what makes us human

I could post these all day! You can check out the film in full on youtube (all 3 hours!) but I recommend going to see a version on the big screen. It's incredible and you can see it for free. The sheer indivisible weight of experience in the stories told by people from across the world have left me feeling connected and inspired to do more in my little corner of this planet. It's also interspersed with some breathtaking landscapes to remind us, If we've forgotten, about the importance of the land. And, in my interpretation, how much peoples freedom is tied to it.
Oohhh and the movement! Movement most definitely matters.

stories have shapes

 

“The fundamental idea is that stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper, and that the shape of a given society’s stories is at least as interesting as the shape of its pots or spearheads.” Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories.

(via The Paris Review Tumblr)

stories

"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories" 

-- Ursula K. Le Guin

Recommended Read

Road Warrior

After fifty years, Gloria Steinem is still at the forefront of the feminist cause.

By Jane Kramer  || Click the title to read.

 “I’m an entrepreneur of social change,” Steinem says. “I talk. I write. I tell stories. I want to do justice to the women I meet.”  

(Photograph by Inez and Vinoodh for The New Yorker)

Once

On a family trip to Ireland I fell in love with Irish Dance.
On my return home my mum found a local class for me to attend.
I was besotted for years.
It's still my favorite kind of folk dance, especially the tap.
Dancing those rhythms is like laying your heart beat on the floor.

p.s. THIS is brilliant.

No Guts, No Heart, No Glory

I went to see No Guts, No Heart, No Glory by Common Wealth Theater at The South Bank Centre last night (it's on as part of the Women of the World Festival) and I HIGHLY recommend going to see it.

It is a site-specific performance (originally staged in a boxing gym in Bradford) based on interviews with Muslim Female Boxers and collaboration with the five actors in the piece. Although the performance represents a young Muslim female experience, I think it's content will resonate with anyone who has ever been young, has a body, fears, frustrations and dreams (i.e. all of us).
From a movement perspective it was just pure joy to watch, especially the mesmerising steps of boxer Saira Tabasum, and it was beautiful to see the mapping of these young girls thoughts matched with such a riot of movement...body and mind united.


No Guts, No Heart, No Glory from Common Wealth on Vimeo.

Transitions

“In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.”

― Jeanette Winterson, The World and Other Places: Stories


 

(Found here)

I like the scars because I like the stories. Bravery, stupidity, pain—none of them come free.

--Jessica Martinez 

(Source: rauchwolken)

Stories

"I still think the same way I thought as a child. I still worry. I'm still frightened... Nothing changes." "I've always had a deep respect for children and how they solve complex problems by themselves...through shrewdness, fantasy and just plain strength. They want to survive. THEY WANT TO SURVIVE."

 - Maurice Sendak

Interview by Andrew Romano and Ramin Seetodeh from BlankOnBlank.org
2009. Sendak's home in Connecticut
Read the Newsweek article
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek...

I love the internets and i love eavesdropping....