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Autism Awareness Week, 1-5 April 2019, Student Art Display

Artwork by Monica Marshall  and words by Benjamin Longbone

Autism is a term for a wide variety of learning difficulties. The National Autistic Society defines Autism as a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. We also aim to highlight other learning difficulties that affect people such as ADHD, Dyspraxia and Dyslexia as well other conditions. Between Monday the 1st of April and Friday the 5th of April, there will be a display of student work themed around learning difficulties. The work will include written creative pieces, life experiences and art work. There will be an opportunity to add to the display as students will be able to express their own experiences by writing them down on post it notes and these experiences will be included. On Saturday the 6th of April there will also be a display in Spark (located in Piccadilly Street in York) of collected student art work.

 

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Lost in a Sea of Glass and Tin by Gary and Claire, York Theatre Royal, 28 March 2019

This York Literature Festival event is in the Studio at York Theatre Royal

Book tickets here

What does it mean to leave everything behind? Take off and live a life of solitude. Where can we go and what can we become? A textual and visual performance by Gary Winters and Claire Hind.

Lost in A Sea of Glass and Tin responds to David Lynch’s concept of ‘the eye of the duck’, particularly with regards to what the eye can teach us about repetition, texture, shape and the colour of performance. We play with cross-fertilisations of art forms between Lynch’s noireesque cinema and a distortion of gestures for the singing body once explored by medieval hermits and in solitude. We draw upon our own fascination and observations of a seaside entertainer who week in and week out sings the classics and to his heart’s content along with the energy and commitment of his super fans.

Lost in A Sea of Glass and Tin premiered at The Defibrillator Gallery Chicago and is a mixed media live work of light, sound, projection and voice.

As well as a performance maker, Claire Hind is associate professor in our School of Performance and Media Production.

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Hidden Figures Screening: March 28th

By Charlotte Stevenson

On Thursday 28th March 2019 at 17:00, FT/002, York St. John Feminist Society will be hosting a free screening of Oscar nominated motion picture, Hidden Figures. The movie tells the story of mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson who produced defining work which made possible numerous NASA successes during the U.S. Space Race and beyond.

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LGBTQ+ Comfort Reads: Heartstopper by Alice Oseman, reviewed by Lucy Pettigrew

Review by Lucy Pettigrew

On February 7th 2019 Alice Oseman published her first graphic novel and first part of her popular young adult webcomic Heartstopper: Volume One. The webcomic has over 50,000 subscribers online, and is also available as an ebook and in traditional print format. I’m not someone who usually picks up a graphic novel or comic over a young adult novel or a modern poetry collection, but this stunning graphic novel blew me away and I can’t wait to pick up the next volume in the series when it comes out – it’s also made me want to read more graphic novels! I will read anything Oseman publishes (it could be a book filled with the word ‘potato’ and I’d still love it).

Heartstopper is a young adult comic that stars Nick and Charlie, who are both trying to navigate life as teenagers in an all-boys grammer school in the United Kingdom. Oseman describes it as an “LGBTQ+ webcomic” as almost all of the characters are part of the community.

The plot of the story is stunning and heart-warming – I quickly became attached to the characters and got so invested that I didn’t put it down in between starting and finishing it. The story combined with the cute art style was a perfect combination and even though it was sad in some parts I still smiled the whole way through because of how utterly enticing it was and how well the story was told.

I couldn’t get enough of the representation either – there were so many characters that were part of the LGBTQ+ community and it felt good to have that representation handled in such a well-written way. All of Oseman’s books so far (which you should also read, they’re fantastic and showcase her talent even more!) have also included LGBTQ+ characters so I was glad that this trend continued in Heartstopper.

Overall, this graphic novel was the perfect read. It was easy to follow and combined with the plotline, art style and representation it made for a really enjoyable experience. Don’t hesitate to pick it up next time you’re in a book shop (or you can get it online!).

Heartstopper is published by Hodder Children’s Books. Check out the LGBTQ+ children and YA collection in our Schools Section of the library.

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“A Key Moment of Pride”: Reflections on the 2019 Literature Research Showcase

By Adam Kirkbride

On the 28th of February, the English Literature department here at York St John held a showcase exhibiting the research done by our lecturers. The event comprised of four short presentations given by various members of the department and was thoroughly enjoyable. Here is a brief rundown of the research areas that our staff are working on.

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