Penguin Waddling, Office Role Play and Speculative Care Futures.
It’s pretty frosty in Glasgow and I’m enjoying being able to create ‘dragon breath’ as I yomp around the park in the morning. I feel heavy and overwhelmed by the world most days and am practicing just taking that with me on my daily yomps rather than trying to leave it at home. Giving it space whilst I make space to be just one little person crunching through icey leaves and trying not to fall on my butt as I penguin waddle down the hilly pavement from my house. Here are some things I want to share with you this Novembrrrrrrrrr morning.
“I’m making a document”
I’ve recently started working part time at a library and whilst initially motivated by a need to have some security (to help weather a very uncertain and rocky future as an arts worker with Scotland’s current funding landscape). I’m also incredibly happy to be a part of a library service and am very much enjoying getting to know the community of folks who use the library! Of course, my interactions with kids do tend to make my day.
I recently had an interaction with a young person who declared to me they were “Making a document” as they leaned on the counter I was stood behind and helped themselves to my pen and a piece of scrap paper. I then watched as they confidently and quickly covered it in scrawls, grid lines and percussive full stops. This very specific kind of play where kids ‘play at’ being an adult carrying out their perception of seemingly mundanely adult task always does something very pleasing to my brain. It feels like a gently poking satire as well as a provocation to try and have even a fraction of the fun doing those day to day task as the kid playing at it.
(A small secret; I let the kid use The Stamp to officiate their document)
Inspired by this kid I currently have a ‘document’ gallery right in front of the desk where I sit to do my Very Important Adult Admin Work.
When No Thing Works
https://endoftheworldshow.org/episodes/when-no-thing-works-with-norma-wong
I have listened to this episode of Autumn Brown and adrienne marie browns “How to Survive the End of the World” podcast multiple times over the last week or so. I would highly recommend their whole back catalogue but this episode interviewing community organiser, activist and zen practitioner Norma Wong contains the sharp and accurate yet soft and loving wisdom I feel a lot of us need right now.
Something that particularly struck me and has stuck with me is the discussion about how kids naturally have a skill and/or desire to create and share stories and how this is something we need to tap into as adults trying to live in and better this world. Norma talks about how kids don’t tend to distinguish between ‘fiction’ and ‘reality’ in the same way adults do and how within that lies something powerful in how we get to create our world through the stories we tell and how this is something that can feed and sustain us as we grapple with feelings of hopelessness and struggle to stick with what we know to be right and humane when we know we might not see the impact of that in our lifetime. I would highly recommend giving it a listen.
Speculative Care Futures
I’m delighted to be able to finally be ready to share this piece of work more widely! It is something I feel incredibly proud of and feels somewhat like a culmination of many years thinking, playing and working alongside and with individuals described as having Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD).
“Speculative Care Futures is a report written from the perspective of of an imagined social care facility providing day services for adults described as having Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) and/or as Sensory Beings. The premise is that a small staff team at the centre have set to explore how they might change the culture of their service to better reflect who their service users are and how staff and service users could share space in more authentic, accessible and connected ways.”
My hope is that this report will be a useful resource for anyone sharing their lives with folks descried as having PMLD, even if that’s as a conversation starter or jumping off point. The full PDF is available to download from my website at https://playradical.com/portfolio-2/speculative-care-futures/ where you will also find a playlist of audio recordings of the same report. Please feel free to share with anyone you feel might get something from the work!
Watermelon Relief
I want to finish up this newsletter by spotlighting an organisation providing on the ground aid to families in Gaza. As well as providing food, distributing hygiene kits the on the ground activists of Watermelon Relief also travel between camps to create space for children to, essentially, be children for a moment. They share games, play music and dance.
In their words; “By offering both physical and emotional nourishment, we aim to bring moments of joy and relief to Gaza’s children and families. 🍉❤️”
I don’t think there is anything more I can or should add to that! So, here is a link to find out more and donate if you are able;