Month: November 2020

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Reframing Disability

Last week the BBC hosted an event called ‘Reframing Disability’ in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act. It seems as though there has been a real step change at the BBC since the appointment of June Sarpong as Director of Creative Diversity, in terms of it’s commitment to becoming more diverse, equal and inclusive. Like with many of the broadcasters there’s still a long way to go, but their recent activity has been really encouraging to see.

One of the Spotlight Sessions – CripTales: Mat Fraser in conversation with Alex Brooker was a brilliant watch. Mat was such a fantastic speaker and his energy shone through online – as it would do since he is an actor. CripTales is a BBC Four series where a life-changing moment is captured in six powerful, dramatic monologues. All of these are written, directed and performed by disabled people and curated by Mat Fraser.

Talking of his experience curating this series, Mat referred to working exclusively with disabled people as being, “very rare, weird, momentous and joyous.” He went on to say: “I had to pinch myself sometimes because it was a career dream of mine.” It was heart-warming to hear this. However, Mat quite rightly pointed out that back in 2009 he was part of an all disabled cast in Channel 4’s Cast Offs and that it had taken 11 years for something like this to happen again. He went on to say that the transmission slot for Cast Offs wasn’t great as it was broadcast around the same period as popular comedy drama Skins and at different timeslots each week – not ideal as viewers prefer regularity when it comes to tuning in to their favourite shows. Mat was at pains to say that he wasn’t criticising the broadcaster’s decision on TX slots.

It was a thought provoking session. They also discussed the roles that disabled actors are given in programmes where the focus is on their disability and that is a shame, with the host Alex stating that “Our disability is just one aspect of us. We do regular stuff as well.”

That theme continued in a panel discussion called Representation Matters. Adam Pearson – a presenter and actor – asked a question that he went on to answer himself: “How do we get disabled people on TV doing incidental non disabled things? You hire disabled people to do incidental non disabled things.” So simple. Adam also made a very good point around the fact that: “There are no disabled people with positions of influence in the media industry at an executive level,” and with that “…there is a cycle of bad representation of disabled people year after year.”

When it comes to disability, another panellist – Katie Piper – said from her perspective it was important to “…allow people to develop their own understanding , empathy and knowledge via podcasts, books etc.,” and encouraged individuals to take responsibility in seeking out information for themselves, rather than being spoon fed. I agree with this, although the reality is that the majority of ‘time poor’ people will only invest their free time into matters that interest or affect them directly.

I think education plays an important part. Schools should invest more in teaching children the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion and about cultural history on a global, as well as a national level. I have heard from parents with children of primary school age that this seems to be happening more recently because of the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

I hope in years to come we live in a society that embraces each other’s differences where diversity, equality and inclusivity is as natural as breathing air.

The BBC’s Reframing Disability events are available to watch on demand HERE. If you work in the media and entertainment industry (or even if you don’t) these are well worth your time.

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How to Fail with Elizabeth Day

EVERYONE MUST LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST!

I began listening to this at the beginning of lockdown 1.0 and it (amongst many other podcasts, as well as my dear friend The Podcast Coach) inspired me to start my very own podcast: The Diversity of Me; Keeping It Real.

Elizabeth Day interviews a plethora of incredibly interesting and diverse guests, from all walks of life, many of whom are known on the world’s stage as either actors, writers, musicians or poets. She gets them to open up in a way they never have done before, because her own honesty is infectious.

Each guests talks about three failures and how these failures have impacted them and their life trajectory. Elizabeth opens with beautifully written (and beautifully spoken) introductions. Every single time, I am lured in to invest up to 45 minutes, sometimes even an hour of my time, without any hesitation, because I know I will learn something from what inevitably turns out to be, an illuminating conversation.

This isn’t a podcast just for women. It’s for EVERYONE. Whilst it’s true that it does showcase women more so than any other gender, I guarantee you will come away with your ‘knowledge bank’ fuller and it will be for the better – no matter who you are.

MY TOP 5 MUST LISTENS

Mo Gawdat

Mo used to be the Chief Business Officer at Google X. Following the death of his son, Ali, who was only 21, he was inspired to write Solve for Happy: Engineer your Path to Joy. He developed the Happiness Equation: “Happiness is greater than or equal to your perception of the events in your life minus your expectation of how your life should be.” How Mo talks about his son is quite emotional. Have tissues at the ready. Elizabeth records another episode with him during lockdown 1.0, upon the request of her listeners, which I’d also recommend.

Nadiya Hussain

I have never watched an episode of The Great British Bake Off but was very happy when Nadiya won, and have been very happy to see her subsequent success. As a British born Bangladeshi woman, she talks about her South Asian origin being steeped in patriarchy, how she wasn’t allowed to go to university, why having an arranged marriage has worked for her, the fear she had having her first child at the age of 20 and what life was like before Bake Off. Nadiya is an inspiration and realises the importance of her ‘showing up’ in the world of publishing and cuisine, so that the next generation of British South Asians have a role model to look up to, where they can see themselves in her.

Alain de Botton

Alain, a philosopher and founder of The School of Life, talks to Elizabeth about three failure concepts rather than choosing personal failures. He talks about how good people with the best of intentions can fail, how failure should be considered the norm and that human beings shouldn’t try to find contentment in the exceptional but in the average (I personally think this is dependent upon the scenario and about having a fine balance between the two). There’s also a bit about what you can learn from your romantic relationships that failed to last. Elizabeth’s listeners made another request during lockdown 1.0 to hear from Alain again, which I’d recommend.

