Here you can view films, photographs and artwork and read poems showcased on Together Unlocked! and find links to websites and online events mentioned on the show. (You can watch the whole shows here including with captions on all videos).

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29 January 2021

Dressing Up to Go Out to Stay In Julie dressed up as Bernie Sanders, who became a ‘meme’ sitting huddled at the Biden Inauguration. The Vermont Senator has now raised over $1.8m for a range of Vermont charities, supporting a LGBTQI youth group in his home state in the first instance. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/bernie-mittens-auction-trnd/index.html https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/bernie-sanders-inauguration-meme-helps-raise-1-8-million-charity-n1255925

Julie also reported on the end of the Vendée Globe around-the-world single-handed yacht race. Damien Seguin, the Paralympic Double Gold Medalist crossed the line in sixth position. This will be adjusted with various technical time allowances, so his race position will come lower down than that — the race was technically won by Yannick Bestaven. However Damien’s achievement is remarkable, because he was sailing a 13-year-old boat that wasn’t fitted with any foils or other adjustments against the state-of-the-art boats being used by non-disabled sailors: https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/22020/damien-seguin-groupe-apicil-sixth-over-the-line-and-first-daggerboard-imoca

Poems from the Together! 2012 Pop-Up Poetry Club
Theme: Musical Instruments

If you’d like to join in from home, next week’s theme is A Frosty Morning. Find out more here about how to join the Club by phone.

Taylor Henville: Music Lessons

Music lessons at school were always strange,
Keyboards lined up against the wall
As though in detention,
They were the only instruments we were allowed to play.

Huddled away in the corner, in view but out of reach,
Drum kits, guitars, acoustic and electric,
Violins, and trumpets with
A layer of dust on their surfaces,
Untouched, out of reach.

We were only allowed to play the keyboards
But that always ended too soon,
I wonder if the other instruments were jealous
That the keyboards got to play a quick but fleeting tune.

Blake Jarrette Gibbons: Musical Instruments

Music opens your emotions, sounds open a vibe, we have many a choice of instruments to which can build a vibe and a beat, a melody, and a music is made.  

Is there a favourite instrument to choose from? not for me personally, different instrument, different genre, also a different community.   

I think back to pre-covid, when you could go out and could walk around some parts of London full of music. Take for example Camden, you have a small area with venues playing across so many genres and so many instruments. From the blues kitchen with the vibe of positivity through the high beat often fast flowing music that brings out the blues in you, piano and drums played between live performances. A trip round to the Jazz Cafe, this may be just maybe a bit more relaxed with more a range of percussion and strings, the sounds even from outside give such a vibe saying Come On In and let these sounds take you away.

Only got to go across the road to the Underworld and Worlds End, Rock and Roll central, fast to slow bangs of drums with a guitar playing through emotions almost as if being played on your heart strings. Piano notes giving a balance of within these sounds.

Only up the way is where Amy Winehouse lived and first started performing, as well as in the places listed. Many groups of people, some drunk, some perfectly sober and slightly more professional singing famous songs.

Old  stadiums taken to fit thousands of performers and they play away to however can be fitted in.

Perhaps the best instrument, just maybe is not a man-made instrument, maybe it’s Mother Nature, she makes sounds and music, without her making us and without nature we couldn’t have the sounds we have.

Drum solos from bass drums to the banging of a hand on a old shoe box. Playing of strings from a rockstar’s guitar with that ooooo perfect note every time, to that little ukulele you started practicing on a a child or the harp that takes you already to a calmer state just by it being in your presence and grasp.

The blowing of a trumpet, or the tune through a saxophone. Or the whistle of the breeze around you as you walk down the street or flow of water onto a beach, or down a waterfall.

I do not have a favorite instrument, nor a favorite genre. I just let it guide me in life. Let sounds give you a vibe, and music, let it open your emotions, just like lyrics and poetry open another person’s, the vibes they give reading, open to your vibe, take a beat to it and few sounds and it may open your emotions too.

