Dear Colleagues, MHHA Supporters andFriends,
You still have a chance to see a remarkable collection of artists, practitioners and researchers engage with ideas of breath and breathing during the final week of the BREATH: INSPIRE/EXPIRE symposium.Over the last three weeks we have explored singing, dancing, breathing, sharedbreath, unwelcome breath, breathlessness, and breathing and the environmental crises.
This week we pause and examine breathing and caring in crises and we invite you to join us by having a look at the symposium website where you can see the creative works released to date and the new works to be released this week, browse the programme, watch recordings of events you may have missed, and sign up for the upcoming workshops, academic panel discussions, or our second keynote event by PROF. JANE MACNAUGHTON, Director, Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham, which takes place on Thursday, 12 November 2020 from 16.30-17.30 CAT. There will also be a live-streamed sunset concert!
THIS WEEK: Week 4 – 9 to 13 November2020
Our action packed final week starts with creative works by NALEDI MOKOENA who presents ‘TheDance of Breath and Death’; KHULILE NXUMALO’S ‘FayaWaNaledi (Fire of Naledi)’; and CHISOMOKALINGA’S presentation ‘Songs and Stories as the Key ofLife: Understanding the role of narrative in inspiring health’.
An array of creative works also fill Tuesday and Wednesday as ZIYANDA MAJOMBOZI explores ‘“Ndiphefumla Ngenxeba”: Experiences of Mothering in a Pandemic’; ANGELIQUE THOMAS creates ‘Sneezing bullets/ Breathing in this lifetime -a letter to my little people’ and NOSIPHO MNGOMEZULU invites us to ‘Hold for sixty, none, two and seven: a recipe for disaster management’. LEBOHANG MASANGO’S ‘10000 Stories’ and NIXON MALAMULO’S ‘Imagination power’ bring us to the week’s workshop.
On Wednesday, 11 November:
DEIRDRE(DEE) BLACKIE is running a workshop on Wednesday 11 November 2020 from 10:00 - 12:00 (CAT) titled‘Exhale challenges/Inhale empowerment’.
The workshop is followed by our first academic panel of the week, LOSS OF BREATH which takes place onWednesday from 13:00 – 14.30 and features work and presentations by MEGAN WAINWRIGHT on ‘Policy and practice of home oxygen therapy in public and private health care – case studies from South Africa andUruguay’; LESLIE SWARTZ discussing‘My mother's lungs’; KATE BINNIE’S ‘Breath-Body-Mind integration’ and LENART ŠKOF taking us ‘From breath to respiratory philosophy’.
The second fascinating academicpanel of the week, SUFFOCATION, follows on Wednesday from 15:00-16.30. In this panel MOTLATSI KHOSI engages with ‘Breathing through the noise: The illustration and practice ofCritical race theory’; DIVINE FUH considers ‘Nerds, Bullies and Nannies: Breathing care into the post covid-19 university’; ANGELO FICK reflects on ‘Breath, Eyes, Public Memory:representing the basic elements of life in a time of crisis’ and DESIREE LEWIS comments on ‘Food Breath and the Anthropocene’.
Join us on Thursday, 12 November from 16.30– 17.30 for our keynote address by PROF. JANE MACNAUGHTON ‘The breath of degradation’: why is breathlessness invisible?’ CHISOMOKALINGA will be in conversation with Jane after the address.
Thursday and Friday see the launch of exciting creative work by ILZE MARI WESSELS & VUYOLWETHU REOAGILE ‘WOM{B}_NIFESTOS’;MATTHEW HAHN’S collaborative ‘Tupumue / Let Us Breathe’; DANANAYIMUWANIGWA ‘Fighting forBreath’; NIXON MALAMULO’S series called ‘Imagination power ‘and specially curated works by THOKOZANI MTHIYANE. ANTONY KAMINJU brings us full circle with his second series ‘LockdownDiaries’.
The symposium winds down on Friday, 13November with a sunset rooftop concert – keep an eye on the website for further details!
We look forward to seeing you at the final week of the symposium so sign up for these events through the BREATH: INSPIRE/EXPIRE website. Please come and join us, share information about the symposium amongst your networks, and take a deep breath with us.
Diarise our keynote speaker:
Prof. Jane Macnaughton, Director, Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham, 12 November 2020