It's finished, but not over

Well, DYS(the)LEXI is finished, for the time being.

We've had some wonderful feedback from people, and will be posting it all up here over the next few weeks.

This from one person:

"Those two days will probably go down as the most significant in my life. There was a fellowship that was like a psychic force. I can't explain it as I have never experienced anything quite like it before. At the end of each night, like a child at the end of a party, I did not want to go home."

Thank you all for your hard work and collaboration on making DYS(the)LEXI a success, especially wonderful Lennie.

It would be great to keep this blog going. One of the aims of the festival was to start a community of dyslexic creative practitioners - and this blog is a great place to let everyone know how you're doing, to start new projects, and to keep friendships going.

Hope to see you all again soon.

Best wishes

WE ARE HERE

So here we are. The night before the festival kicks off. Everyone is working flat out to get everything done in time. Thanks to everyone for all their hardwork so far. And now the fun really starts.

But it won't be so much fun if no one comes to see the shows. It's only a small theatre but please keep encouraing people to book their tickets. Encourage people to come and see your work, our work, everyone's work.

Just come.

Looking forward to meeting you all properly and seeing your wonderful creativity in full swing.

Break a leg!

I have just read the piece from Mr/Mrs anonymous. I won't pretend it didn't rattle me, and unfortunately, it is not the first time I've heard such opinions.

Let me explain: I have spent 50% of my life being stupid because I was told I was. What you think, you become. When I was introduced to the Arts Dyslexia Trust that suggested the dyslexic had created abilities, my misconception became a conception of ideas.

At the time I wasn't aware of any creative ability that I may have. But because somebody told me that I was creative, I started to search and find that creativity within. Years later I have written novels, poetry, textbooks, articles... I'm creative all right, creative beyond my dreams.

I don't believe that I am better than anyone else, nor worse. I think in a particular way that allows me to express myself visually, dynamically and from a place where I can see the world from way up high. With these skills I celebrate life through my creativity. I cannot separate my creativity from my dyslexia, because the way I am creatively, is directly linked to how I think, and how I think is directly linked to my dyslexia.

In my opinion, every individual is special, unique, and has something wonderful to offer the world. I don't believe that anyone is stupid; stupidity is a state of mind based on someone else's judgement. Stupidity is a choice, not a limitation of someone's mind. I have never met anyone stupid, dyslexic or non-dyslexic, but I have met many a person who cannot see because they have been blindfolded by set ideas and conditioning.

I hope the work we are celebrating doesn't make anyone feel inadequate, dyslexic or non-dyslexic, but instead, inspire and encourage each and every one of us to celebrate what we have to offer the world. Remember, I was a stupid person who became bright and creative through someone pointing out the pluses not the minuses of my way of thinking. Who knows what potential lives inside each and every one of us, dyslexic or non-dyslexic: ‘those who seek will find’.

Thank you missfitproductions for allowing us to celebrate who we are.

Preparation time - what an eye opener

I felt it was needed to perform my work to as many audiences as I could find willing. Having been a bit of a closet writer I have not shared shared my work openly in such a way.

To be directly in front of an audience, and to watch their faces as you share your work gives you a direct connection and feedback. I have had people: crying, smiling, enjoying and thinking about my thought-provoking words.

It has been such an eye-opener, what I have to say has suddenly come to life and those that have heard my work, have been changed in some way by my words. The feedback has been so varied and so personal. I now realise criticism in the past for work I have done could well have been someone's opinion rather than a direct reflection on how good my work was. I have had some wonderful feedback in the past but I tended to forget that in favour of the less positive.

The good thing is, I haven't had negative feedback with regard to my performance work for this festival. But I am beginning to understand that writing is not there to be liked but to be stimulating, invoking, emotionally engaging, in whatever way it comes out.

I would like to thank the festival organisers for this amazing platform that gets people like me out of the closet so that I can be heard,

Thank you

Emma

Getting Closer

Well folks, the very first DYS(the)LEXI festival is approaching now.

Don't forget that we're holding an exciting and innovative creative workshop on this Sunday (the 18th) at the Barons Court in the morning. It would be great to see some more of you there. Any work that comes out of the festival could be performed on our final day, Sunday the 25th, in our giant celebration of all things neurodiverse and creative. Please book your place by emailing dysthelexi@gmail.com - and hurry, only 10 places left!