Glory Sengo: Guitar

When I was playing guitar at a concert,
Stino was singing into his microphone and the rest of the group were singing with Stino,
They were singing together and they danced and they stopped,
Stino was pretending jumping and everyone started laughing.

Dawn Barber: The Drum

Bang bang on the drum
Time to work your hands a lot
People hear your piece of music
Let it all out, show them what you can do
Give them something to hear
Bang bang do it again, let the drum be your friend
Music, what a joy
Shout it to the stars and moon,
Let your music be heard, because the drum wants you to play,
It is your friend for today and evermore.

Crystal Peasy: Drum Kit

I have a drum kit which I haven’t played yet,
I’m looking forward to playing, I am waiting for the right time,
because it seems like my time goes very quick and seems like so much to do in so little time,
and the time is very fast and you cannot go back,
time is very short and a lot of things can happen,
some of them are sad, some of them are happy,
It’s important to know about all the good things and all the bad things,
because the life is too short.

Julie Newman: Musical Instruments

Does the lonely harmonica lose any worth
If it plays for the sadness of the souls.
Echoing through the winds of a lonely song
Across the plains. A fire burning
Against the darkness of the night,
Stars shine bright and the sound haunts
The listeners as they pause and share
This call to stay on their paths.

A single drum with a lonely beat.
Is it a call to battle or to retreat?
Or does the drummer pull the pulse of the planet
To the surface to share in the day?
A call to prayer, gathering the hearts
Of the listeners in quiet contemplation.
Marking the end of a life, a new beginning
The beat of that which is gone, and that to come.

Solitary sounds, poignant in their power
To touch the souls of the listeners,
When joined with others, become a chorus
Louder, more demanding, insistent,
Not to be ignored. The beat, so loud,
Is felt as the air shakes. The harmonies created
Call a different tune, but not in discord,
Overlapping the loudest, compatible in its completeness.

The orchestra demands to be heard, insists that we listen.
The symphony of many sounds creates a harmony
That pleases many.
But the sound that stays is the single voice.
The wail of the harmonica, singing the song of lonely nights and troubled souls.
The beat of the drum, echoing the marching feet
Joined with a common cause.
The solitary piper marking the passing of time
And the laying to rest.
And a solo violin, stretching our hearts
As we long for the stars.

Still Lives from this morning’s Art Club together with the original photo – we’d love to see your pictures too. (Click on the image to make it full size.) Find out how to join the Art Club by Zoom here.

Something for the Weekend

Great British Art Exhibition: Create a new picture each fortnight on a theme chosen by a famous artist, using any materials you like, and display it in your window. The launch theme is Animals, chosen by Sir Anthony Gormley.

RSPB Great Garden Birdwatch. Everyone is invited to sit for an hour and make a note of the birds they see in the garden or equivalent. This is then registered online or by post to the RSPB and they publish the result in February: https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

Northampton Film Festival 48-Hour Film Challenge. Friday 29 January 6pm to Sunday 31 January 6pm. Filmmakers of all levels of experience have 48 hours to shoot and upload a film on a theme that will be announced at 6pm. Full details, rules, and an instruction to ensure that all lockdown restrictions are adhered to are here – if you decide to join in, we’d love to see your film too: https://www.facebook.com/events/northampton-england-uk/januarys-48hr-film-challenge-northampton-film-festival-2021/300241828054123/

Explore History in 3D with CYARK CyArk is a non-profit organisation founded in 2003 to record digitally , archive and share the world’s most significant cultural heritage and ensure that these places continue to inspire wonder and curiosity for decades to come. Topics are as varied as Ancient Scottish Settlement, through to The Sidney Opera House through to A Stonewall History. https://www.cyark.org

The random word generator is a website which will create words or names to be used in different games. You can select games such as Pictionary, charades, catchphrase or Who am I. For most games you can select the difficulty of the words or for names you can pick celebrity, fictional person, or historical figure: https://randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php

Sam Cooper: Autism Blues

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27 January 2021

National Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Find out more about the Holocaust and how you can take part from home in the Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations from 6.45pm this evening: https://www.hmd.org.uk/ceremony
Find out more about the groups persecuted and murdered by the Nazis here.

