WHEN WE STAY QUIET WE ARE ALSO MORE POWERLESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNFLOWER BEAN

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community and tagged activisim, album, alternative, Anger Can Be Power, anxieties, anxiety, Cate Le Bon, collective, conviction, create, Donald Trump, Dream Wife, fat white family, featured, gun control, human ceremony, indie, jacob faber, Jay Som, julia cumming, king krule, march for our lives, MGMT, music, New York, nick kivlen, norwich open, NRA, Parquet Courts, political music, presidential election, psych, punk, Pure X, republicans, Sheer Mag, student movement, sunflower bean, Twentytwo In Blue, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, US, USA, Washington, Wolf Alice.

by Rowan Gavin

Sunflower Bean are a band who know what they’re about. Sitting down with the trio of 22 year old New Yorkers ahead of their show at Norwich Open on March 26th, it becomes immediately apparent how certain they are of their musical and political convictions. Drummer Jacob Faber, guitarist Nick Kivlen, and bassist & vocalist Julia Cumming made quite a splash with 2016’s debut Human Ceremony and its fresh-yet-eerily-familiar blend of indie, punk, psych and alternative sounds.

Having previously visited the Fine City when they supported London alt-rockers Wolf Alice, they returned to headline here for the first time at Open off the back of their entrancing second album Twentytwo In Blue, which was already making waves when I spoke to them three days after its release.

“HI, HOW ARE YOU?”

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged alcohol, anxiety, clubbing, companion, compassion, conflict, creative writing, death, depression, dog, family, guardian, guilt, homeless, homelessness, Kev Walker, kitbag, maybe, mental health, night out, pain, poem, poetry, pride, PTSD, rough sleepers, saturday night out, solider, special brew, substance misuse, support, tramp, veteran, war, words, writing.

by Kev Walker

Content warning: mentions substance misuse, mental health, homelessness, conflict

It’s all bling and totter, down the lights of the highstreet, drunk by the train journey there
Cackles and shouts, tales of shagging and swearing, cosmetics squeeze out the air
Bravado and vanity, beer and wine, heading for the first open club
Boys strut with their chests out, showing a leg, only thoughts are of getting a rub.

He’s crouched in the corner, a-top a damp box, wrapped in a half soaking doss-bag
A dog by his side, as companion and protector, a mucker to share a sparse nose-bag
He shakes with the cold, but also the comedown the cider has long since left him
A blot-out, a release, from the pain in his mind and the mess he now finds himself in.Continue Reading

SORRY, ARE YOU A TRAVELLER?

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged African American, american deep south, antigypsyism, anxiety, between the lines, Brexit, Commission for Racial Equality, conservative, depression, discrimination, ellesmere port, gipsies, GRT, gyppo, gypsy, irish traveller, johnny delaney, little england, mainstream media, Marc Willers, media bias, mental health, mental wellbeing, Muslims, prejudice, racial equality, Romani, travel, traveller, Trevor Phillips.

by Jonathan Lee

Content warning: article mentions antigypsyism and racism

“The Gypsy and Traveller community complain that they don’t get enough media attention, but crime watch is on TV every week.”

This was the name of a team at a pub quiz I attended in Oxford recently. When it was read aloud, half the pub laughed and jeered. The other half remained silent, either through complicity or complete indifference. No one challenged the offending team, no one called out, no one made a disapproving noise. When the woman behind the bar saw my apparent discomfort, she asked:

“Sorry, are you a Traveller?”

Unsure whether she was apologising for the hate speech coming through the pub’s speaker system, or for the actual ethnicity itself, I answered:

“Yes I am.”Continue Reading

BRAINSTUCK ARGUMENTS

Posted on July 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged anxiety, brain, Community, confession, confessional, creative, creative writing, intelligence, LGBTQIA+, performance, personal, poem, poetry, politics, public, public speaking, queer, reflection, speaker, thought, writing.

by Eli Lambe

How can you have anxiety and whatever
and read aloud to rooms.
How do you flinch at loud noises and not stares?
Speaker, the mind is unintelligible
and this unwell mind doubly so.
I do not hyperventilate this performance,
or rarely,
is this performing the cause.Continue Reading

WELCOME TO THE ARCHIPELAGO: REVIEW OF UNTHOLOGY 9

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged anthology, anxiety, archipelago, ashley stokes, criticism, doubt, failure, fiction, Gordon Collins, mark mayes, melancholy, numb, review, robin jones, Roelof Bakker, rosie gailor, sarah dobbs, Sarah Evans, scapegoat, short story, strangeness, suicide, tim love, unthank, unthank books, unthology, unthology 9.

by Ellen Duncan

Content warning: article mentions suicide

I’ll start this review with a confession – Unthology 9, edited by Ashley Stokes and Robin Jones, is the first of the Unthology series that I’ve read. I can’t comment on the progression of the anthology series, nor on where any existing trajectory might take it. This review will stand alone, as Unthology 9 does for me.

