Dyspraxia Awareness Week takes place in October every year. Here’s what we’ve done yearly since our first Dyspraxia Awareness Week event in 2014.
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2019
Join us in celebrating Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2019 on Saturday
12th October at the neurodiversity Hart Club gallery in London by Lambeth North tube station.
We will be planning the future of Dyspraxic Me including what
workshops you would like to attend in 2020? And what you would like to
learn/do?
There will also be the opportunity to socialise and we will have refreshments.
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2018
Our ‘Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2018’ event will take place this Saturday. Where you will have the chance to meet other dyspraxics and to find out about dyspraxia. Performer Kaiya Stone and artist Beccie Ford will be presenting their work. Beccie will also deliver a creative workshop.
About Kaiya and Beccie:
Kaiya Stone is a London-based but Yorkshire born writer, performer and filmmaker. She is a co-founder of Transgress where she has collaborated on a number of shows including: Binding (Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford Playhouse), Not Your Nice Girl (, HOTTER and The Other Team. Her first short film was released by Canvas. Her debut solo show Everything Is Going To Be KO premiered at Gerry’s Studio, Theatre Royal Stratford East, with support from the Old Vic New Voices scheme. It covers her experiences with late diagnosis of dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD and ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2018.
She will be performing a story about her days at school with dyspraxia and an unexpected trip to London.
Beccie Ford,
Ceramic Artist & Inclusive Arts Practitioner, will be talking about
her dyspraxia diagnosis and her current field of research. Recent
research has been centred around creating art in nature using natural
materials with people with hidden disabilities, and through this process
of creativity challenging the associated stigmas. Beccie will discuss
some of her findings, and following this will engage participants in a
short creative-response workshop.
Beccie studied a BA
in studio ceramics at Falmouth College of Art, and has recently
completed an MA in Inclusive Arts Practice at the University of
Brighton. Although currently living in Sussex, Beccie is soon moving to
Wales to continue her research and art practice from both a
participatory and auto-ethnographical perspective.
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2017
To kick off Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2017 ‘Dyspraxic Me’ is hosting performers.
Comedian Don Biswas
On
the surface Don Biswas is a straight forward and old fashioned gag
merchant. However, he does talk about a wide variety of unique subjects
from having Dyspraxia and mild Asperger’s Syndrome (both learning
difficulties that effect coordination and social skills) to politics.
Also thrown into the mix, in his set, are razor sharp one-liners.
When
discussing politics Don very much takes an alternative view on the
subject, thus talking about the lack choice available in the current
system, mainstream media censorship to conspiracy theories, among other
topics. However, all of this is done in a tongue and check way with
plenty of gags, meaning he is able to play to a wide variety of rooms.
His
comedy has lead him to be a part of Abnormally Funny People a
specialist comedy show for comics, who talk about their disabilities and
difficulties. Don also has done school’s tour support (only for certain
dates) for comedian John William’s solo shows My Son’s not Rainman.
Author Eli Ingle
I spent my childhood pretending to be someone else: Sweep the dog, Thomas the Tank Engine, Harry Potter, or Legolas and I never stopped drawing. As I got older I started to turn these drawings into comics, most of which were suspiciously similar to Star Wars.
Then at the age of 14 and after hours of frustration an idea came out of no-where about two friends at school who built up a secret base and went on adventures. This was a turning point as I suddenly had ideas that were original and not cheap copies of famous movies and books.
Around this time I was home-educated and my happiness and creativity increased more than I thought possible. Being taken out of school was probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me.
Following this the ideas kept flowing. I wrote three books about two Englishmen in the 1940’s. In retrospect, these were not as good as I had hoped but proved to be a steep learning curve on how to write books. I then wrote a play about a Satanic campsite in Wales although this must have been too edgy for the theatres in London.
Rigel was one idea that did not come out of no-where. It took almost five years to develop into its final form. Which was okay by me as after looking back at the original idea, it was bad. It took a long time to bash into shape and the other books in the series were even worse but to date I have had the most fun creating this series.