Artist Liz Crow’s film Resistance is screened as part of this special edition of Together Unlocked! Find out more about her work and her company Roaring Girl Productions here. Liz has also written about the Disabled Holocaust, the Resistance project and the lessons it holds for the future of a more inclusive holocaust education here: http://www.roaring-girl.com/work/resistance-the-art-of-change/

In the show, Josh Surgeoner talks about the discomfort created by Holocaust tourism and Renee Wallen talks about work responding to this by artist Shahak Shapira:  https://petapixel.com/2017/01/21/artist-shames-disrespectful-holocaust-memorial-tourists-using-photoshop/ Here’s an explanation by the artist with a response from someone in the photos: http://yolocaust.de/

The Jewish Women’s Archive has a feature on work produced by women artists during the Holocaust here.

You can see work by artists responding to the Holocaust from 1945 onwards on the Imperial War Museum website here.

Google has a feature on Art and the Holocaust here.

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25 January 2021

It’s Bubblewrap Day – pop some virtually here – and Veganuary.

AppDate. Robin recommends Photo Sketch-sketcher & Maker: “It is a very easy app you just have to be drag a photo with the mouse in the app window and then you can adjust black and white and colours.” Available from the usual App stores.

Secret Agent – you can watch the whole film here.

Relax with Awa: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrck2-KCTkXHjs8cxLkHj8g

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22 January 2021

National Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day

Ju was Dressed Up to Go Out to Stay In to join in with WITCiH, the women in technology network run by the singer Bishi: http://www.bishi.co.uk/home/witcih/

Join in from Home

Make a 3-D picture or card of a vase of flowers (see the example here by Tracy Surgeoner). You can download the instructions here, and either print templates to cut out and colour, or use the instructions to make your own templates from old magazines or junk mail. (You can even make your own glue from flour and water – here is a simple recipe.)

Art Club Find out more about the Together! 2012 Art Club on Zoom here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something for the Weekend

Drop The Disorder Friday 22 January 6-8:30pm (donate what you can). An evening of spoken word performances that challenge the culture of psychiatric diagnosis and the pathologizing of emotional distress: https://tinyurl.com/y69clpz9

Our writer-in-residence Penny Pepper is on Radio 4 Saturday Live from 9am with fellow guests Anna Friel, Ed Burns and Stephen Morris.

Hoof The Cancer & 2020 Saturday 23 January 8pm (expected to last past 9:30pm) £10 to Cancer Research + £1+37 booking fee. 90 Minutes of cheeky quizzery hosted by well known comedian Rhod Gilbert. The 3^rd instalment of Hoof the Cancer and 2020 Right Where it Hurts Quiz: https://tinyurl.com/y6d5pgy2

New Plaza Cinema Classic Talk Back: Sophie’s Choice Sunday 24 January 9pm (4pm EST) Discussion in the lead-up to Holocaust Memorial Day (free) – watch the film Sophie’s Choice (1982) free on YouTube beforehand:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-plaza-cinema-classic-talk-back-sophies-choice-1982-tickets-135725262915?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

The Vendee Globe is soon into the last week of this around-the-world-without-stopping single-handed sailing race. The Vendee Globe website provides more information about the current race leaders and the distances between them: https://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/tracking-map This article tells you more about Damien Seguin, the Paralympic Gold Medalist who is currently in the first five places coming into the last part of the race: https://www.sail-world.com/news/230835/Meet-the-Vendee-Globe-skippers-Damien-Seguin

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20 January 2021

You can explore filmpro’s three online digital art commissions here: https://filmpro-commissions.online

Find out more about palindrome dates here: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/20/us/palindrome-date-2021-trnd/index.html

Assistance dog Merlot shares his walk through snowy fields

The Clockwork Paralimpics 20.1.2021

The Making History Together! 2020 Disability History Month Festival (11 November-10 December) is complete but still available here. There are exhibitions to explore, performances and films to watch, and lots of activities to take part in, including some especially for families. All FREE.

