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author, compassion, disabled woman, diversity, East Sussex, England, feminism, feminist, inclusion, journalist, Naked, new stories, performer, poet, pride, privilege, punk, social justice, spoken word, storytelling, subvert, woman writer, women, writer
Why am I The Naked Punk?
Punk is my raw beginning. It saw my writing find a raging home in early fanzines. It fired a freedom in me to start accepting myself, that I was OK as a human being, as a woman, as a creative, who could challenge the categories imposed upon me. It is the energy that triggered my activism, and my passion for social justice and equality.
I’m Naked because I strive to be open in my writing, to show what needs to be shown.
Stories that strip away stereotype and expectation, stories that you’ve not heard before, because we’ve been barred from that privileged club for so long.
My stories subvert and maybe challenge, in the same way I provoke when I’ve posed naked – literally – for artists and photographers, and when I’ve performed burlesque. To draw an audience into a nakedness, to share the fun and the message: accept yourself, accept a new story.
Sometimes it’s good to know when I’m too naked. When the challenges we all face conspire to make us vulnerable and forgetful of protecting ourselves. I don’t want to be in this space. No one should, and we can find compassion for ourselves and each other to not let this happen. Naked is always a choice.
As The Naked Punk, I’ll always be on this bumpy journey.
I don’t have answers and it’s not easy – but through my work I’ll enjoy sharing punky naked questions along the way.
Book signing in Brighton, December 2017