joycelyn Longdon is the founder of Climate in Colour, an online education platform that combines climate science with social justice. In her 2020 video, below, she talks about developing countries and their particular vulnerability to extreme events such … Read More

Blue Plaques for Black People: Nubian Jak Community Trust

October 14, 2022Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Black Plaques, Equality, History, Human Rights, Music

For this Black History month, here’s an organisation which celebrates Black history throughout the year and throughout the land. The Nubian Jak Community Trust (NCTJ) installs Blue Plaques to acknowledge and remember notable Black people. It was founded in 2006. It also develops learning and educational resources about the plaque recipients for schools and colleges. … Read More

Ask not what trees can do for us, but what we can do for trees

August 14, 2022Books, Climate Change, Creativity, Fiction, Places, Poetry, Recycling, Trees, Walking

Last weekend I walked through a wood. Sunlight filtered through the  leaves and made me think how medieval stonemasons must have been inspired by the branches of trees gathered in arching vaults above them when they imagined their cathedrals. In a modern reversal, in Italy, near Bergamo, there’s a tree cathedral: And, at the entrance … Read More

The Good Ally by Nova Reid

July 14, 2022Allyship, Antiracism, Books, Climate Change, Democracy, Education, Equality, Health, Human Rights, Mental Health, Psychology, Racism, White Allies, White Fragility, Women

When Claudia Rankine, a Black poet and playwright, was asked by a white man, after a reading from Citizen: An American Lyric (Rankine’s 2014 anthology about the collective effects of racism in our society) ‘What can I do for you? How can I help you?’ she replied ‘I think the question you should be asking … Read More

Reading Black Writers

May 14, 2022Allyship, Antiracism, Art, Creativity, Education, Equality, Fiction, History, Human Rights, Literary Prizes, Mental Health in Fiction, Morality, Psychology, Racism, reading, White Allies, Writing

Until George Floyd was murdered on 25 May 2020, I had not begun to acknowledge, let alone unearth, my inherent racism. That racism includes not reading or even thinking about the work of Black writers. But since that May I’ve been reading Black writers and my eyes, ears, heart and mind have been opened (about … Read More

The Eleven, no, Twelve Days of COP26

November 14, 2021Climate Change, Equality

When the Queen addressed world leaders at the beginning of COP26 she said: Act for our children and our children’s children. COP26, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, follows The Paris Agreement, a 2015 international agreement on climate change. The aim of COP26 is to secure commitments from the world’s nations to … Read More

Reading as a writer. Writing as a reader. And the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021

August 14, 2021Books, Creativity, Fiction, Literary Prizes, Psychology, reading, Writers, Writing, Writing Courses

Last week a friend of mine and I talked about the six books shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. We’ve done it before and it’s always illuminating (and fun) but because we both write fiction, our conversations are often also about the nature of reading fiction as a writer. Neither of us read – … Read More

Black Minds Matter (BMM) : donations #BMMUK21K

July 14, 2021Allyship, Antiracism, Fiction, Health, Human Rights, Mental Health, Mental Health in Fiction, Mindfulness and mental health, Psychology, Racism, Writing

I’ve been in therapy, but the reasons for my therapy have never included the trauma of racism, of living inside a black or brown skin in a white-supremacist society. Nor have I been misinterpreted because the colour of my therapist’s skin was different from my own. Which is why Black Minds Matter (BMM) is so necessary, … Read More

Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021

June 14, 2021Antiracism, Books, Creativity, Equality, Human Rights, Literary Prizes, Psychology, Racism, White Fragility, Women, Writing

This week is the week of the Women’s Prize Virtual Shortlist Festival. For the (almost invisible) amount of £12 you’ll have access to three evenings of readings by the shortlisted writers: there are some wonderful works to hear extracts from on Monday 14th, Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th. I have loved Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: she … Read More