Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC, CBC, F24...), writer (on art, music, culture...), I work in radio, podcasting, online, on films.
As a writer, I also contributed to the New Arab, Art UK, Byline Times, the i Paper...
Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and in Bristol, UK. I also reported from Italy, Germany, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa...
This blog is to share my work, news and cultural discoveries.
And if an artist doesn't put some light on such stories, who will?
Well done.
Fiona Apple on New Album “Fetch the Bolt Cutters”
& Acknowledging Indigenous Lands
- On Democracy Now
“I’ve heard that it’s actually making people feel free and happy,” Apple said, “and it might be helping people feel alive or feel their anger or feel creative. And that’s the best thing that I could hope for.” Her record includes an acknowledgment that the album was “Made on unceded Tongva, Mescalero Apache, and Suma territories.” We also speak with Native American activist Eryn Wise, an organizer with Seeding Sovereignty, an Indigenous-led collective that launched a rapid response initiative to help Indigenous communities affected by the outbreak. More here: https://truthout.org/video/fiona-apple-on-her-new-album-and-acknowledging-indigenous-lands/
- In relation, here is the most powerful book I worked on in the past few years about the history of North America, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. I worked with her at Velvet Film. Eye-opening: https://reddirtsite.com
AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Spanning more than 400 years, this classic bottom-up history examines the legacy of Indigenous peoples’ resistance, resilience, and steadfast fight against imperialism.
Going beyond the story of America as a country “discovered” by a few brave men in the “New World,” Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity.
The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include discussion topics, archival images, original maps, recommendations for further reading, and other materials to encourage students, teachers, and general readers to think critically about their own place in history.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a historian, author, memoirist, andspeakerwho researches Western Hemisphere history and international human rights.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Oklahoma, the daughter of a tenant farmer and part-Indian mother. She has been active in the international indigenous movement for more than four decades, and she is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. After receiving her Ph.D. in history at the University of California at Los Angeles, she taught in the newly established Native American Studies Program at California State University, Hayward, and helped found the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies.
L'Allemagne et le 8 mai 1945 // Solidarité envers les sans-abris en Angleterre
Le 8 mai 1945, la capitulation de l'Allemagne nazie mettait fin à la Seconde Guerre mondiale, une période qui a marqué comme aucune autre la mémoire européenne et allemande. // En Angleterre, pays durement touché par la pandémie de Covid-19, la solidarité s'organise autour des sans-abris.
Face à un système public défaillant, la solidarité est assurée par des citoyens et associations
On verra ce que l'Histoire retiendra de cette drôle de période que le monde vit actuellement… Face au Covid-19, chaque pays essaie de trouver ses solutions. Certains comme le Royaume-Uni ont tenté dans un premier temps de laisser le virus se répandre pour atteindre une immunité collective.
Une stratégie qui a été abandonnée lorsque les chiffres ont commencé à prendre des proportions inquiétantes. La stratégie britannique a d'ailleurs laissé les voisins européens mais surtout ses citoyens perplexes. Après avoir renoncé à laisser agir l’immunité, le Premier ministre a lui-même été hospitalisé en soins intensifs.
Parallèlement, pour palier l’absence de nombreux services publics dans un pays qui a connu des années de restrictions des dépenses publiques, ce sont les citoyens et associations caritatives qui mettent en place des mesures de soutien et de solidarité. Reportage de Melissa Chemam en Angleterre.
Ont contribué à cette émission: Ralf Bosen, Melissa Chemam et Anne Le Touzé
Depuis l’expansion mondiale de la pandémie SARS-CoV-2, la stratégie du Royaume-Uni a laissé nombre de ses voisins européens et de ses citoyens perplexes… Mais après avoir renoncer à laisser agir l’immunité, le Premier ministre a lui-même été hospitalisé en soins intensifs. Parallèlement, pour palier à l’absence nombreux services publics dans un pays qui a connu des années de restrictions des dépenses publiques, ce sont donc les citoyens et associations caritatives qui mettent en place des mesures de soutien et de solidarité. Reportage – socialement distant – de Melissa Chemam en Angleterre.
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Des applaudissements pour les soignants…
En lieu et place de budget d’urgence pour les services publics.
Voilà l’une des illustrations de la frustration qui gronde au Royaume-Uni.