And keep selling tickets. We need people to come and support the festival. Lennie and I both want to make DYS(the)LEXI an annual event - and it will be a lot easier if this event is well supported and attended.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Rachel

A message of support we have received from a dyslexic novelist:

"What you are doing - celebrating the particular creativity of the dyslexic brain - is really excellent. Too often we accept the implication of the name 'dyslexia' and define the condition in terms of our specific weaknesses. So all power to you, and the best of luck with the festival."

dear Anonymous

Anonymous said...
People with dyslexia are just NORMAL people. Some are very intelligent, some are stupid, most are average. Some are incredibly creative, some couldn't think how to escape from a wet paper bag and most are average.

Dylexia does not come with a creativity 'gift'. Some dyslexics are very creative in the same way as some people with red hair are too! You are creative people who happen to be dyslexic - or dyslexic people who happen to be creative - however you wish to view it.

This matters because of what you are inadvertantly saying to ordinarily creative dyslexics (the vast majority) who feel doubly hard done by or even worse, doubly stupid because they don't seem to have this 'gift'.

----

dear Anonymous

thank-you for your message. dyslexics are normal people. if only we knew what normal was. maybe it matters maybe it doesn't. dyslexia is generally diognosed using what is called a discrepency model, which means it is identified when there appears to be a discrepancy between expected and actual attainment (Snowling, 2000: 16). this generally means you cannot be dyslexic and stupid, however, if you are suggesting that dyslexia shoudl be diogosed through the pattern model (miles) then i can see your view point - although this perspective is widely criticised for being too broad. thus the very methods of diognoses is thought on the one hand exclusive and on the other over inclusive, which problematises the very notion of dyslexia.

this is i guess where the who 'dyslexia is a myth' preposeal came from - documeneed on tv last year and followed up by the 'death of dyslexia conference' - where most speakers tended to agree that dyslexia DOES exist and the commenst it is a myth was generally unhelpful

you say that "Dylexia does not come with a creativity 'gift" well ... there is evidence (miles) that dyslexics are generally psychologically different rather than soley having an impariment in relation to reading and writing. and there was some suggestiong that it could be linked with creativeity (west, 1990). in this view one of dyslexias attributes would be 'pattern' or visual thinking - this is an idea that has come into circulation and support over the last decade or so and an aspect highlighted by a significant number of independent researchers (Geschwind, 1982; Gordon, 1983; Rourke & Finlayson, 1978; Winner & Casey, 1993; Winner, Casey, DaSilva, & Hayes, 1991).

i am a bit of a postmodernist at heart - and tend not to believe in any absolute authority - therere i believ ein multipe truths. however i can assure you that it is certainly not the aim of my work to make "the vast majority" to feel "doubly hard done by .... doubly stupid because they don't seem to have this 'gift'" ... rather to create a space in which dyslexics brace the idea of seaking, sharing idewas, and exploring their potential so as to create change. the change i would like to see is to move away from the perspective that having dyslexia is a curse ... or something that needs a cure ... and to have more dyslexics doing something about defining their own needs, rather than having them defined by non dyslexics ...

I am most grateful to (wonderful dyslexic) rebecca longcrane who inspired me with this thought on the matter ...


After seeing the colourful graphs and
complex data we begin to dismember ourselves.
Our minds are chopped up into good and bad.
I can’t do this but I might be able to do that.
It’s a mental dissection, where a scalpel is carefully,
lovingly, drawn along the innards of the mind,
slicing the brain, separating it into
clear, transparent, distinct sections.
What you’re good at and what you’re not so good at
can’t be connected; what hurts you, gives you pain,
can’t be a part of what saves you.
It’s a rule, a law.
To see the two as one is out of the question.