Poems from this morning’s Together! 2012 Pop-Up Poetry Club on the theme of Colours. Next week’s theme is My Favourite Musical Instruments

Duncan Bridgstock: COLOURS PLEASE

please do not make me blue with sadness
please do not make me red with anger
please do not make me green with envy
please do not make me yellow with cowardice
please do not make me purple with rage
But instead make me “in the pink”
and good as gold.

Julie Newman: A Cacophony of Colours

If colours had no name
Would they still be colours?
If my name for blue
Isn’t true for you,
How would you know
Which colour I meant?

Would my red
Be your red? Or
Would a rose be still a rose?
Does a rose
By any other name
Need to be red?

How can orange be defined
Without a fruit to eat,
A sun to shine?
If an orange wasn’t orange
And if my orange was blue
Would you notice?

Would green strike you as odd
If seen in a plate of mash?
Can the notion of a potato
Inside the skin
Call into question
The nature of its colour?

If colour is a universal truth,
How can different names
Of familiar colours
Cause the rainbow
To shine less brightly
Against a darkened sky?

Could a fox be blue?
Sitting in a purple field,
With birds of bright red
Flying high in the sky
Dancing against
Green clouds of glory?

If you share my colours names
Does that mean we see the same?
Or can I trust the truth of the colour
Lies in its nature,
The core of its being,
Not in the eye of the beholder?

Blake Jarrette Gibbons: The Tube Map and its vibrant colours

Orange, no the colour not the fruit!! So vibrant and bright, very positive a colour. London Overground colour on a tube map.   

Pink, the colour not the musician, can be very in your face, I shall not be dark and dull, rebel coming out from within. Pink can still be also very calming like a pink rose, or maybe in your pink gin. In your face, but also calming at times. Sounds like I’m describing Pink the musician’s music. Pink Hammersmith and City Line colour.

Red a varied shade colour, from cherry red and wine red, no wine tonight, not my choice of booze. To blood red, the red that pumps around inside of us and keeps us alive, our oxygenated blood cells. The Love colour. Red the Central line colour.

Blue, the sea colour, the colour that you think of when getting very wet, but also a colour that shows importance. Blue is vital. Maybe why it’s the most used colour on a tube map. Light blue for the Victoria line, royal blue for the Piccadilly line, pastel turquoise blue for the Docklands light railway and a dark blue shows TFL, in future to go purple when renamed the Elizabeth line. 

Brown, the colour of soil which so many colours grow out of. Brown a muddy colour, mud can be so jolly yet so yucky. Brown Bakerloo line colour.

Yellow, what a shine, so bright so vibrant, so warming, yet can be very rich like a yellow sun flower. Yellow the colour of the Circle line. 

Green, green green grass. Green is the colour of the leaves on the trees and often a flower’s stem, maybe green is mother nature’s favorite colour. Green Day, what a great band. The District line is displayed as green. A moist light green is the Waterloo and City Line. A shiny green showing the tramlines.

Grey, do we have 50 shades of grey around us, or more? Metal-grey through to a shiny bright silver, down to solid grey that gives a feeling of solidarity and balance. Grey Jubilee line originally the fleet.

Black, a dark colour, security, solid, multiple shades, some can be chalky and some shades shiny black, like the black on a pair of sunglasses. The night sky goes black before the sun starts to light it. The black allows stars and the moon to shine. Black the colour of the Northern Line.

Crystal Peasy: Colours

I like to talk about my favourite colours,
I have many different colours
and I like red colour,
and I like purple colour
and I like white colour,
and I like silver colour.

I also like blue colour,
the most beautiful colour in the world,

the colour brings out brightness in somebody,
particularly when you are not feeling well,
and you can end up all different colours.
and you can go to hospital and get better treatment,
and they can give you a lot of medication,
and when you get better, you can feel happier.

Glory Sengo: Green

When I get the District line to East Ham and go to St. Bartholomew’s,
to greet you to do poetry class,
before that we had tea and biscuits,
and after that we ended up and it was time to go home,
and after I went to the cafe and went home on the train.