It opens with an introduction: ‘Welcome to the Archipelago.’ This is a stylized, imagery-heavy bit of prose that could feel gimmicky, but mostly avoids the trap. And the concept – of an oceanic journey, of travel through and around and between and beyond the islands of an archipelago – feels appropriate to what follows.Continue Reading

MORE THAN A BEST FRIEND

Posted on February 18, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged anxiety, assistance dogs, childhood, depression, disability, disabled, Ehlers Danlos, ehlers danlos syndrome, guide dogs, mental illness, Perspectives, PTSD, service animals, service dogs, symptoms, therapy dogs.

by Alice Thomson

We’ve all heard it said that dogs are man’s best friend. It appears to hold true – in the UK one in two households owns a pet and in 2015 it was estimated that the pet population stood at 8.5 million dogs and 7.4 million cats. With so many of us owning and loving our pets, the idea that dogs can be more than faithful companions isn’t that surprising. The ones who know that the best are likely the 7000-plus disabled people in the UK who depend on assistance dogs for care ranging from alerting those with epilepsy of an oncoming seizure, guiding the blind, or helping someone with limited mobility to perform daily activities. They are even used for therapeutic needs, often for those suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety or depression.

LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged advice, anxiety, body language, christmas, christmas alone, communication, disability, ehlers danlos disability, ehlers danlos syndrome, engage, face to face, get outside, holiday season, loneliness, mental illness, see people, support, written word, xmas.

by Alice Thomson

For many, the festive season can be a stressful time of the year as well as a joyous one. There’s all the gifts you have to buy, making sure to post presents and cards in time for the big day, getting the whole family around a table on Christmas day – and these are just a few of the many things you have to deal with. There are many people who don’t celebrate Christmas, of course, but for a number of those who do Christmas can actually be the loneliest time of the year. They might not have families or friends to go to. Amongst these were the 300,000 elderly who spent Christmas day on their own last year – but loneliness and isolation can be one of the hardest things to overcome for other people too. For someone with a disability or a rare or invisible condition that others struggle to comprehend, loneliness can be exceptionally hard.

A CYCLE OF FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY – MENTAL HEALTH AND JOBHUNTING

Posted on December 21, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged anxiety, depression, empathy, employment, isolation, job application, mental health, stigma, unemployment.

By Liam Hawkes

“You interviewed well but unfortunately we just didn’t feel that you were right for this particular position.”

These are the words that no one seeking employment wants to hear. Looking for a job, especially during times of uncertainty and instability, can be a terrifying prospect. My own recent experience of this has got me wondering about the connection between job seeking, rejection and our mental health.

MY MENTAL HEALTH AND POKEMON GO

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged #catchemall, 90s, anxiety, application, ASD, autism, cartoon, challenge, depression, disability, exercise, experience, family, games, gaming, happiness, health, holiday, Italy, mental health, nerd, news, niantic, outdoors, personal, pikachu, Pokémon, pokemon go, PokemonGO, reward, Satoshi Tajiru, social skills, socialise, story, travel, university.

by Daniel Delargy

CW: depression

Since graduating from UEA, things kind of went downhill for me. I graduated with the grade I wanted, but I was stuck as to what to do next. I had no job, no sense of personal accomplishment, deteriorating relationships, and to top it all off I moved back in with my parents and felt ashamed because as the eldest child, I had this expectation that I had to be this success story which my siblings could look up to.

My old habits started returning. I tried to get back into an old hobby of mine, running – but quickly dismissed it. I hid myself away.Continue Reading

MY AFTER DARK EXPERIENCE AS ANOTHER STUDENT’S LIFELINE

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged anonymous, anxiety, careers advisor, depression, exams, homesick, lifeline, listen, listening service, mental health, mental illness, nightline, norwich nightline, NUA, phone call, stress, student, student life, suicide, support, support systems, talking, UEA, universities, university, university life, volunteer led, volunteers, young people.

Disclaimer: mentions suicide

by Olivia Davis

Nightline is unique.

A phone call at 3AM under normal circumstances as a regular student would result in a sigh or occasionally, slight frustration. However, at Nightline it is an opportunity for a student to reach out when they may be feeling at a low or a vulnerable point in their life. As a volunteer listening service operating at over 50 universities in the UK with over 2000 student volunteers, Nightline operates as a reliable network for fellow students.

Norwich Nightline is open for both UEA and NUA students, 8PM-8AM everyday of term, regardless of exams or holidays. “We’ll listen, not lecture” is the main policy volunteers abide by in our mission to provide others in need of guidance.Continue Reading

anxiety

WHEN WE STAY QUIET WE ARE ALSO MORE POWERLESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNFLOWER BEAN

“HI, HOW ARE YOU?”

SORRY, ARE YOU A TRAVELLER?

BRAINSTUCK ARGUMENTS

WELCOME TO THE ARCHIPELAGO: REVIEW OF UNTHOLOGY 9

MORE THAN A BEST FRIEND

LONELY THIS CHRISTMAS

A CYCLE OF FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY – MENTAL HEALTH AND JOBHUNTING

MY AFTER DARK EXPERIENCE AS ANOTHER STUDENT’S LIFELINE

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