becoming visable

hi

trying to make a contribution but having to make up words in between thoughts of other expressions. not always able to refine the seniment and this is apparently quite pretentious. i wanna say thanks to lennie for making this happy hi to the people that i havent met, wow to mike and michelle that i have met either cybically or mometerily, who are doing amazing things and making really worthwil contribution to the . refining of the dyslexia concept from a better, more refreshing angel or angle never remember which. angels with anles must be ok anyway. flighty in a cubic kind of way. but yeah - everything that contributes to people becoming aware of different ways of viewing dyslexia - and i think that rcnceptualising went completely awry ... aria ... aray .. arrie? i cant remember but deconformed. n ot wll forumalted. miss formulated. all efforst to link dyslexia with creativity are valuable because creativti is in itself valuable. as is dyslexia - even though so much more needs to be understood before the forms and the dimensions of this claim are fully clear - and i think that the onlyu way a better understadning of these dimensins and forms are going to become clear is by dyslexic people experiemtting and exploring and pushing the boundaries ... and this envolves performance but it also involves thought and talking.

milke asked how did dyslexia affect you creatvity (brilliant question) mine is: if there was a metaphor that describes what dyslexia means to you - what would it be?

thanks anyone who is contributing to RASP - anyone yet to send a script the quicker the better cause time is tocking

kindly, nim

we have bigger brains you know

Hi all

My name is Mike Juggins and I am making a documentary about this wonderfull festival. I met some of you last week and was very impressed by the talent you all have. I have been active on the issue of dyslexia for a long while and this event is a real fill up for me… dyslexics of the world untie (spelt correctly!)

I have a 4 min doc at chan 4 web site if people want to know about my politics regards dyslexia. But for once this is a chance to be positive and celebrate. I am performance painting on the Tuesday (my birthday!) and am looking forward to that imensly. The paint will be my narritive.

Regards the doc… I aim to make a one hour piece and this means that I cant guarentee everyone having their whole performance in the final doc. However I will endevour to included as many people as possible in some way or another. I should be able to record all the live stuff so if people want just their own stuff for promotional purposes then have a chat to me during the week in march and we can sort something out maybe.

If anyone has not filled in a release form then please email me at mike@juggins1.freeserve.co.uk and I will send one digitally.

If I could also ask people to have a think about how their dyslexia impacts on the creative practice then that would be cool. It doesn’t need a speech or essay (lol) but I will be interviewing dyslexics to give the doc a clear context.

Well enough already, no one likes reading pages and pages of text.

Cheers
Mike

E-mail to Lennie

Dear Lennie,Thank you with the help you gave me on Monday and the time you gave over the telephone to listen to my new poem. I have made the changes I think are required and attached my whole listing in the order you suggested. I was so nervous on Monday, but you have the qualities of an amazing director. You have such a big heart and your love pours out through your eyes. It took less than moments for you to put me at ease and get me to recite my poetry with emotion.I would like to change the title of my performance to: 'back to the sky'.With thanks for your inspiration and enlightenment Emma Elliott

Trip to London

Hi all,
I come from Gloucestershire and I took the trip to London to see Lennie and Mike. It was a day full of inspiration and renewed confidence. To work with people who think like me is a breath of fresh air. I could have stayed there all day putting the world to rights. The poetry I put forward was received with great enthusiasm. However one my pieces wasn't quite working, I knew that, but they picked up on it. It was done in such a way that instead of feeling knocked, I felt inspired. I found myself sitting opposite an underground musician playing blues. And wrote my final piece.
Look forward to sharing my work and experiencing the enlightened work of fellow dyslexic artists
by for now,
Emma

Hello!Mmmm...well, errrr...yes, well, this is the first time I've done any blogging. If this post actually posts I will most probably get over-excited and turn into a blog addict and spend the rest of my life blog bothering everybody with ten second updates on my increasingly uninspiring existance.

For now though, I'm really looking forward to being part of DYS(the) LEXI. I think lennie and Sarah and everyone involved are brilliant for getting this going. It's a priviledge to be part of it.I'd like to think it has also kick started me into producing not just some of my better poems but also potentially a whole new show about dyslexia which will fuse comedy, poetry and storytelling, with lots of visuals and audience participation.

All of that is later, but for now - or at least on the 22nd March at 7.30pm when i'm doing my bit - I've got a good twenty minutes of cheeky banter and rhymes, and maybe one or two silly pictures and some embarrassing dancing. The emphasis is going to be on celebrating the more upbeat and ridiculous sides to being dyslexic.

I have also been writing some more traditionally downbeat poems too, like this one below which is written about "Jumble", who is the main character in the aforementioned not yet written show. This poem might make the final show, but I won't do it on the 22nd, as I'd rather do some funnier stuff, which is more my thing. Anyway, good luck and all the best to everybody taking part.......

