Ken Loach in conversation

For the second time this week, I'm in room 2.13 at the Clephan Building, De Montfort University, for another event in DMU's annual Cultural eXchanges festival. This evening it's the turn of film director Ken Loach to be "In Conversation", in front of about 150 people. That's Ken Loach pictured above with legend of football and philosophy Eric Cantona, during filming of his most recent movie, "Looking for Eric".

Although he'd probably reject or deny such a definition, I'd say that Loach's films illustrate some genuine spiritual principles and practices that affect ordinary people in their everyday lives - individually or collectively. He has a lot to say about love, friendship, belief in causes and sacrifice of personal benefit to advance those causes, people who do their utmost to hold to their principles; he has a lot to say about hopes and dreams - and the dashing of them. He doesn't accord to the movie conventions, especially the happy ending, but we see his characters learn and grow through their experiences, even if the systems that surround, control, disable or stifle them do not. His films give a voice to the voiceless and urge compassion on those who are otherwise forgotten, whether that's the grubby lost kid sitting at the back of the classroom, oppressed manual workers standing up for what's due them. He doesn't patronise or sanctfy ordinary people, but he does lionise them.

Through his work on television and in the cinema, Loach has made genuine contributions to the changing of social attitudes in this country, concerning working young women, with "Up the Junction" (1965); homelessness, with "Cathy Come Home" (1966); mental illness, with "In Two Minds" (1967). "Kes" (1969) is one of the most iconic British films ever made - and one of the first I ever saw in the cinema. His tale of a recovering alcoholic in Glasgow, "My Name is Joe" (1998) is one I found particularly affecting, as it seemed to be filled with people I felt I knew, in situations that I could recognise from my own social background.

Loach has been a thorn in the side of the system for almost half a century. His work has made people sit up and take notice, and engendered genuine and effective debate about some of the most important social, politcal and economic issues that dictate how we live.

This evening at DMU, he spoke at length this evening about how the camera can look right inside the person it is turned on. That all sounded very spiritual to me.

To me, there seems to be a very strong knship between Loach and Alexei Sayle (whom I saw in this same lecture room just three nights before) in terms of their political engagement, their outsider perspective, their attempts to speak up for those who are normally silenced - and their ability to do all that and make it entertaining too.

Find out more about Ken Loach's life and career:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/458945/

Find out more about the Cinema and Television History (CATH) Research Centre at De Montfort University:

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/humanities/cinema-and-television-history-research-centre/index.jsp

mindfulness (6)

Sixth session in the course on "Mindfulness" offered by Christians Aware at Christchurch, Clarendon Park Road. Leading the session is Ian Grayling (backed up by his colleague, Kevin Commons) from the city's Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

This evening's topic is "Beliefs and Values". We consider how they can form spectacles that stop us from seeing things as they really are - which could be good or bad, all things considered. Our beliefs and values can, of course, prevent us from seeing, acknowledging or appreciating other beliefs and values as well (arguably) as other people who hold them.

Having been listening to Alexei Sayle speaking earlier today about his childhood being raised in a strictly Communist household, I find this a "join-the-dots" moment here.

If one is hostage to one's beliefs and values, then one is powerless before - or under - them. I'd link that back into a point made at last week's session: Once we become aware of how we think, we become more aware that we can be the author of what we think. This reminds me of that phrase in the Council of Faith's Buddhist leaflet: "that mind can be cultivated". But what if one's beliefs and values are of the sort that don't permit change ... well, let's leave that sort of double-bind for the moment, shall we?

To start with, we were each given a page with reflective and inspirational short passages, some no more than a sentence long, some overtly relgious, others spiritual, some others more of a hmanist nature. All of them are shown below:

"There will never be any more perfection than there is now. Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. ... Why should I wish to see God better than this day?" (Walt Whitman)

"Paradise is still upon earth, and only because of our self-thinking and self-willing we do not see and hear God." (Jacob Boehme)

"It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it, as the butterfly floats in the light-laded air. Nothin has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is the immortal life." (Richard Jeffries)

"Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world." (George Bernard Shaw)

"Truly my soul is silently waiting for God." (Eckhart)

"In the true silence of the flesh, and in the pure Stillness of Spirit. ... Tasting the hidden life, the hidden manna in the heart." (Isaac Pennington)

"Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity." (Thomas Carlyle)

"Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
When you depart out, He will enter in.
In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauty."
(Marmud Shabistara)

"God be in my head
And in my undesrstanding
God be in my eyes
And in my looking
God be in my mouth
And in my speaking
God be in my heart
And in my thinking
God be at my end
And at my departing.
(Walford Davies)

"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself." (Shunryu Suzuki)

Consideration of these gave rise to interesting reflections. Some describe the passages as being richer in feeling than they are in logical thought; some say the passages were struggling to say something rational, but still something worth trying to say; others speak about the extracts conveying something of acceptance and appreciation of the moment; but then there's something more, something of awe, of wonder - something of which we've all surely had some experience.