Dawn Barber: Colours

There are colours in our everyday lives,
in our homes, things we look at,
in shops, things we eat, beautiful flowers,
what would we do without our lovely colours?
They make our lives worthwhile,
we all have a favourite colour that makes us feel special,
so lets keep looking at those colours, they surround us with good things,
and make us feel happy.

Alison Marchant: Waves of Colour

Tinged with pale purples and greens
Dark and green purple
Grassy green
Gold
Shades the orange bright
In a green night
Grey wastes
And ivory sands
Black
Oranges
Mid-sea blue
Shore sea green
In gold
Rose-swept
Brighter blue
Rosy blue lagoon
Greenland grey
So white, white sails
Desolate and grey
Purple reefs of night
Silver
Sapphire yellow blue green
White golden light
Red
Soft green light
Pearl white
Blackening
Whiting
Violet
Diamond
Redder glow
Grey glittering
Red as a rose
Fog-smoked white
And copper sky
Burnt green blue and white
Yellow as gold
Glossy green
Velvet black
Golden fire
Velvet blue and
Great green.

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18 January 2021

‘Blue Monday’: information from the Mental Health Foundation about how to cope with loneliness during Lockdown. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/coronavirus/loneliness-during-coronavirus And read here about why Blue Monday is just a marketing ploy!

AppDate: Julie recommends Waterlogue (available free for all platforms) with the pre-set style Rainy for turning photos into watercolour-type illustrations. Here are two photographs of our assistance dogs Jazz and Precious before and after waterlogue.

Click here to download the Charlie & the C Monsters comic-colouring book.

My Eye is My Ear, 6pm Monday 18 January. London Short Film Festival presents Deaf films selected by Rinkoo Barpaga. https://www.shortfilms.org.uk/myeyeismyear

Relax with Awa: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrck2-KCTkXHjs8cxLkHj8g

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15 January 2021

Painting on acrylic ‘glass’ by Ejay Surgeoner. Ejay printed out the anime image they were copying, and used the acrylic ‘glass’ from an old picture frame. Ejay used a Sharpie pen for the outline and acrylic paints for the rest, tracing the outline from the back and then continuing the painting in reverse order. The image is then ready to go back into the frame – or decorate the frame as well first. Ejay advises waiting for each paint layer to dry thoroughly.

Sterre Ploeger demonstrates potato-printing, picking her potato straight from the field!

Something for the Weekend

The Unlimited Festival of work by leading UK Disabled artists continues until. Sunday 17 January 2021. Most events are FREE, and there is also a range of interactive opportunities for Disabled artists.

The Making History Together! 2020 Disability History Month Festival (11 November-10 December) is complete but still available here.There are exhibitions to explore, performances and films to watch, and lots of activities to take part in, including some especially for families. All FREE.

Julie recommends: Virtual Kew Gardens. Julie is particularly looking forward to the Tropical zone!

Josh recommends: A new Marvel series called WandaVision is available on Disney+. A sitcom-style show, the first two episodes, out now, are set in a 1950s-style small town, and the comedy is very tongue-in-cheek satire.

Ju recommends: You can see more work by Aidan Moesby on his website.

Robin recommends: Try something slower – watch Sri Lanka v England Cricket as England build a comprehensive lead into the third day of play. Available 0n Sky Sport and Radio 5 Live extra. The commentary is as enjoyable as the sport itself.

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13 January 2021

The Unlimited Festival of work by leading UK Disabled artists continues until 17 January 2021. Most events are FREE, and there is also a range of interactive opportunities for Disabled artists. You can see more work by Aidan Moesby on his website.

The Making History Together! 2020 Disability History Month Festival (11 November-10 December) is complete but still available here.There are exhibitions to explore, performances and films to watch, and lots of activities to take part in, including some especially for families. All FREE.

Poems from the Together! Pop-Up Poetry Club on the theme of Winter. Next week’s theme is My Favourite Colour(s). Find out more about our Clubs programme for Disabled people, currently taking place via Zoom and telephone groups.