He reads the same simple sentence again
The sense of it, simply, will not sink in
He’s the Jumble Boy who can’t spell his name

The panic runs manic about his brain
Letters give him jitters: jest and jinx him
He reads the same simple sentence again

But it’s too hard for him. He can’t explain
The problem is he can’t stop from thinking
He’s the Jumble Boy who can’t spell his name

Teachers can’t reach him but to shout his shame
He’s not got a clue, they’ve not an inkling
He reads the same simple sentence again

One dreamday he’ll teach them. He’ll find his aim
And hurl the world such a tale worth printing
Of the Jumble Boy who can’t spell his name

But now Jane likes Peter. Peter likes Jane
And he hates the school and all who sink him
He reads the same simple sentence again
Just the Jumble Boy who can’t spell his name

Looking forward to not spell checking

Hey all

thank you R for making this blog. It is so important. As for me i am so happy to be able to write with not spell checking my work. This is the only place where i feel i can write myself. Anyway, another way of describing the liberation of not dressing up my words in the correct grammer and feietics, is comparing this site to my very own nudiest beach.

So with only a few weeks to go a bit over a month i am excited. Very one i know is excited and i really hope that this project opens up a lot of doors for people.

Thank you all for your involvment and your support

much love

Hello, it's both exciting and nice to be taking part.

I'd like to say hello to everybody. I've never taken part in a literary festival before, although I've done a poetry reading, and a little acting. So this is all new and exciting. I've written quite a few comic sketches. I'm planning to read poetry, or an excerpt from my novel. But if anyone is interested in comedy please let me know. I haven't planned anything to write here, I'm afraid. So, if you'll pardon me, I'll insert an author's interview that I've done. Please feel free to ignore it! I've done my best to make it chirpy.

I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Pat





Interview with Patrick Mackeown, January 2007

About Patrick Mackeown

Patrick Mackeown was born in London in 1966. Adopted by Anglo-Irish parents, he grew up in Turkey, Wales and in several parts of England. He studied analytical philosophy. Having been variously a chef, salesman and computer operator, he was caught up soon after graduation in the Dot-Com bubble. Already having learned to program computers, he soon became useful and worked as a senior technician for what was, at the time, one of England’s foremost Internet Service Providers, Demon Internet, where he was responsible for the operation of several commercial services. He left the ISP in early 2000 to join an internationally renowned news corporation, but soon became disillusioned by the petty nature of that organisation. While waiting for the heady days of the technical revolution to return, he implemented many computing projects there.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve decided to be a writer several times. The first time was when I must have been seven or eight years old. My parents gave me a book, and on its rear-cover the publisher encouraged its readers to send anecdotes and what-have-you to their London head office. I submitted to them The Trials Of A Young, Welsh, Hill Sheep-Farmer. Since then I moved house several times and lost the publisher’s response. But, I remember that it was a charming one.

Who would you say has influenced you the most?

Very recently, Ismail Kadare’s Broken April, without question. It’s a story which haunts the reader long after its final page. It has a sadness which hangs outside the novel. It touches the subject of mankind’s beastliness in a tender and almost loving fashion. And, of writers generally, I’d say that Gerald Durrell’s humour is rarely far from my mind. To constantly poke fun at life, I think, is a writer’s solemn duty. Any refugee from Dickens’ Hard Times, who has been made to sit through a dose of Josiah Bounderby’s insufferable rhetoric, will know that well enough. In contemplating what cannot be contemplated, William Golding’s The Inheritors showed me that an author can write magnificently about sensory perceptions which Neanderthal Man possessed, and modern humans do not.

How have your personal experiences influenced the direction of your writing?

I can’t honestly say that many of them have, at least not that I’m aware of. Thankfully I’ve never been pursued by armed men, or tortured. That said, however, I suspect that the cynicisms, which I acquire during my researches, find an outlet in my poems. Cruel World is a good example. It was published only days ago, in Lionheart Press’ poetry anthology: Ancient Heart Magazine (ISSN 1751-4835).

What are your main concerns and challenges as a writer?