We udnergo an exercise to help each of us identify our core values and get the chance to talk about these. We also discuss the difference between mindfulness and other terms that are bandied about in these contexts (e.g. concentration, contemplation, meditation). We're going to pick this up again next week.

Ian Grayling, who's been leading these sessions, isn't entirely happy at how it's gone this evening. He wonders aloud if he's not been as good as he could have been at communicating what he's wanted us to do. I don't think he should be so hard on himself, and tell him so in front of the group. Each week we've gone deeper into this topic and have dealt with increasingly subtle areas. Digging into our core values and central beliefs is a bit more demanding than closing our eyes, sitting quietly and thinking about what me might be hearing.

Alexei Sayle in conversation

At the Clephan Building, De Montfort University, early evening for this event, part of DMU's annual Cultural eXchanges festival.

There's around 120 people in lecture room 2.13 for "Alexei Sayle in Conversation". If you don't know who Alexei Sayle is, I'm not going to do a big intro to him here. He's eminently googleable (that's a word I've never used before and one I may well have made up. I should google it to see if anyone else has used it). I've been a fan of Alexei since his first appearance on national television (I'm sure he was in the first ever BBC2 show to feature the new rising "alternative" comedians - "Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights" in the late 70s), then through the years in "The Young Ones" (1982-84), frequent appearances in "The Comic Strip Presents ..." (1985-93); "Alexei Sayle's Stuff" (1988-91), "The All New Alexei Sayle Show" (1994-95), "Alexei Sayle's Merry Go Round" (1998), "Paris"  (1994). He even did a memorable turn in a Doctor Who story during the otherwise lamentable Colin Baker era ("Revelation of the Daleks", 1985).

He's always embodied a genuine "outsider" persona, though paradoxically, his shows in the late 1980s and eraly 90s were broadcast on BBC2 at peak time, and pulled in audiences of around five and six million - which would be amazing viewing figures in today's multi-channel TV environment.

In more recent years he's become Britain's most succesful writer of short stories since the Second World War. For a while, I used his short story, "Barcelona Plates" (from his first collection of short stories, of the same title) in Creative Writing classes I was teaching as a virtually perfect example of the genre. It was the only book of short stories that I recommended students buy and read - and some of them did, though to mixed response as I recall.

Well, alright then; it seems like I am doing an intro to Alexei for the uninitiated - of sorts.

Alexei's from Liverpool, of Lithuanian Jewish descent, raised in a fairly hardline communist family. The distinctive mix of radical politics and the heritage of his religion have always featured in his comedy and now in his wiriting. If I had to justify why this event would turn up in my Council of Faiths blog, I guess this would be the hook. He talks about his upbringing in the kind of terms one might use to speak about being raised by missionaries or in a household of evangelicals. He talks about the beliefs and values that motivated his parents as being akin to those of a cult. I have always loved the heightened self-awareness that pervades his work - and his heightened awareness of the forces that shape our lives around us. Which he makes funny, of course. And his skill at pulling the rug out from under the expectations you build up in his routines (which of course is a great skill for a writer of short stories).

Alexei keeps an informative and entertaining blog:
http://www.alexeisayle.me/

Cultural eXchanges festival launch event

At the Leicester Creative Business Depot, Rutland Street, early evening for the Cultural eXchanges festival launch event, hosted by Dean of Humanities at DMU, Prof. Heidi Macpherson and Festival Patron Lars Tharp (that's him addressing attendees in the photo above).

Of the festival events, I have tickets for Alexei Sayle (Monday afternoon), Ken Loach (Thursday evening) and Prof. John Williams' "Football Nation" (Friday afternoon). I was told I'm lucky to have got places for the first two of these, as both of them sold out quickly.

Interesting chats with Tony Graves (Festival Director); Kathleen Bell (Programme Leader for Creative Writing at DMU) who was also promoting "States of Independence" an independent publishers' day at the university on Saturday 20 March; and Rakesh Parmer (Head of Marketing at Phoenix Square Digital Film and Media Centre and follower of this blog). Phoenix Square is showing "Flying Sikhs" next Sunday - a short documenatary which provides an intimate portrait of the Sikh pilots who valiantly contributed to British success in both world wars. He talked with me about some interesting and unusual challenges he's faced when promoting this film within Leicester's Sikh community.

Find out more about Cultural eXchanges 2010:
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/humanities/cultural-exchanges/

Find out more about Lars Tharp:
http://www.tharp.co.uk/

REDP involvement event: Derby

To Derby, for the sixth in the series of "Involvement Events" hosted across the East Midlands by the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership. Dee (from LCIL) drives Taherah (from TREC) and me through from Leicester. We leave just after eight and would have got there in double-quick time if Dee's sat nav hadn't thrown her off when we arrive in Derby city centre by telling her to take the third turning off a roundabout that doesn't appear to be there.