Les citoyens britanniques sont encouragés à rester chez eux depuis fin mars, mais peuvent sortir se promener sans autorisation. Les parcs sont également restés ouverts. Et les cafés et restaurants été fermés plus tard qu’en Europe continentale…
Mais ce laisser-faire, s’il rend le confinement moins difficile, a aussi laissé les plus vulnérables à l’abandon. Les maisons de repos souffrent de manque de main d’œuvre, tout comme les hôpitaux publics.
Un autre exemple : la plupart de sans-domicile se sont trouvés sans ressources et sans possibilité de s’isoler dans un intérieur.
Pour remédier à cette crise humanitaire, ce sont des associations qui s’organisent, comme Caring in Bristol, dans l’ouest de l’Angleterre. Ben Richardson en est le directeur.
Ben Richardson, directeur de Caring in Bristol : « Ce qui s’est passé dans plusieurs villes est que les personnes sans domicile ont été retiré des rues ou des auberges où elles ne peuvent pas s’isoler pour être placer dans des hôtels. Cela s’est fait très vite et nous avons dû adapter nos services, pour répondre à leurs besoins, et le premier est qu’elles ont faim. La plupart des services de distribution de nourriture dont bénéficiaient les personnes vulnérables ont cessé abruptement, pour plusieurs raisons. Donc mon association de relogement s’est adaptée pour fournir un soutien vital en terme de nourriture, et produire environ 6500 repas par semaines qu’une véritable armée de bénévoles distribue. Des chefs de restaurants nous ont rejoints. Nombre d’entre eux n’ont plus de travail en ce moment donc nous les avons recrutés pour cette opération. Nous avons pu 2 à 3 cuisines en moins d’une semaines, grâce aux personnels de ces restaurants qui ne peuvent plus travailler, pour mettre en place cette opération. Maintenant ce dont nous avons besoin c’est d’un soutien financier. De toute évidence, ce projet coûte beaucoup d’argent à l’association et nous n’avions pas prévu un budget pour cela. Mais c’est important de parler de la valeur de ce travail et que des gens soient en mesure de nous soutenir d’une manière ou d’une autre. »
Le plus exigeant pour l’association est d’organiser ces distributions de nourriture quotidiennes. On croise souvent leurs camions, comme celui de Josh Eggleton, chef connu et à la tête de pas moins de 6 restaurants dans la région.
Josh Eggleton : « Je me suis retrouvé rapidement à travailler à temps plein avec Caring in Bristol, pour lancer l’initiative CHEERS DRIVE : il s’agit de distribuer trois repas par jour aux personnes vulnérables relogées. Nous avons mis en place trois cuisines, et pour cela un partenariat très organisé, avec Dom du restaurant Pasta Loco, moi-même et mon équipe, tous des volontaires, et l’équipe du café Emmeline. On travaille tous les jours, produisant environ 1000 repas par jour, et c’est fantastique. Personnellement, j’éprouve un très grand plaisir à nourrir les gens et c’est super de pouvoir se lever le matin, contribuer dans cette période de crise, et continuer à nourrir les gens. C’est vraiment thérapeutique aussi, et bon pour rester mentalement fort. »
Pour Ania Morris, fondatrice de la Food Union, il est important de ne pas seulement compter sur des dons et de rendre cette activité viable à moyen terme.
Aisne Morris, Food Union : « Il est aussi important de dire que notre union est autant basée sur la collaboration et la solidarité que sur le caritatif et la charité. Beaucoup d’initiatives font actuellement appel à des dons, mais nous trouvons des fonds auprès d’entreprises aussi, en plus du public, et nous payons aux restaurants impliqués 4 livres par repas produits. Ils sont ensuite distribués aux employés de la santé en première ligne, aux travailleurs sociaux et aux communautés les plus vulnérables. Le concept est de créer aussi un flux de revenus pour les restaurants, qu’ils utilisent pour acheter les produits alimentaires aux fournisseurs. Donc oui, nous nourrissons les personnes vulnérables et sans abris, mais nous essayons aussi de générer des sources de revenus pour toutes la chaîne de production alimentaire. »
A Londres comme à Hasting ou encore Liverpool, ces associations cuisinent aussi pour les employés médicaux, pendant que des citoyens lambda fabriquent des masques artisanaux ou organisent les courses pour des malades.
