Doorstep Chats
By Lydia Ashman
Doorstep ChatsJul 18, 2021
Episode 5: On writing and life
In this final doorstep chat of the season (and perhaps forever!), I speak to my close friend Emma Cummins - a writer, copywriter and reader who works in the books and media industry, and lives between Northern Ireland and London. We talk about how nurturing a creative practice can help us to navigate transitions, connect with ourselves, and lead an honest life.
Emma generously shares how she has turned to writing in times of grief, both after losing her father in 2013 and, more recently by writing an open letter to her late uncle and brilliant artist, Peter McConville - a letter Emma began in March 2020 after receiving news of his terminal diagnosis as a way to connect with him across the Atlantic.
We talk about how lockdown has engendered the difficult, but ultimately freeing, process of accessing deeper emotional recesses, and how that’s impacted Emma’s writing. And inspired by poet and critic Yanyi’s theory that the way we treat our writing is the way we treat ourselves, Emma shares how she’s built more kindness, flexibility and rest into her writing practice.
Finally, we explore how giving ourselves permission to be who we are in our writing – or any creative practice – can bring a sense of contentment and empowerment. In Emma’s case, this has been through embracing her Northern Irish accent, and seeking out other writers who’ve given her the confidence to do so.
During the episode, Emma reads extracts from two pieces: her letter to her uncle Peter, and Up the Town, a short story based on Emma’s experience of the explosion of a car bomb in Banbridge, Northern Ireland in August 1998.
Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this doorstep chat.
Links:
Emma’s website: https://emmacummins-writer.com
Dear Peter: an Open Letter to ‘My Uncle the Artist’, by Emma Cummins: https://emma-cummins.medium.com/dear-peter-an-open-letter-to-my-uncle-the-artist-115086fc172d
Inside Outside: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Out_(2015_film)
Safe Words, by Sean O’Reilly: https://stingingfly.org/2018/12/13/safe-words/
Yanyi https://yanyiii.com
Wintering, Katherine May https://uk.bookshop.org/books/wintering-the-power-of-rest-and-retreat-in-difficult-times/9781846045998?aid=7019
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg https://uk.bookshop.org/books/writing-down-the-bones-freeing-the-writer-within/9781611803082?aid=7019
A String of Pearls, by Emma Cummins, The Quietus: https://thequietus.com/articles/25046-the-cost-of-living-deborah-levy
The Cost of Living, by Deborah Levy: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-cost-of-living-9780241977569/9780241977569?aid=7019
Milkman, by Anna Burns: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/milkman-winner-of-the-man-booker-prize-2018/9780571338757?aid=7019
Sweet Home, by Wendy Erskine: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/sweet-home-9781529017069/9781529017076?aid=7019
Multitudes, by Lucy Caldwell: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/multitudes-9780571313518/9780571313518?aid=7019
My website: https://www.somethingilearnt.co.uk
Episode 4: Mental Health and friendship - a shorthand of empathy (and the original doorstep chat)
In this episode, I chat to my close pal Ness about the theme of mental health and friendship. Ness and I met aged 18 on our first day of university where we bonded over my brand new travel kettle. By the end of our first week, we’d drunkenly decided we were going to live together in our second year, which thankfully worked out.
Throughout the ensuing twenty years of friendship, we’ve both had ups and downs with our mental health, including episodes of depression and anxiety. This conversation, which we recorded in April 2021 just as lockdown restrictions were beginning to ease, explores how our own and societal attitudes towards mental health have evolved in the time we’ve known each other, particularly around shedding unhelpful stigma and shame that can sometimes surround mental illness. We talk about how things have sometimes had to get quite bad before we’ve felt ready to face our mental health challenges and how depression and anxiety have been difficult but important portals for learning about ourselves. We also discuss what lockdown has taught us about looking after our mental health with the aid of a couple of metaphors (one involves wolves).
