This year marks the 1100 yr anniversary of the death of Queen Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia and Mother of England - a Warrior Queen lost from much of our visible and accessible history in this country. Finding out that Gloucester is where she was buried and that there was going to be a festival in honour of her in June - I decided to undertake an Aethelflaed Quest and Search for All Things Anglo-Saxon. I have since ended up on board and doing things for the festival - I am having a lot of fun and there is a new puppet - Aethelflaed herself once more resides in Gloucester.
Here is the weekly tweets 🙂
Today there is poetry in Worcester and a sneaky bit of the #AethelflaedQuest
Worcester contains many things - yesterday it contained me and @alaric on our #AethelflaedQuest, swans, lots of union jacks, me and the Food For Thoughts posse poeming at Heroes and people feeling they have to narrative my movements from black out window vans pic.twitter.com/RanZOSM80D
Aethelflaed Lady of Mercia is sporting her new cloak and golden hair ties - she is planning on having a little photo shoot around town today 🙂 #AethelflaedQuest and my search for all things Anglo-Saxon #cuddlysciencepic.twitter.com/L7uzvskjaE
And talking of #worcester and the #AethelflaedQuest we found her in the Cathedral gleaming with the sunlight - there is a whole history panorama in the windows - my camera was sadly running out of charge so I will have to go back again. I might also have bought more books. pic.twitter.com/lngjXAoGpM
Queen Aethelflaed the Puppet really likes this sculpture she found on her tour of #Gloucester - she has been informed that it was designed by students at Crypt and would like to know more about the art that has emerged in her jewel of a city in the last 1100 yrs #aethelflaedQuestpic.twitter.com/xj8boHTpXX
The Festival is all over the city - I am doing family fun drove in stuff actually at the ruins of St Oswolds - you can find out more about the whole thing here.
Flags a flutter for a new blending of worlds, bounding a daymoon that is resplendent, though some would darken these skies and say such should not be seen in the company of the sun, ancient foundations arise giving strength in the power of love and Hunan-Unity #poetrywalkpic.twitter.com/eiUTgMx9Kx
So this is a thing, I didn't know it was a thing - I probably did but then forgot :/ But get your fancy head gear out!
Today is #HatsforHeadway to raise awareness and cash for an absolutely brilliant charity who have helped so much with people like me who have sustained head injuries. This is the hat I knitted for the Science Showoff on Neurology and brainy things special that they did. It was a wonderful evening with Dr Carina Fearnley a fellow head injury sufferer and friend from my Geology undergraduate days. She has made a fantastic video about her experience:
The event was at the Star of Kings in London but I believe was raising money for the Bristol Headway and I made a paper mache brain and got gummy brain sweets. The hat has since appeared at various British Science Week Events, Cheltenham Science Festival and BBC Country File Live show/festival. It was an amazing night were I learnt about all sorts of things including the medical skeletons etc... lurking beneath London and what their skulls can tell us!
What I didn't say at the time was that I was struggling with knitting due to the damage to my left hand side so this whole thing was create out of loom knitting (French knitting or knitting nancy/spool knitting are all mini looms). Also for me to actually make it to the gig my dad had to come and meet me at the station - which in your 30's is pretty embarrassing, but I have only recently been able to attempt travel on my own on that sort of scale and I was still unable to cook anything other than a microwave meal safely on my own (I've set fire to pans and tried to pick up boiling pots with my bare hands...).
There is currently an Art Exhibit and series of talks etc... at Kings College about head injury including a pice on Identity after the fact. I myself had to basically learn to draw again - I always drew with both hands but now... the pictures come out distorted - I have a blind spot in my left eye, and hand coordination was hard. Add in the crisis of everyone else knowing more about me than I myself did and I ended up producing Love: A Stranger Dream. It started as distinct pictures which people asked for as colouring sheets so I put them up for free download here. Then I realised there was a kind of non-linear narrative or themes running through the works and it became a book of visual poetry. I took refuge in art - something that is quiet important in developing coping mechanisms and reducing the amount of depression that head injury victims feel - it is like having everything that is you stripped away.
I even made audio.
And video of it.
Art that started as a way to just express myself when speech and writing where hard graft ended up as something that has helped friends, it explores lots of different aspects of identity and so has ended up at GLBT+ events, dis/different-ability events, music and art installations, two different events for International Women's Day, comic book conventions, poetry events, story telling and maze festivals. I've even made a dress from the art work 0.o - ok yeah I got carried away!
(can't find the photo - if I came across it I'll add it later! but it got compared to the stuff worn by the Welsh Eisteddfod singer/bardic peeps)
As I've probably bored everyone with - I have not long been discharged from the head injury unit including physio at Gloucester Royal - still under neurology but the main chunk of it is done. Charities like Headway - the brain injury association are an absolute life line and they have local branches but head injury sufferers often struggle to get the help that's needed especially as most of the time they still look "normal". I was being mistaken for being drunk and struggling with lots of things. So yeah - hats for headway 🙂
Bit late to be adding this now considering I have already performed at a few including the Swindon Literature Festival's 25th anniversary extravaganza of a poetry slam (Joy-Amy won!!!) which included people like Tina Sedaholm and other previous winners. I have been to London, Bristol, and Stroud also - but that is the what has been and there is still a lot to come!
Sat 19th May 3-7 pm Food For Thoughts Heroes event in Worcester - poetry, music, spoken word, comedy and story telling - free with charity collection
Tues 22nd May 6-8 pm Gloucester's second Pecha Kucha Night - fast fun Japanese style presentations on various creative and community aspects or the creatives tales themselves - my presentations is From Rocks To Puppets and Back Again - Gloucester - free
Sun 27th May 2-4 pm - Sea Special Villanelles at Waterstones Cafe - I am co-hosting this event with poetry games and open mic, come and share your own work or poems that have inspired you - Gloucester - free and family friendly
Wed 30th May 7:30 pm start - History Showoff Women's Special at the Bishopsgate Institute - a night of comedy and cabaret - come and meet Aethelflaed the Puppet and learn about the Warrior Queen of the Mercians! (psst she's much better than her old dad who only went and burnt the cakes!) - ticketed event £9
And June isn't looking too shabby either - but more on that later!
It is 1100 yrs since Warrior Queen Aethelflaed was buried in Gloucester - one of the new minsters she founded, Gloucester is therefore having an epic festival to highlight this forgotten woman of history - I have somehow ended up involved - I am very excited and have even designed and with my parents made a new puppet and workshop materials for Cuddly Science/Cuddly History.
Here is the week in tweets about my adventures 🙂
I have a runic impression kit from @TandyLeatherUK and a book on anglo-saxon dress... plus a few booklets on metal work history..... I am enjoying this far too much! #AethelflaedQuest
Lyra the Lyre is not sure she likes her new stream lined look but I'm like "well... you where 10 strings and I wanted you to be 6 - plus I've already broken 1" Lyra responds by making sure her bottom string wants to be a C so I have to faff. #aethelflaedquest#cuddlyscience
A bit of a longer write up on Lyra the Lyre https://t.co/lwhM8FfpqE part of my #aethelflaedquest and falling down a delicious rabbit whole of music history! (and not so good music theory!)
Today also involved playing with Lyra the lyre & being very happy about @getdotmesh plectrums!!!! I've been plucking the strings with one hand & strumming with the other & playing at deadening some strings whilst playing - one string keeps going out of tune :/ #Aethelflaedquestpic.twitter.com/RVgFaopUzz
Aethelflaed and All things Anglo-Saxon, Archeology, Art and Craft, Education, Events and Outings, Work | sarah | 
Fri 25th May 2018 8:25 am | 
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