Simon Walls has resumed his cross-Canada pilgrimage, a journey focused on music, meditation, and meaning
After a winter’s pause, singer-songwriter Simon Walls has resumed his cross-Canada walk, setting out from Toronto at the end of May, and heading for Canada’s eastern coast. Simon has been blogging about his pilgrimage, his music, and his experiences online. The coast-to-coast trek developed in the aftermath of a friend’s suicide—and a similar pilgrimage across Spain. (more…)
Marika Swan’s work with Redwire Native Youth Media has shown her the importance of healing through expression
Marika Swan is a Tla-o-qui-aht woman who was born out in the wilds of the west coast. Marika says she believes in a deeply profound relationship with the land that she comes from and a responsibility to its survival, health, and freedom. Marika is an artist who has also worked with Redwire Native Youth Media Society for the past five years.
We speak with Marika Swan about healing through expression. (more…)
From the two-minute miracle to writing your memoirs—expressive writing holds the promise of health benefits
Life Writing is an organic process—living and vital—with interrelated functions. In simple terms, it’s anything you write about your life. Life Writing’s genres and practices include autobiography, biography, memoir, diaries, letters, testimonies, autoethnography, personal essays and digital forms such as blogs and email [source: Wikipedia].
But what are the benefits of writing about your life…your experiences…your emotions…your thoughts? Author and life writer Sharon Lippincott says that results from three decades of research are clear: expressive writing is good for you, however you go about it. And research by Chad Burton and Laura King [opens to PDF] found that—amazingly—health benefits follow from just two minutes of written expression. (more…)
Nanaimo artist and activist Wallace Malay will present about art, mental illness, and stigma at New York conference
A conference for organizing resistance against psychiatry will be held June 20-21, 2011 at the City University of New York. PsychOUT provides a forum for psychiatric survivors, mad people, activists, radical professionals, artists, scholars and students from around the world to share experiences of organizing against psychiatry. Collective resistance against the theories and interventions of institutional psychiatry has intensified over recent years. (more…)
As the City works to revise its busking bylaw, buskers challenge perceptions and stereotypes about their craft
“The City of Nanaimo is reviewing its street entertainer bylaws and considering changes to how and where buskers can perform. To some people buskers are street-level musicians—making an honest living with their talents. To others—they are just loud panhandlers who should be told to move along.” [Source: A Channel News, opens to YouTube]
The City says that the goal of the bylaw is to balance the interests of businesses, residents and those want to have music on Nanaimo’s streets. But buskers have launched an online Facebook page protesting the bylaw, which has been in place since 2004. Cathy Davis alleges arbitrary enforcement of the bylaw, while well-known busker Tim Lander (pictured above) was recently fined for playing in the wrong place at the wrong time, an incident which has raised awareness of the situation. (more…)
Evalena Schwartz is a quirky, endearing character who brings a unique perspective on life, love, and art
Evalena is a teenager who excels at art, dislikes math, wants to fall in love, has a mom and dad, a baby brother and a best friend, and lives with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)…just like a lot of kids.
Annemarie Richmond is an author, an FASD facilitator, and the originator of what will become a trilogy following the experiences and adventures of Evalena. Annemarie’s goal in writing the Moonkissed trilogy is to provide a unique brand of entertainment and to promote the inclusion of youth who live with FASD. (more…)