Having friends like Ness - who I know I can speak with when I’m feeling low and she'll understand - has been invaluable, particularly over this last year. I thought and I hoped an open chat about mental health might be helpful as we continue to navigate our way through these strange times. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy this episode.
Links
Mental Health First Aid: https://mhfaengland.org
Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk
Something I learnt: https://www.somethingilearnt.co.uk
Episode 3: Kings Place Choir - community, connection and creativity during lockdown
What is a choir when its members can't sing in the same room? In this episode, I chat with choral conductor, composer and singer-songwriter Naomi Hammerton about the ways in which she's kept members of Kings Place Choir (including me!) connected during the pandemic, and her motivations for doing so. We discuss the collection of songs Naomi wrote - where choir members sent in recordings of our parts - as a way to bring our voices together and how, ultimately, Kings Place Choir has remained a place of community, connection, creativity and support.
Naomi's incredibly passionate about the many physical, mental and social benefits of singing in a group - from lowered blood pressure and heart rate, to mindful engagement, tuning into others, and baring a little bit of your soul. Most of all, it's the vibrations you experience when singing in harmony that make it so magical. Naomi also explains why she doesn't believe that anyone truly cannot sing.
Shout out to Joe McGrail, Naomi's collaborator and Kings Place Choir's amazing pianist, and choir member Steve Jones, who produced many of the virtual choir tracks.
If you're tempted to join Kings Place Choir, all are welcome! The next term starts via Zoom on 22nd April 2021.
I hope you enjoy our chat, and thanks for listening.
Links
Listen to all of Kings Place Choir's back catalogue https://soundcloud.com/kingsplacechoir
Find Kings Place Choir on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KingsPlaceChoir/
Naomi's alt-pop duo Rinngs https://www.instagram.com/rinngsmusic/?hl=en
My website: Something I learnt https://www.somethingilearnt.co.uk
Episode 2: Permaculture - so much more than growing things
Ever, like me, wondered what exactly permaculture is? In the second episode of Doorstep Chats, I speak to my sister Celia Ashman about how she’s used permaculture to adapt to the upheavals that lockdown brought, particularly through her design, Surviving and Thriving in a Pandemic, which I really recommend you check out.
From her metaphorical doorstep in Leeds, Celia shared how turning to permaculture at 2am during one sleepless night at the start of lockdown soothed some of her middle-of-the-night anxieties. The design process and tools also gave her and her partner Joe a valuable space to work out how they might reconfigure their lives and best support each other through the turbulence.
If, like I did, you have a notion of permaculture being all about land and growing things, then it turns out it’s so much more than this: it can be a communication aid, a valuable way to accept that change is happening all the time, and a tool to engage with that change consciously and with a sense of agency.
I hope you enjoy our chat, and thanks for listening.
Links
Celia's permaculture design, Surviving and Thriving in a Pandemic: https://prezi.com/view/XcH5eGdoy2r47Q9jckCV/
The Permaculture Association, where Celia works: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/
Looby MacNamara's website: https://loobymacnamara.com/people-and-permaculture/
Looby MacNamara's book, People and Permaculture: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/7019/9781856230872
Episode 1: Creative Accountability and The Artist's Way
In the very first episode of Doorstep Chats, I speak to my good friend Jema about accountability - when you make a commitment to another person or a group to do something. We discuss how this deceptively simple concept can provide us with valuable feelings of connection and agency during this period of isolation and uncertainty.
Jem and I last year completed together The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron's cult classic course in creative recovery. We chat about how being accountability buddies helped us make internal and external shifts, and deepened our friendship. Jem shares her experience of joining a 12-step programme over lockdown - a process rooted in accountability - and the parallels she noticed between The Artist's Way and the fellowship. Based on her work in mental health, Jem also talks about some of the science behind accountability and how it can be an effective way to make changes.
I hope you get something from our conversation. Thanks for listening, and enjoy.
Links
The Artist's Way
The Science of Encouragement
Susan Michie & Behaviour Change
Something I learnt