Dawn Barber: Winter

It’s winter again we shall not cheer,
Cold rain, umbrella out again, dark dark comes early,
We all have to look after ourselves with the cold, keep keep warm,
That’s the way to do it, somehow we have to get through it,
Times go so quick and winter’s around again
We won’t give a, we wont give a cheer, we won’t give a cheer.

Dwain Bryan: Winter

It could happen to you my winter,
All my kitten wants to do is purr, my winter
Your mother’s tongue was English, you lie now in a garden amongst the trees,
As the trees blow in the trees that warm air signs of spring,
The trees are starting to show a blossom, that warm air cannot be forgotten, my winter,
The sun shines vaguely as though it’s half asleep,
The sun shines and you get the feeling that’s quick, my winter.

Julie  Newman: Winter

The sun is low. Very little light
Shines through empty windows.
The holiday garlands now gone,
Leaving no space for shadows.
This can only be winter time. A glimmer
Of hope shines as the days grow longer,
And the sun grows stronger.

The dogs lie huddled in their beds,
Not anxious to run in the dark frozen yard.
The cats sit looking through the windows, darkly
Hoping for the flash of wings, or the flick
Of a branch, blown by the wind.
No creatures stir outside, as the cold light
Harshly shows the shape of things not there.

But soon, soon, will the earth start to warm.
Life coming back as shoots start to form.
Soon, soon will the days lengthen further,
The birds return, and the sun shine longer.
Until then, we all huddle down, waiting for spring
To lighten our days. The cold reminds us
That time moves on and seasons change.

Blake Jarrette Gibbons: A Night-time Winter Walk

Cold outside, warm inside.
Dog needs to go out, layer up
Step outside, your breath displays as steam in the cold air.
Walking along, the dogs feet tapping on the pavement. That wind, oh so cold.
The pavement in the park not covered in salt or silt, so black ice in patches and the greenery is like a swamp, please please don’t go too far on I don’t want to have to shower you again tonight.

Let me check if I am even right with it being late at night, seems so dark each day. Means less walking on sunshine and more dancing in the moonlight.

The dog once a golden labrador, now half-golden labrador half-mud, is panting away so much hot air coming out of him and only just about see his outline from the mud, could be forgiven wondering if he is a steam train.

This cold is in nice and freshening, being here late, no one getting in the way.  Come on home time, hopefully the mud will drop off mostly by the time we get home.

Back onto street lit pavements, there goes the number 6 bus down towards Wiillesden bus garage. See it bounce over the speed humps and see the grit on the road being flicked aside by the tyres. Soon it will turn right and will disappear behind the building. Another 6 comes up going on a long drive through to Aldwych, long journey ahead for that driver.

Back down the road, a panting dog to one side, still stopping at the lamp posts before leaving a message for the next dog, dog are you taking the piss, I want to get home, even layered up I’m starting to feel that wind and the fog is getting lower and lower, it will be like a curtain soon. This is how it quickly became. More walking nearly home, lots of mud fallen off, wow my dog is looking more golden labrador-ish again.

In we get glasses steam up, time to clean the dog and then time to get changed and put the kettle on. Now it’s not me steaming it’s the kettle.

It might be a time of year many don’t like, winter, the coldness, the super-bright sun, and then the very very dark nights. I do like, mother nature deserve some rest time too. Winter is her chill out time to cool off time so let’s respect that, and let those locked outside with no homes let’s give them something, and let’s remember those key workers working day and night through the year, harder times still through winter, while you sit there drink in your hand looking outside and thinking do I go outside? The coldness, the steam of warmth from your breath, as you take in mother nature’s chill. Enjoy it, you watch, soon half of you’ll be moaning it’s too hot now out there. I’m warm again now from my tea and my sleep, it’s another late winter night, and I’m off again for the night winter walk. Who knows what may see on the winter walk this time.

Virtual Naturewatch with assistance dog Merlot

Sport

Julie recommends: Damien Seguin  is a twice-Gold Paralympian medal winner who is currently up in the first five of the Vendee Globe non-stop around the world yacht race. I have been following the race with interest since it started in November, and have been massively impressed at how he has been handling the boat and the difficulties in the race itself. This is a bit of background for him from an interview for a sailing magazine:
https://www.sail-world.com/news/230835/Meet-the-Vendee-Globe-skippers-Damien-Seguin And this is a summary of the current first five leaders coming up now off the coast of Brazil: https://www.sail-world.com/news/234432/Vendee-Globe-Day-66-The-road-from-Rio.

