We are busy working on curating this event - but get the date FFirmly in your diary - 30th August 2018 at The Signal Pub Forest Hill from 7pm. We have THREE amazing Features already confirmed here so book your ticket without delay! https://billetto.co.uk/e/featured-15-tickets-294469
Mr Bingo and Hate Mail was conceived in April 2011. Late one night in his studio, alone (and a bit drunk), he was suddenly overcome with an urge to send somebody a vintage postcard from his personal collection.
He stumbled onto Twitter, declaring ‘I will send a postcard with an offensive message on to the first person who replies to this’. Within a couple of minutes around 50 people had replied. The winner was a Jonathan Hopkins from Forest Hill, who was rewarded with a postcard which read ‘Fuck you Jonathan, fuck you and fuck your shit legs’ (accompanied by a drawing of his legs).
The fact that the FFirst ever hate mail went out to a person in FForest Hill was enough of a reason to contact Mr. Bingo.. and as it’s FFeature FFate, we cannot wait to hear Mr. Bingo’s story.
Find out more at: http://www.mr.bingo
Mia Von Loga was not born with the name Mia. It is a name she gave herself. All through her life she has felt d!fferent; in her family, in school, in social groups and in society. It led to a lot of confusion in her life, and she personally started to strive for identification.
Over time the feeling of being d!fferent grew and yet she never had the feeling of being not okay with that. At the same time growing up held some challenges for her as she struggled with being d!fferent, she hated and loved it at the same time. With this she has embraced d!fference and made A D!fferent Movement’.
Here are some of Mia’s current d!fferences, that she openly shares:
‘I am a highly sensitive person, a multipotentialite, I belong to the LGBT+ community, I am a believer in love and…I am Mexican spirit in a Caucasian body.
Today I feel excited about how and who I am. I don’t celebrate any of this, nor do I reject it. It simply (finally) feels natural. And the funny thing about it: it is just that.
Due to my work as a Multidimensional Breakthrough Coach, I could find two similarities in all my coachees: a) the feeling of being d!fferent and also b) they all had so much goodness in them and really cared.
I wanted more, so I took the step to make my calling real. I decided to channel all my experiences, skills and inspiration, and at the beginning of this year I founded A D!fferent Movement, starting as a Facebook group.
I wanted to create a safe space of diverse people who can relate to each other, yet see their d!fferences We are all d!fferent in a d!fferent way but united in the goal to make a d!fference in this world. The virtual world was just the opener to something great, we are already on our way “out there”.
My deepest urge is to make things visible to the world and raise the awareness of the significance that there must be a good place for everyone in society.
First it is about understanding and embracing who you are. And then take this to the world and make it a more understanding, a more collaborative, a more love-spreading place.
What's driving us is to inspire and encourage others who are in an unsafe place with themselves, or haven´t got a real direction, and to make a d!fference for all future generations?
Being the d!fference. For yourself. For others. For the world.’
We cannot wait to hear more about Mia’s project. Find out more here: www.different.coach
With the rapid gentrification of areas in and around south London, it’s easy for some to forget the deprivation that existed in the south quarters; as a result the young lives it crushed and conditioned into crime. For decades it was not the area you moved to if you could possibly help it. Quince Garcia grew up in Camberwell South East London and knows only too well the limitations of a non-progressive area and the impact it has on one's mental health and life choices. Sadly his lack of self belief, and the opportunity to rise out of the negative choices he saw all around him, led him to spend seven years as a drug dealer and as a result Quince served three prison sentences.
Quince believes the experience in prison helped him to shape a more positive future for himself: “Prison helped me escape it all. I spent seven years of my life selling crack in south London, although it was a constant battle because it never really sat well with me. I never ever used to go home and think what I was doing was great. At the same time, I felt trapped. I didn’t have great social skills and I had a low self confidence and esteem.”
The time in prison channelled Quince's media interests, he started to pen a screenplay about the life of a gangster. “When I was selling drugs I started writing a lot of the script at the same time as a form of escapism, but when I went to prison I wrote even more. When I came out I thought rather than go to places to get it funded, I will use my own initiative to get it out there.” Quince was determined to help transform young peoples lives with a media project he developed, which would engage young people and keep them off the streets.