When I am is not working, I can be found underachieving at Sheffield Hallam University and lowering the tone as a waiter in a well-known hotel chain in Sheffield City Centre.
I enjoy reading, writing and drawing in my spare time. I also have a Facebook page to keep connected and I enjoy making videos for my Youtube Channel.
Peformer Aby Watson
Aby Watson is a Glasgow based artist, maker, facilitator, performer and researcher working in contemporary performance. She is passionate about making complex, risk-taking and accessible performance for a wide variety of audiences. Her performances use movement, choreography, text, action and autobiography, with a healthy dose of humour, to explore elements of being human. Her work has been shown at Camden People’s Theatre (London), Live Art Bistro (Leeds), The Arches (Glasgow) and //BUZZCUT// Festival (Glasgow) amongst others. Aby is a practice-based researcher and is currently undergoing her PhD, titled Choreographing Clumsy: Dyspraxia and Choreographic Practice, at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Aby is dyslexic as well as dyspraxic and this crucial aspect of her identity is carried into every element of her practice.
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2016
The event was very well attended, most traveling from outside of London to get there. The event was primarily to discuss what impact Dyspraxia has had on their daily lives, and share stories about how they cope on a daily basis. Over the course of the day we learnt that by pushing our minds and bodies we are able to achieve remarkable things.
It was an amazing day of insightful talks, fun workshops and just a lot of young people getting together to mingle and make new connections. It was jointly run by Dyspraxic Me and Leonard Cheshire, who both support disabled people in in UK.
In Nathan Gokhool’s talk he
discussed his adventure novel Abay Finds His Way, which depicts a
character with dyspraxia emotional story of self discovery. Nathan’s
mantra was not dead can’t quit.
Alice Knight spoke candidly about her personal experiences and how she turned to comedy to raise Awareness of dyspraxia. She ran a series of drama workshops to get people up and talking. Her talk concluded with an lively open discussion from the floor.
To close the day we had Ioannis Athanasiou, Future Projects leader from Shape Arts a charitable organisation who promote access to culture and opportunities for disabled artisans. His talk centered on government’s classification of SEN as a burden to society and how young people can change this discourse, through the power of the arts.
What was great about the event was that the young people really lead the way in terms of bringing new ideas to the table and really getting stuck into the ongoing narrative of what constitutes disability.
More and more we are seeing youths becoming disenfranchised with traditional Institutions, and their inability to act on their behalf. Now technology has given them a voice, physical action has become digital action. It is more immediate and young people can invoke change just through a push of a button.
At the end of the day the reality is that we are not special we are humans.
Patrick Ozorio
This event would not be possible without the entirely selfless work that Jess does to help young dyspraxics through her peer to peer support group Dyspraxic Me.
Currently meeting once a month in london, they attend workshops, talks and events with the goal of promoting awareness for the condition nationwide. If you are interested in learning more about what Dyspraxic Me or have been inspired by this article please do not hesitate to get in touch with Jess.
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2015
What should we do with an empty shop? We’re going to create an art
installation to share our experiences of dyspraxia of course– a dyspraxia
party!
11-17th October is Dyspraxia Awareness Week, and to really kick things off,
‘Dyspraxic Me’ will be taking over a London pop up shop with this special
interactive art workshop, to explore new ways of raising awareness of
Dyspraxia.
• Come and collaborate with dyspraxic artist Chloe Spicer to create an audio
archive recording our experiences of dyspraxia…
• …And we’ll use this to make a unique dyspraxia soundtrack for our multi
sensory silent disco!
• We’ll be getting crafty with the party decorations
• And we’ll be thinking about how to raise awareness in future – with the first step being to document this workshop for YouTube.
Friends and the general public are very welcome to join in or pop in to find
out more.
Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2014
For Dyspraxia Awareness week 2014 ‘Dyspraxic Me’ were at Shape Arts working with artist Damien Robinson, we created a collaborative artwork about dyspraxia.
For the workshop participants brought along small objects that signifies “dyspraxia” to them.
You can find out more about Damien Robinson and her previous work here:
http://www.damienrobinson.co.uk/