Claudia Rankine

Claudia is an award winning American poet, playwright and essayist of Jamaican descent. Her voice is delightful to listen to, as is what she had to say. She was, of course, incredibly articulate and eloquent with every sentence she spoke. Claudia talks about her life’s work, being married to a man of European ancestral heritage and the importance of actively talking about race as a construct. When speaking of ‘white privilege’ Claudia referred to it as ‘white living’ – because it’s a way of living that isn’t diluted by the everyday fear of being marginalised or even killed. Elizabeth Day writes; “This was, I think, one of the most important conversations I have *ever* had about race.” And I would agree.

Gloria Steinham

OK, so if you don’t know who Gloria Steinham is, first of all, where have you been? Second of all, go and consult your friend Google [other search engines are available] and find out about her. NOW. I’d also recommend watching Mrs. America on BBC iPlayer (if you’re based in the UK), where she is played brilliantly by Rose Byrne. Anyway, as a woman in my mid 30s, I still haven’t decided whether I want children. Gloria has never had children and she talks about this, as well as a whole host of subjects including misogyny, racism, sexism, social injustice and her life’s work. A fascinating listen and one that doesn’t disappoint.

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Decolonising the Creative Industries

Creative Coalition 2020 by Creative Industries Federation and Creative England

Earlier this week I watched the Creative Coalition 2020 Festival – a virtual three day event for the creative industries – from the comfort of my living room . It was free to attend and covered a huge array of topics across many sectors within the creative industries. A recurring theme throughout was around diversity, particularly ethnic diversity and social mobility.

One of the sessions was boldly titled Decolonising the Creative Industries. Despite the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, I never imagined seeing such a title for a panel session at an event like this…it’s a good thing. It enabled open, honest, valuable and much needed rhetoric about diversity AND social mobility within the industry in a way that was very refreshing.

The speakers were:

Both Zarina and Swarzy were so full of energy; succinct and incredibly articulate about their views, their experiences and what they hoped for the future.

Zarina pulled no punches, stating that she believed resources needed to be pumped into grass roots organisations that are affecting positive change within their communities and are stemmed in intersectionality in a way that bigger creative entities are not. When asked if she wanted to scale up The White Pube – a website she set up with Gabrielle de la Puente, which writes about art, video games and food and also has a following of almost 68,000 on Instagram – Zarina’s response was – and I’m paraphrasing here: “No. We want to remain independent. We want to pay it forward. I’ve got a day job that I need to get to at 2 o’clock.” The White Pube is currently funded by their supporters via Patreon.

Swarzy talked about her experience with reverse mentoring stating (again I’m paraphrasing): “It’s about reconciliation, to get my white colleagues on form, to make them feel empowered with using the right language at the right time for what needs to be said.”

I’d love to see them both in conversation with one another – I’m hoping that Zarina invites Swarzy on to The White Pube podcast.

Ammo Talwar stated that in order to deconstruct the establishment there were, what he described as, 4 pillars of racism that needed to be tackled: 1) institutional, 2) structural, 3) interpersonal and 4) unconscious. He also wanted to see detailed co-curated change with no time limits , i.e., do away with two year schemes and instil change for the long term, that looks at ‘the personal’ and ‘the systemic.’

Finally Babita talked about ensuring that every pound of her creative diversity budget was spent on breaking barriers to showcase unseen voices. The Channel 4 Indie Accelerator, in partnership with The TV Collective, was launched in July this year in a bid to work more with production companies set up by ethnically diverse creatives. Babita also made it clear that there was still a lot of work to be done to see more diverse senior leaders with editorial control across TV, making the point that there is yet to be a Controller appointed who is either of African or Caribbean heritage black or from any other ethnicity.

Some of the key sessions are available to watch here. The rest of the panel sessions, including this one, are available on demand to members of the Creative Industries Federation. I’m hoping they will make this particular session freely available, as I believe this conversation is one that would be of benefit for everyone in the industry.

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The Chimp Paradox

This book was the catalyst to get me thinking about my behaviour and the behaviour of others. It discusses the fact that we human beings have evolved from chimps and as such we have the ‘human’ in us and the ‘chimp’ in us. Both facets are important to have, but sometimes ‘the human’ needs to manage the ‘chimp’ in a way that is useful for everyone, not just the individual. It’s a fascinating read.

Prof. Steve Peters is the Sports Psychologist for Team GB and also supports UK athletes in working in cycling and snooker. It’s also very interesting to read how he has helped to build an athletes mindset to focus on their own performance and the ‘here and now’ and how the everyday person can translate that rhetoric to their everyday lives.

MY ONE TAKEAWAY

At the end of a chapter exploring ‘chronic stress’ Prof. Steve writes an analogy about ‘how to catch a monkey’ because “sometimes we cause ourselves distress by not letting go of something or someone in our life.” Prof. Steve goes on to describe that it’s difficult to catch a monkey. Let’s say you want to cement a vase into the ground and you’ve found a stone that is just about the right size to be pushed into the neck of said vase, but there is no way it can be taken out. A monkey comes along and tries to pull the stone out. They won’t let go because they want that stone. At this point it’s easy to then capture the monkey with a net because the monkey is distracted. That monkey threw their freedom away for a stone. Prof. Steve refers to the stone as being ‘worthless’ and I can understand why he uses such language – it’s to make you sit up and think about what or who you are holding on to.

I personally wouldn’t brand anyone or any experience as being ‘worthless’. There is always something valuable to learn from experiences or people who have hurt us. Nonetheless, the last sentence Prof. Steve wrote in the analogy had stuck with me ever since and that was: “Your freedom and happiness are worth more than any stone.” I have never forgotten this one liner. I’m confident that now, if I ever find myself in a situation that may not be good for me, I can walk away knowing I’m better off without it.

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