Des pétitions ont tout de même émergé pour exiger la production nationale de masques pour les soignants ainsi que des augmentations de salaires pour les infirmiers et des visas pour le personnel médical étranger de la NHS, qui dépend en grande partie de médecins européens, asiatiques et africains. Dans la 5e économie mondiale, c’est un paradoxe dont souffre cruellement des millions de victimes et héros du Covid19.
We are delighted to announce plans for our major exhibitions post lockdown, sharing the common, pertinent theme of portraiture, family and friends, with Chantal Joffe and in Hassan Hajjaj’s The Path, a touring exhibition by New Art Exchange, Nottingham, curated by Ekow Eshun.
Whilst we can’t yet confirm when these exhibitions will open we wanted to share them with you and give you an insight into what’s next at Arnolfini, and hopefully give you something to look forward to. Alongside this we are working on our plans for how we can open safely respecting all of the requirements for social distancing and visitor safety.
In the meantime, please read on as to what will await you and what we have for you ahead of then.
Every other year, in collaboration with the Centre for Fine Print Research at UWE, Arnolfini hosts BABE, the Bristol Artists' Book Event.
The next BABE is scheduled for 2021, but this spring we’re presenting a mini version via our website, exploring ways to enjoy artists’ books during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Pictured, left to right, Annabel Lawson (later Rees), Jeremy Rees and John Orsborn
in front of a painting by Peter Swan
Lockdown has given us an opportunity to delve into the extensive Arnolfini archive. We've pulled out some treats to share with you here and will have more to come before too long.
We have also been working with our friends at Bristol Archives to bring you a selection of artist interviews with some of the many that have exhibited at Arnolfini over the years. We'll start releasing them later this month, so please keep an eye and ear on our socials and website.
Ahead of our 60th anniversary year in 2021, we'd love to hear your memories around Arnolfini and Bush House. Please drop us a line at archive@arnolfini.org.uk.
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ARNOLFINI RECOMMENDS.
Wells Contemporary have extended the date for their awards submissions until 1 August 2020. All shortlisted works will be displayed in a virtual exhibition with a view to present in Wells Cathedral when it is safe to do so.
Hauser & Wirth offer a selection of exhibitions online including a collection of drawings from Louise Bourgeois spanning 60 years
RWA Bristol invite you to contribute to their Active Art Wall, take part in workshops for children and download activity packs, as well as take part in their Secret Postcard Exhibition online.
Watershed have a super selection of online content, for all ages, to stream and download.
Spike Islandpresent an online screening of Kidlat Tahimik's long-form collage film, Why Is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow, exploring a decade of American neocolonialism in the Philippines and the US.
This week we 'visit' Rosedale House, a care home for people with dementia. Manager Julie Edwards and Deputy Manager Nikola Penevski tell us about life under lockdown and how the residents and staff are getting on.
We also have our usual round up and excitingly we bring you a recipe for a quarantini made by Derek Brown, author of Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World.
Music:
Covid 19, La Guerre, Patrick Sese Buluku
Merci Pour Tout, Vanessa Paradis
Opening and closing music: Hot Flu, The Old Bones Collective
Sunday, 3rd May 2020 to Tuesday, 30th June 2020, 08:00 to 18:00
In response to the government’s guidelines about exercise during the Covid-19 lockdown, we invited three local artists and writers to share with us where they’re walking.
Arnolfini Writer in Residence, freelance journalist/reporter, radio producer and writer, Melissa Chemam shares with us her stories around walking in Bristol.
Water Once Washed Away My Pain, Now I See That It Also Liberated Me From Fears…
From the very first day I came to Bristol, I developed a strong attachment to the areas along the Floating Harbour…
After my nocturnal arrival, I walked into town the next morning for interviews, from Stokes Croft to Clifton then the city centre. On the second evening I arrived at Pero’s Bridge and the Arnolfini for the In Between Time Festival. I almost didn’t need to look at a map, as I felt that the city’s shape was naturally leading from the hills to the harbour. After a week, the Watershed and the Arnolfini had become both landmarks and headquarters for me. I knew I would have to come again.
Since then, walking in Bristol has been my only way to travel in town.