Today's venue, The Spot, is very "clubby". There's no natural light, the air conditioning is noisy and the place is festooned with posters for appearances by the "UK's number 1 tribute act!" (self-proclaimed, methinks) for a variety of turns: Calvin Stardust, Mylie Minogue, Rake That (I might have made those names up, but you get the picture). A great night's entertainment plus a three-course meal for only £22.95. Well, at least the venue is central and should be easy to find, but the whole place is fraught with roadworks and the venue itself appears to be in the middle of a building site, like an unfinished Spanish resort hotel. The sound of drilling outside occasionally intrudes on our presentations and discussions.

We have 10 attendees from the Voluntary and Community Sector when we get underway, a few minutes late to accomodate those delayed by the roadworks. I'm chairing the morning session. Dee's presenting the Beginner's Guide to REDP and Ian (from the LGBT Centre) is operating the slides. His is the hardest job in the first session, as Dee does a fair bit of extemporising. She has much more historical knowledge related to this project (particularly knowledge about a number of  failed attempts to do something similar across the region in the past); well, she just has much more knowledge about this, full stop. She's the best known of all of us who make up the core partners of REDP; she can speak with authority and experience, but not necessarilly to the running order of the slides!

I haven't said much about the workshops that form such an important part of the progrmme at these events. We've been using this "world cafe" model for workshops at these events, where participants are invited to write or draw on the paper covers we put on the tables they sit around. If you've ever taken part in a workshop where you've felt that your views aren't being recorded (and felt that means your contribution has not been respected) then the world cafe approach is an antidote to that. You get the chance to write down your own thoughts and feelings there and then. There's an REDP staffer sitting in on the discussions on each table as scribe too, so hopefully, just about everything gets recorded. These paper table cloths and notes are being compiled into one set of notes, for sending out to all those who have participated in these Involvement Events once they're over. All very good and well, but then, there's the pens ... we started using some alcohol-based pens, in a variety of bold colours, but we got complaints about their intoxicating properties when working with them so close up for the hour or so that these workshops take. At our event in Loughborough, Laura nipped out to buy some non-intoxicating pens, but these older ones refuse to die, and keep turning up, no matter that we think we've chucked them away!

The questions to be considered by each of the workshops are:

"What should REDP look like and what model best fits the needs?"


"How do you ensure engagement of all organisations?"

"What are the natural organisations that could sit on the core reference group to not only represent your views but also work in partnership?"

"What do you think are the key issues that should be considered at a regional level for your area?"

Mind you, we all know what Alexei Sayle said about anyone who uses the word "workshop" who isn't connected with light engineering, don't we?

We have the services of two palantypists today, who keep a full record of the day's proceedings, although the person for whom we'd booked them doesn't appear at the meeting. Gill Croft's website is http://www.gillcroftpalantype.co.uk/; Georgina Ford can be contacted on ginford@aol.com

After lunch (the first hot one we've been offered on any of these events) we're joined by another ten people from the public and private sector, making this the best attended of these events so far. Ian takes over the chairing. Carolyn Pascoe presents her "Profile of Derby" based on published statistics. She gets more vigorous interogation today then she probably has at any of the earlier events, but rides the wave in her usual confident and professional manner.

Next up it's me, presenting half an hour on the Equality Bill. Since we have to use a hand mic today, I feel that makes me a little more awkward and a little less natural with the presentation. The projector (provided by the venue) blacks out halfway through my presentation. I prefer not to use PowerPoint and can happily cope with that; but if it goes off halfway through, that's not quite so easy to deal with. Still it gets done, though having to move into the audience with the mic for questions is also stiff and awkward - especially if people actually shrink from me when I approach them with the microphone! At the end of my presentation, Dee takes the opportunity to emphasise the importance of Carolyn's stat-based presentation and clarifies how that aspect of REDP's work will become more of a two-way process.

There's a question why so much time is being given to the Equality Bill, when surely we're preaching to the converted on this topic. An assumption's being made that everyone who attends a meeting such as this will know the Equality Bill inside out, but that proves not to be so. During the break in the afternoon session, two attendees (one from the public sector, the other from the private) confess to me that this is the first time thy've been onb the receiving end of any presentation on the Equality Bill, that their employers, although they have clear interest in it, have not provided any kind of briefing on it.

For the second time in this series of events, Vidar Hjarding is our guest speaker, bringing proceedings to a close. Vidar, who is blind, is Diversity Manager for ITV News Group. There's some interesting discussion about the relationship between diversity and equality in the context of Vidar's work. You can read a profile of Vidar at:
http://www.efd.org.uk/role/vidar-hjarding-political-producer-amp-diversity-advisor-itv-bcidn-associate-political-producer-