·   A story – writing, about people and their experiences – a legacy

·   You and your family experiences, your business, something that just happened to you

·   I will write a narrative, including pictures, about you and your life

·   A graphic designer will design the layout

·    Something for friends and family, business associates, for you.

WE ARE HARDWIRED FOR STORIES
EVERYONE HAS A STORY
THERE ARE MANY STORIES IN OUR LIVES
STORYTELLING IS A FORM OF CREATIVITY

“We all have a story to tell. We cannot exist only for ourselves; we exist through and in the other, the other’s story, our story. And so to tell a story we become a character in our own story for in your own story you are the central character, you have agency. Sometimes the central character is hidden, he is the person behind the door, unseen, watching maybe you can make your character walk out of the narrative and another character will walk in, say what you want to say, do what you want to do, or say what you do not want to say, do what you do not want to do. The character of you is the story.” Murray Nossel: Narrative Inc. NYC

“The idea of the writing of your story; the capturing of themes, ideas, memories, for to remember and re-remember is to create a story, we are all creators, of our own present, our own future, to imagine a future is how to survive. Meaning does not pre-exist the interpretation and re-telling of experiences. So imagine a future and recreate a memory, redefine it, re-remember and change its power. “Michael White: Narrative Therapy

http://www.artsy.net/artist/peter-beard 

In November 2013, Peter Beard, born in 1938 so now aged seventy five, suffered a stroke. This information was conveyed to the press by Njema Beard, his wife, manager and the curator of his legacy. For many years there have been rumours of divorce, accusations of Beard’s sexual involvement with his daughter Zara, of whom Njema is the mother, and yet she is still there, still a part of the end of his game, keeping a living memory of what was, is and what will be. And this story: a short yearning for more, and an understanding of life’s defeat.

I do not know Peter Beard; but I have been captivated by his photographs and the stories of his mythological, wild and insouciant life for a long time. Why, his photographs are colonially transgressive, his diaries are a pop artist’s excitement, his decadent and illusive life is enviable? (continue reading…)

http://sensitiveskinmagazine.com/the-9-lives-of-ray-the-cat-jones-a-novel-by-stewart-home/

The 9 Lives of Ray the Cat Jones: A novel by Stewart Home (Test Centre, 2014)
In June 2013 Stewart Home, an (in) famous London author/writer/performer, receives a parcel. There is no return address on it; or a name to indicate who the person who sent it is, but Home is excited for there are few who use the postal service nowadays; it must be something of value (not economic but fundamental). He unwraps it and inside is a manuscript; it is the story (auto? biography?) of Ray the Cat Jones, a notorious cat burglar who worked out of London in the 50’s and 60’s. Strange and coincidental, Home is doing research into Ray Jones, has been for a few years, for he is intrigued and fascinated by the life of this politically aware criminal (they share the same politics, both loathe the bourgeoisie, the ‘toffs’, the ‘gits’, the rich who profit because of their vicious, evil (no not evil this smacks of Christianity) exploitation of the working class) and (is this important) Ray Jones is his first cousin once removed. Home’s mother, Julia Callan (she visited Ray the Cat in prison, not often but more than once) was the daughter of Ray Jones mother’s sister (I think). Julia Callan, a one-time ‘good time’ girl who partied with Christine Keeler, (rumour has it that at some stage in the good time John F Kennedy came to London, he grooved in these circles, and nine months after he left town Julie Callan had a child, Llewellyn, born in, not sure when, but born sometime around the time that Home was born).

And so I wonder: Who speaks this novel? Who writes this novel? (continue reading…)

OBSESSED WITH A SHADOW
(Obsession: An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind; a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling. The OED 2013)
You sit at the wooden table in the top half of the house. The house is austere; the house has no shadows but your shadow is in it somewhere. There it is, a shadow as you walk under the light bulb, the only one that shines, it is a dim light and casts an insignificant glow across the cement floor, but not so insignificant as to be unimportant for as you walk underneath it there is a shadow; as you walk passed the mirror in the bathroom there is a dart, the sauntering reflection of some or other figure who you do not know, and yet you do know this personage, you will always know this shadowy somebody.
“Come close, walk next to me.” (continue reading…)

Chiuppani_Thesis_Submitted

University of Chicago

A Thesis Submitted for a Doctorate of Philosophy – 2013

Beppi Chiuppani