By the end of March 2020 however, as for everyone in here, in the country, in Europe and in most of the world, my outdoor activities came to a standstill. The epidemic that most of us (and myself, at first) had tried to overlook put the whole world under arrest.
And our lives changed, mine included.
We were suddenly faced with a choice: to keep on going out and jeopardising lives, or to abandon what we loved the most to protect our selves and others. Whether our job, our businesses, our friends or our favourite hobbies…
Like all lecturers, I could no longer teach in person to “my” students. As a freelance reporter, I could no longer work and investigate or interview people. As a citizen, I could no longer walk everywhere, no longer participate in the joys of Bristol’s great art and theatre scenes.
Living away from my hometown of Paris, the hardest part for me is that I cannot help my mother, alone in her social housing, and can’t be of any support to my sister, a doctor in an intensive care unit. Compared to their solitude and burden, I know I’m extremely lucky… Online teaching has been put into place, and I can keep on practicing journalism online and through my writing.
Sitting in my room in a shared house, what I’ve learned so far from this health crisis and lockdown is a valuable lesson: I have finally overcome my fear of loneliness… Because, for years, like so many people, I had dreaded solitude, but I could not admit it.
I’ve lived abroad a good 8 years. In Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi, then in Bangui in Central Africa, often days felt a long stream of loneliness. Or I felt estranged among the local citizens. I loved reporting but couldn’t feel that I belonged. Some nights I couldn’t even sleep. When posted in Bangui, for a mission with the World Food Programme, we were never allowed to go out alone, or to travel outside of a UN car… And we had a curfew. It was by far the worst lockdown I ever lived through. My family feared the risk of civil war; I was more afraid of being alone for so many hours in the soulless room I was put in… But I didn’t mention it.
In Bristol, over the past five years, I’ve finally learned to overcome that fear of solitude, a fear deeper for me than others.
I came here to write a book, my oldest and dearest dream, and that could not be done in a multitude; it had to be a solitary activity, after the magnetic and fascinating moments of reportage and interviewing. In and out of Bristol, somehow, the city cured me of my fear… I can witness this nowadays: the lockdown is not painful for me.
I believe that my cure was strongly linked to my walks along the Harbourside, alone, near water. I think about the magic of that cure, and must admit the proximity of water really calms me. Does it do the same to you?
In many forms of European symbolism, from pagan mythology to poetry, water is seen as an embodiment of emotion, but also of purification and healing. Purification of emotions, perhaps… I had already had this experience in Miami, when after a month of hard work took time to plunge in the ocean, a 20-minute walk away from my building.
For me it became even more real one day in January 2016, while in Bristol. Before a short trip to Dublin, I stopped on the Harbourside for a special ritual, to try and recover from a loss that had been haunted me for years. I wrote final words of goodbye on a piece of paper, burned it and threw the ashes into the water. I let my ghost depart and probably then slowly began to conquer solitude, progressively feeling liberated.
Crises, slowly, gradually, force us to overcome our limitations.
I know we’re living through the deepest crisis Europe has known since 1945, and I know how hard it is for many people. But personally, I focus on the fact that we’ll get through this, and we can learn from this. I’m hoping we’ll sooner or later have multiple occasions to make our world, our country, our city, better places – cleaner, more respectful of the environment, less marred by inequality. If we take the time to slow down and reflect on our human mistakes so far, we may get there, eventually.
I now live in Southville. I don’t live alone, my housemates are amazing and that helps tremendously. My heart goes to the ones left alone in their flat, like my mother, my best friend, and many thousands of others. But walking alone along one part or another of Bristol’s Harbourside has become an almost-daily personal ritual.
The light at dusk especially amazes me, as well as the beauty of the Marina, the quietness of the Baltic Wharf, the view on the Underfall Yard, the loveliness of Hannover and Capricorn Quays under this gorgeous sunny weather, of the whole area around Bathurst Basin and Redcliffe Bridge. The Floating Harbour has become my sanctuary, in my delectable lonesome strolls, a symbol of my inner upmost happiness, in harmony with the sound of the birds, the smiles of some of my fellow walkers, the beauty of the flowers, the general calmness of the area. Whatever happens, politically or socially.
And hopefully, for those of us still in pain and afraid, my story will be of some help to move towards more peaceful territories, to overcome fears, alone but, in a way, together too.
