Get your ears in the mood for tomorrow’s event!
All
Talks
Individuals
Chapters
The inspiring Sarah Gatford is this Friday’s speaker.
Sarah runs a local Coaching and Communication business alongside being a successful British Sign Language (BSL)/English interpreter.
“Communication and people skills play a huge part in my everyday work life. I am passionate about improving people’s productivity through getting outside and away from their desks in a hybrid working environment. I have clients who I help with anything from fears and phobias to confidence issues using a tailored blend of Coaching and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).”
Recognised as one of the Small Business 100 2019, part of the Small Business Saturday campaign and one of 15 national Small Business Heroes, Sarah is keen to shout about the difference small businesses make to our communities and the value they add to so many people’s lives.
April’s Theme is Kismet.
When the stars align and good fortune visits, it must be kismet. An unexpected windfall, a chance encounter with another that blossoms, a doorway opening to impossible dreams. Kismet is a little pocket of time just for you. We marvel at the sheer, unlikely wonder of these moments.
Kısmet is a Turkish word that evolved from the Arabic qisma, meaning one’s portion or lot in life. When kismet was borrowed into English in the early 1800s, its meaning shifted into fate and fortune. But be wary of awaiting your destiny with passivity, philosopher Barrett Holmes Pitner warns, lest you resign yourself to a fate where nothing grows. Attend to the synchronicities in your life. When kismet alights upon you, the cosmos is letting you in on something, and you can choose to meet it.
What do you take as signs of good fortune? What moments of kismet have appeared before you? How did you answer?
Our Istanbul chapter chose this month’s exploration of Kismet, Selin Çınar illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.
Ndukwe is our speaker for March 2022. He’s an advertising copywriter, Creative Director, and Spoken Word Poet. Over the course of his career, he has created memorable ads for brands in Nigeria and West Africa, across a wide variety of sectors. His works focus on crafting messages that resonate with the cultural and lived experiences of his Target Audience, whomever they may be.
Last year he was endorsed by Arts Council England for his work in poetry and has since moved to the UK with his family. When he’s not creating advertising or doing the Derby spoken word rounds, he’s. working on his short film that’s inspired by Nigerian mythology and philosophical thoughts.
Ndukwe is a copywriter by day and a poet by design, and you can listen to his second Spoken Word album, Nwa Chukwu, on your favourite music platform.
📷
March’s Theme is Folklore.
The universe is vast and full of mysteries. Humankind spin stories to answer these mysteries without answers. As these stories are passed down and among a people, they become folklore. Who placed the stars up there? When a pot breaks, who might have been the unseen culprit? How do we celebrate the successes we can’t take credit for? Folklore exercises our mythic imagination, our way of seeing beyond the tangible to make sense of the enigmatic and the unfathomable.
A song about the origin of the world, a pot of simmering stew that draws the community to the table, a knot of ribbon in your hand. All of these moments and rituals bind us to our ancestors, our past to our future. Our collective and ancient wisdom is contained in folklore, we must simply look there.
Our Guatemala City chapter chose this month’s exploration of Folklore and Sara Ortega illustrated the theme.
Meet February’s Speaker
Lynne Hollingsworth is a contemporary artist who has painted professionally for over 20 years. She is an award-winning artist who has personally exhibited for HRH Prince of Wales.
Lynne also heads HD Art Creative Studio which delivers a range of creative, inclusive and multi-disciplinary arts projects to a diverse range of clients across the UK including the NHS and the National Trust.
Projects include mural enhancements, sculpture, illustration and design. In everything that she does, her mantra is ‘everyone is welcome’. This reflects her commitment to inclusion and diversity.
Lynne actively supports the Creative Industries and is a well-respected creative industries mentor and trainer and has been guest speaker for many organisations including:
Architecture Week
WIRE (Women In Rural Enterprise)
Derbyshire County Council – Focusing Creativity
When she’s not out on site, up scaffolding, she can be found in her art studio which is based in Duffield, Derbyshire.
February’s Theme is Monumental.
When we call something monumental, we mean it as a matter of scale. Societies erect statues and build squares and dedicate memorials to prevent the past from being buried. These structures loom large and cast long shadows. They are meant to endure, to keep our ancestors alive in our memories, but sometimes they dwarf the living and engulf life itself.
What does it mean to think on a monumental timescale? To honor the past in such a way that it paves a path for the unfolding of the present? We have no way of knowing if our memories will outlive us, if they will manage to travel the vastness of space and time. But there are people in the future who will need our stories, stories capacious enough to hold all of our humanity. So what will you bear witness to? What will you leave behind when you’re gone?
Our Richmond chapter chose this month’s exploration of Monumental and Mending Walls to illustrate the theme.
We can’t wait to kick off 2022 with GeZ Addictive giving us his thoughts on the global theme of ‘Free’ (a word he even has tattoed on his hand!) this Friday morning at QUAD.
January’s Theme is Free.
What is free comes in many flavors. Free to come, free to go. Free to love, free to deliciously inhabit our own skin, free to try on all the possible version of ourselves. “Free,” as in not charging a single cent. Free to speak truth to power. Free to say no to what’s on offer.
However, to be free to — to dream, to create, to imagine — requires freedom from. To be free from want and fear, to be free from censoring forces, to be free from oppression. To strive for true freedom is to honor our obligations to each other, to fight for our mutual liberation.
When someone is free to achieve their fullest creative expression, they become a beacon for all of us. How will you make space for your own flourishing and that of others, so that the world around you might also bend towards freedom?
Our Charlotte chapter chose this month’s exploration of Free and Lo’Vonia Parks to illustrate the theme.
December’s Theme is Invisible.
The invisible encompasses everything that does not fall within the hegemony of visibility. An entire world we cannot see exists but doesn’t show itself. From the electromagnetism coursing around us, to the flow of capital across borders, to the adaptive strategies of wildlife. The denizens of nature know that remaining invisible is power.
Many of us labor to avoid becoming invisible at all costs. We strive to create a constant performance in an age of surveillance. Being invisible is often synonymous for being marginalized, forgotten, and fallen out of view.
What if we take a cue from nature and reclaim invisibility as a strategy? What rich inner worlds can we cultivate when we remain out of view? How might we become aware of the things that have receded from sight, suddenly coming into focus with startling clarity?
Our Rome chapter chose this month’s exploration of Invisible and Cristina Spanó illustrated the theme.
