This week I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with the artist, musician, and poet Landry Butler from Nashville, one of the hubs of community and creativity in the beautiful American south.
We spoke about many things including how art and creativity can help hope to grow, the importance of people singing together, and how despite despair growing in America, hope is growing too
“ we have to push back with our own hope, the belief that we like to work together and build each other up, we can do that … still have the hope that we can do something positive”
We spoke a lot about the importance of knowing the stories that have been left out or “edited so that they don’t tell the whole truth” as Landry says, if we knew them we would be “better people because we would have an idea of where we came from and where we’re headed” and Landry speaks about the comfort that knowing our history can provide “some of my ancestors were enslaved and dealt with the horrors of slavery which is something I can’t even imagine, but they survived which is the reason I am here today, and that brings me a lot of hope, to know that things and sometimes do get worse but if you take it one step at a time you can survive and you can build something positive out of it” We also spoke about the hope that has been inspired by the Black Lives Matters movement, and how allies can best help outside of marching and protesting “talk about it with other white people and to study up on racism”. We spoke about activism in which “you need to get people’s attention and you need a plan” and what utopia might look like, when we are all free of fear.
All of this PLUS a track from Landry’s band the Inglewood Social Club for your listening pleasure!
You can find out more about the wonderful Sunday Assembly here:
About Black Lives Matter (U.S) here:
And about Landry here: http://landrybutler.com/
Inglewood Social Club here: https://inglewoodsocialclub.bandcamp.com/
And watch on YouTube here: - https://is.gd/G8mOLb
More soon!
Love Bernadette
My book "How To Be Hopeful" published by Elliot and Thompson is due out September 2020. This podcast series is a chance for me to chat again to some of the people who I interviewed for the book, as well as some people who I didn't have the chance to. I hope you enjoy it.
You can find me here www.bernadetterussell.com
twitter @betterussell insta @bernadetterussell
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bernadetterussellwrites/
Evelyn’s Roots Chapter Five
Evelyn’s Roots Chapter Four
Evelyn’s Roots Chapter Three
Evelyns Roots Chapter Two
Evelyn’s Roots Chapter One
Wheel of the Year- IMBOLC
A Tribute to The Little Match Girl 21st December 2021
The Scriptorium- Recipe for A Story- a poem written and recorded on zoom
How To Be Hopeful Episode 38- "Citizens of The World- a choir of hope"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 37- "Hope, art, fashion and the joy of dressing up"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 36- "Motherhood and Hope"
"All The Things We Love"- a community spoken word piece created with the Southbank Centre
How To Be Hopeful Episode 35 "May The Force Be With You- how sci-fi can give us hope"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 34 "The Bank Job- hope, joy, resilience and debt"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 33 "Hope & Renewable Energy"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 32 "A few pounds, big dreams and a lot of hope"
How To Be Hopeful episode 31 "The Eternal Hope of Science"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 30- "2020 U.S Election"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 29 "Back & Fill- a festival of hope"
How To Be Hopeful Episode 28: "A Canopy of Hope"
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Museum of the Missing
Moments In Time And Space
TELL ME A STORY: THE TRUE LIFE OF JAKOB STANLEY
Great Expectations
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventure Zone
Middle Aged and Creeped Out