What are your impossible stories? There’s a quote that’s stuck with me this past month or so, and it’s from the writer, Saidiya Hartman, whose book, ‘Lose Your Mother’ has me gripped this January. Elsewhere, in another one of her works, she’s posed the question: ‘How do we tell impossible stories, and how do we […]
Here’s a queer question. What are your impossible stories? Read More »
I fell for the same Edenistic charms that Melville, Gauguin and Robert Louis Stevenson had all succumbed to. Tahiti, it was then.
Tahitian tales (and the selfish desire to sail away) Read More »
When I was in the Royal Free hospital, recovering from my kidney operation, I needed to search for my story. I was releasing painkillers into my body every five minutes: the pain stabbed at my sides. Sleepy, I thought to myself, ‘why am I here, why have I chosen to donate my kidney, and what comes next?’
We’re all storytellers. You might not know it yet. Read More »
Whatever (or whomever) we lose, we must lament and later mourn, commemorate and acknowledge. Whatever lessons history teaches us, let’s at least agree, there are lessons that need to be learnt, that we can’t let our histories simply fade.
The Hidden Histories Read More »
I’ve been called various things throughout my 39 years.
At school I was called ‘Pinocchio’, ‘Igor’ (the character in cartoon, ‘Count Duckula’) and ‘Gonzo’ and various other nicknames, owing to my prominent nose. I now plan to reclaim my family past, reclaim my name from its early 20th century past. I’m coming out as Andrew Kaufman.
What’s in a name? Coming out as Andrew Kaufman Read More »
In some cases, Jews don’t count as much as they should in contemporary identity politics. In an age of ‘what-about-ery’, those who think they’re on the ‘right side of history’ and ‘progressive’, seem less concerned about Jews than other minorities, largely believing Jews to be white, rich people and therefore not a typical ‘minority’.
What’s wrong with Jew? Read More »
Memoir can and must be written because each of us has our own created version of the past. We own it, no one else does, no matter how incoherent our history is.
The power of remembering (and not letting others distort our stories) Read More »
it is very difficult to be open and to protest loudly when living under the most intolerable and oppressive forms of government. I can’t criticise those who remained silent. What I can criticise is those who remain silent now, who still repeat when it’s put to them, ‘why not remember the victims of the past?’ – “these things are better left in the past”.
The silence of others Read More »
As well as providing career coaching and wellness coaching, I am now setting myself up to provide a ‘life story’ service. Put simply, I’m drawing on the extensive body of evidence that demonstrates that storytelling can be good for us.
Why it might be time to tell your story Read More »
I imagine many of us are feeling unmoored, lost, adrift, at sea. 2020 was not meant to go this way. We weren’t meant to see our lives turned upside down.
Curling up in a Covid World (and yes, taking back control) Read More »