In 2006, Quince became the first person in his family to attend university and achieve a degree in film production. From graduating, he went on to set up Road Works Media, a media centre in Kennington, South London. Road Works Media provides opportunities for vulnerable young people to explore and encourage creative pathways into the film industry. Teaching core skills such as how to write scripts, production, postproduction and editing. The programme teaches individuals vital skills; enabling each and every person the opportunity to become an advocate in their chosen field; creating a strong and personal voice; and a platform to exchange and share personal stories. This incredible initiative has a core purpose to discourage young people from knife crime and gang activity, providing positive options that they may never have had the opportunity to consider. Quince is continuously striving to build more long term opportunities by aiming to achieve a film studio and school of excellence, mentoring, and a music programme.
Quince is currently working on producing six films with local young ex-offenders. His fifteen minutes with Featured in Fifteen will be dedicated to sharing his journey so far, along with a preview of one of the films he is currently producing. We cannot wait to hear more from Quince. Here is a short film about Quince: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/former-convicted-drug-dealer-reveals-how-he-turned-his-life-around-after-growing-up-on-london-estate-a3813661.html
Figuring out who you are, then forever inventing who else you could also be?
Actors, singers, dancers, closet transvestites, performance artists…Sonja Harms has dressed them all and in doing so brought her unique creativity and curiosity into the wardrobe of fashion intrigue, continuously inspired by the stories and fantasies that lie beneath each alternative and individual identity.
Working towards a self-made career making women’s clothes for men, Sonja started by completing a traditional German apprenticeship as a dressmaker in Bremen, followed by a year of learning pattern drafting for women and men in Hamburg and Munich, along with waitressing in a transvestite basement bar on the weekends.
In 1995 Sonja moved to London where her career led her into the world of wardrobe eccentricity; making clothes for transvestites, branching then into making costumes for theatre, dance, opera and film.
Of her many experiences she spent twenty years working very closely with British artist Grayson Perry with his now-famous alter ego, Claire.
We cannot wait to hear about Sonja’s journey and the lives she has quite literally brought to life; along with the impact and influence she has created through her very own passion for fashion.
Freya came up with the idea of Freyathlon during Womens Sport Week in 2015. She’d read and listened to a lot of people commenting on the barriers to women getting and staying involved in sport – and she realised how much her own life had changed when she was, and wasn’t able to be, active.
Like many people, particularly women, Freya didn’t really enjoy sport at school and stopped doing any organised sport as soon as she left school. But she’s always enjoyed walking and cycling – and, six years ago, was happy cycle-commuting between Lewisham and central London.
A diagnosis of cancer called a halt to the cycle-commute and Freya swapped life in the cycle lane for life in a hospital bed - spending weeks in hospital every month receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, watching episodes of Breaking Bad and relying on visitors for news beyond the walls of the hospital isolation room.
After six months of gruelling and exhausting chemotherapy she moved into remission – which is where she still is. Some people might want to celebrate reaching remission but Freya says it was like falling off a cliff.
‘You finish treatment and it’s up to you to put your life back together – when your motivation and energy levels are low, your place in the world has changed, and the dark thoughts you’ve managed to contain for months burst through with a vengeance.
‘The discovery I couldn’t walk upstairs without sitting down on the top step to catch my breath was brutal. I decided my priority had to be rebuilding my health and fitness. I started by walking to the end of the street, gradually increasing the distance until I could walk to my local café then take a trip around the park. After a few months I felt able to think about getting back on my bike but my confidence had been shaken and I joined a spin studio to make sure I had the strength and stamina to cycle back home once I did get my bike back out of the shed.
‘One year after diagnosis and six months after finishing treatment I cycled 52 miles in LondonBikeathon to raise money for Bloodwise, the blood cancer charity.’
But Freya didn’t stop there. She decided to have a go at dragon boat paddling, ran her first 5k and, two years after finishing treatment, ran her first 10k.
Then she had the idea for Freyathlon – a personal challenge to try her hand at every Olympic sport women were due to compete in at Rio2016.
Freya’s determination to rebuild her health and fitness is a story of defiance and inspiration. We cannot wait to hear more about her challenge and the impact this for her and her health and wellbeing.
Find out more at: www.freyathlon.com