As part of our Day & Evening Services in Hackney, we provide creative spaces for our members to flourish, discover new skills and talents, and opportunities to shine – including our self-titled writing group, “Baby Shoes“.
Our members are keen to help others learn more about the impact of brain injury in their own words.
Our Creative Writing group works with story ‘Seeds’, a few words such as ‘Walking on the Ceiling’, to create pieces of writing to share with the wider community.
Our members have previously shared their stories in projects like Who Are You Now?, Matter magazine, and blogs.
When the plants needed feeding or the whole garden needed weeding, I always used to claim that I was otherwise engaged.
If the windows needed cleaning coz my wife preferred them gleaming, I’d say to her “Get someone in! I’m otherwise engaged.”
When the house was in a state, I knew that I should decorate – being a task I used to hate I’d say, “I’m otherwise engaged.”
When my brain exploded my girls’ lives might have imploded, and it’s so clear in my head but for them, I would be dead; not once has any of them said “I’m otherwise engaged.”
Now I’d love to be employed, with tasks I tried hard to avoid so many are a bridge too far. I’d even wash the f***ing car, they’re glad to let me off the hook and say “I’m otherwise engaged.”
Who Are You Now? – telling the stories of survivors in their own words: who they were, what happened to them and who they are now.
If you need more information, contact the Music Lead James Compton at james.compton@headwayeastlondon.org.