Josh recommends: 

Lebara Race The World Event A virtual international Para-swimming competition that took place across November and December, with swimmers racing from their own pools and submitting timed videos. These have now been combined into ‘finals’ and shown in a live event on 16th December. https://youtu.be/M7fJmN7yrNI

Paralympic Swimmer Daniel Dial upcoming retirement. Brazilian Para-swimmer Daniel Diad has announced that he will retire from competing at the end of 2021, to focus on his other pursuits including running the Daniel Dias Institute, which he founded in 2014 to help find the next Brazilian Paralympic Champions: https://swimswam.com/paralympic-swimming-legend-daniel-dias-announces-post-tokyo-retirement/

FA Cup Marine Vs Spurs. Marine made it into the third round of the FA Cup to play Spurs, there are 161 places between them in a league table. The match was the last time that the Marine players will be able to play sport until lockdown restrictions are lifted, because they are not an ‘elite’ team. The match may also have had the largest in-person crowd of any recent game, as people could watch from their own gardens. Highlights: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55575522

Gaming with Josh

Multiplayer games on Nintendo Switch and Mario Kart 8. A key selling point for some Switch games is the local multi-player facility. One game we played a lot over the holidays is Mario Kart 8, but we have also played Trivial Pursuit, and I am looking forward to playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – however, that is still currently in quarantine!

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11 January 2021

The Making History Together! 2020 Disability History Month Festival (11 November-10 December) is complete but still available here. There are exhibitions to explore, performances and films to watch, and lots of activities to take part in, including some especially for families. All FREE.

This week’s Unlimited Festival of work by leading UK Disabled artists takes place online from 13-17 January 2021. Most events are FREE, and there is also a range of interactive opportunities for Disabled artists.

New Year poems from the Together! Pop-Up Poetry Club. To join in with our Clubs programme from home, contact noel@together2012.org.uk

Blake Jarrette Gibbons: A New Year, New Start

A new year, a new start, turn the page, maybe a new pen might help?
Any new year resolutions?
Any idea on what to do today?
Feel like changing, do you feel like loving, love is my drug of life. It’s beautiful trauma.
A new year, a new start, still living, still living and loving. There is no point in fixing things that aren’t broken, what’s works is tweaks and adjustments to make the new you. A new year all set for a new year, ready to write through this new year, 2021. Let’s hit the road for a new adventure, adapted for a new situation.

Somewhere along the lines we may have seen eye-to-eye. Maybe we did when we clapped for carers and our key workers, those who work from old year into new. In the streets we may cross paths. Who’s going to walk on the dark side of the morning?  Watching the moon dim down from its shine as the sun comes back, rises into the sky to shine through the day, even through the dark clouds, before the moon becomes it’s mirror again and shines in the next night sky. Both will still shine bright through the clouds.

I may walk past ready in love with the new year, in love with life and in love with myself and others, in fact I dare say many will be, after the last year. Many will now love and respect life more than ever before. Here’s to 2021.
Is the new me ready, the one that’s had a few tweaks and adjustments, let 2021 be a new year with adventure.
See you all soon, in the next poem of 2021, I hope you enjoyed reading this one.

Duncan Bridgstock: Ah, the poetry

Ah, the poetry.
As last year
draws near
i fumble
in the jumble
of my
tumble dryer
of a memory
Bobbing
up and down
in my
beach combed
mind
to recall all
of the year.
Past.
and like
Spike Milligan
i find that looking back
hurts my neck
Last Yea
i didn’t like
having to adhere
to the rules
and now in the new year,
i fear
another year
just like last year
But the poetry
Ah the poetry
Soon
is a
boon.

Charlie & the C Monsters

Relax with Awa: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrck2-KCTkXHjs8cxLkHj8g

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