Join us on 19th October for this in-person writing workshop exploring mental health, creativity, and visibility!
This event is part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2024.
All SBWN events will adhere to our Safer Spaces Policy. You can learn more about our policy here.
When it comes to our mental health as people of colour, what does it really mean to be visible? When is visibility empowering, and when is it harmful?
The UK’s BPOC population is caught in a paradox of mental health visibility. We experience higher rates of mental illness than non-BPOC people yet have less access to mental health services, timely diagnosis, and effective treatment, and are disproportionately targeted for detention and sectioning. Our intersecting marginalisations – such as physical disability, identifying as LGBTQ+, or housing insecurity, among others – are often ignored for a sole focus on race, which makes this in/visibility even more isolating.
This in-person workshop led by Rhiannon Mudaliar aims to give writers of colour the tools, space, and confidence to (re)define our mental health visibility on our own terms. Through writing, we’ll explore our relationships with mental health, in/visibility, self-definition, and creativity. Activities will include discussion/sharing, collage, and repurposing old texts to express ourselves. Venue is the Scrap Antics space in the Wellgate Centre, Dundee (see Venue Info below for details).
The workshop is open to all Black writers and writers of colour in Scotland. All experience levels welcome, including those trying out creative writing for the first time!
We have a few caregiver/childcare (£30) and travel (£50) bursaries available – please email us at scottishbpocwriters@gmail.com if you will need a bursary to attend, and we’ll do our best to help.
Tickets are Pay What You Can (suggested £10), bookable through Ticket Tailor. We look forward to seeing you there!
Venue Info
Writing Your Visibility will take place at the Scrap Antics space, Wellgate Centre, Dundee DD1 2DB.
The space is fully accessible and can be reached by lifts, ramp, and escalators (as well as stairs). Accessible and disabled-friendly toilets are nearby on the same floor.
There are several buses that travel from Dundee City Centre, Dundee Rail Station, and various areas of Dundee to the Wellgate Centre. Tea, coffee, and juice will be provided free of charge in the Scrap Antics space. A handful of coffee shops/cafes and a Tesco Express are within a few minutes’ walk from the venue.
Facilitator
About Rhiannon
I’m a newly minted arts graduate with ambitions of saving the world! That’s not too overly ambitious for a debut project, is it?
Photography, poetry, and documentative art film are my mediums of choice. My work primarily concerns itself with uplifting marginalised groups, the rituals of intimacy, and the perpetuation, consideration, and photographic capture of queer joy.
When I’m not filming, writing, or reading, I like to knit. I used to proclaim myself a cat person, but I feel that has changed of late, thanks to a very small dog which recently entered my life.
I also consider myself now to be a coffee drinker, a habitual glass clinker, a recreational hooligan, and an avid videogame vivisector. I am queer, mixed race, unapologetically huge, and always looking for an excuse to dress up. It is my most dear belief that people, when given the chance, are just the absolute best.
Find me at home, ensconced among many blankets and loved ones, most likely watching an animated classic. https://www.rhiannonmudaliar.com/