That’s a difficult question, almost too difficult; I have several. The accuracy of my research troubles me to distraction. I’ve been known to telephone foreign embassies to ask them about the colour of their carpets. I must stop doing that. But, on a more sombre note, I’d have to mention corruption and genocide. It’s a task of thriller writers to point out how political elites abuse their charges. And, it’s certainly a task I relish. However, it’s difficult to study inhumanity on a daily basis and still believe in goodness. I’d have to say that I find that aspect of my work challenging.

How do you deal with these challenges?

Put simply, the question is: How can I continuously write about abuses of authority without becoming jaded and cynical? There might be a temptation to assume that I succeed! I hope it’s possible to be cynical without becoming too jaded. Cynicism visits all of us, occasionally, I’m sure. But, my wife reminds me, simply by being there, that life itself has a beauty which can’t be measured. I think, when pressed, I remind myself that mankind possesses the unfortunate ability to promote his own interests above everything else. And, this is a mistake. I suspect that it’s my realisation that individual men are in error which releases me from a constant cycle of worry.

In all, how many books have you written? When and where were they published? How were they received?

So far, I’ve only written one book, a thriller called The Expendability Doctrine, published by BookScape (ISBN-13: 978-0-9554328-0-4). It’s been highly recommended by the Midwest Book Review, who had this to say about it:

"The Expendability Doctrine is an oil conspiracy thriller, about utterly ruthless criminal behavior motivated by sheer lust for money and power. When a British industrialist is professionally murdered amid an international oil crisis, his wife absconds, and a malicious pattern begins to unfold. A suspenseful saga stretching from Britain’s east coast to the nightmare slayings in Libyan gaols, The Expendability Doctrine revolves around a creed that lives up to the ruthlessness of its title. Highly recommended."

It’s only been out since November of 2006. But, already it’s been featured on the front page of Independentpublisher.com, Christmas edition. Since this is my debut novel, I’m very pleased.

I also write satires as an outlet for my cynicism. President Bush has done badly by my hand, I must admit, much to the delight of several well-known, American webmasters and radio talk show hosts. Lisa Casey’s website Allhatnocattle.com, and Terry Coppage’s Bartcop.com have posted copies of my parodies on their hugely popular pages. I’d have to say that in addition to contributing a little towards the entertainment of Lisa and Terry’s website viewers, I’ve also had great fun myself.

Links:

The President Has No Clue

http://www.bookscape.co.uk/short_stories/no_clue.php

Hilarious Nigerian Scam Story

http://www.bookscape.co.uk/short_stories/scam_story.php

What is your latest book about?

My next thriller, The Cardinal’s Blood, combines details from the mysterious death of an Italian banker in London in 1982 with a series of Mafia crimes.

How long did it take you to write it?

It’s not finished. I’m still writing it. I have been working on it for more than a year.

Which aspects of the work that you put into the book did you find most difficult?

I’d say that I find researching my books most time consuming. I wouldn’t say that it’s difficult. Perhaps it’s difficult to know when to stop. I think when the author begins to wonder exactly how much darker a carpet would have been, given a certain amount of exposure to sunlight, a decade ago, and so on, it’s time to take a break!

Which did you enjoy most?

When my characters say funny things I find it entertaining.

What sets the book apart from the other things you have written?

The main difference between The Cardinal’s Blood and The Expendability Doctrine is that the former novel is written in the recent historical past. It’s not an extraordinary challenge, because of course, I’m quite familiar with the Eighties, but still, it’s more challenging, I’d say, setting a narrative in a different time frame from the one in which the author sits.

In what way is it similar?

The fact that it’s a thriller, and that it’s international in its scope characterises it as one of my novels.

Do you write every day? How much time would you say you spend on your writing?

I write for at least eight hours a day. But, I do include research in that calculation.

What will your next book be about?

I’m not sure yet what my third novel will be about. There are so many interesting subjects.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

I expect that writing good books and obtaining good reviews is a challenge for many writers, myself included.

How did you get there?

Attention to detail, persistence and determination.

Airborn

We're a few weeks away from the festival now and things are beginning to take off. We've found an exciting and talented group of creative practitioners to showcase in the festival and their work is looking very exciting indeed.

Through the run up to the festival we will all be posting on this blog - check back regularly to read about our progress and also our thoughts on the creative potential of people with dyslexia - which is what this festival is all about!

Hope to see you soon.

Work in Progress

Watch this space for information about DYS(the)LEXI ...