This speech was given by Ben Okri at Writers Rebel’s Paint The Land launch event on Friday 25th June, 2021. When Writers Rebel asked me to come up with a few words that could speak to a world on the verge of environmental catastrophe, I had a minor crisis of my own. The facts […]
Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz joined Mirabella Okri and the Capital Children’s Choir to delivered a reflective performance at Writers Rebel’s Paint the Land launch 25.06.21. Watch it here. #PaintTheLand was launched with the help of Booker prize-winning writer Ben Okri and artist-activists Ackroyd & Harvey. Okri’s message to world governments, “Can’t you hear […]
XR Co-founder, Simon Bramwell, delivered an urgent and powerful speech at Writers Rebel’s Paint the Land launch on 25.06.21. Within his speech, Bramwell reminds us why action is necessary and how art can be a powerful agent in this change. #PaintTheLand was launched with the help of Booker prize-winning writer Ben Okri and artist-activists Ackroyd […]
Read More… from Simon Bramwell’s #PaintTheLand launch speechSimon Bramwell
Co-founders of Culture Declares and renowned artist-activists, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey spoke at Writers Rebel’s Paint the Land launch 25.06.21. Within their speech, Ackroyd & Harvey describe the quiet miracle of grass. Ackroyd & Harvey created a 16x4m living grass banner that was floated on the Thames at Bankside Beach on Friday 25th June […]
Read More… from Ackroyd & Harvey’s #PaintTheLand launch speechHeather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey
On Friday 25th June, dedicated activist and organiser, Kelly Hill introduced the crowd to Writers Rebel’s latest project, Paint the Land. #PaintTheLand was launched with the help of Booker prize-winning writer Ben Okri and artist-activists Ackroyd & Harvey. Okri’s message to world governments, “Can’t you hear the future weeping? Our love must save the world” […]
Read More… from Kelly Hill’s #PaintTheLand launch speechKelly Hill
Booker prize-winning novelist, poet and activist Ben Okri made a moving speech at Writers Rebel’s Paint the Land launch 25.06.21. Within his speech, Okri reminds us that love is the only thing that stands between us and extinction. Okri’s message “Can’t you hear the future weeping? Our love must save the world” was displayed on […]
Read More… from Ben Okri’s #PaintTheLand launch speechBen Okri
Walking along the street the other day, I overheard a fragment of a conversation. A mother with a pushchair was saying confidently said to her friend, ‘You know me, I’d do anything to protect my kids’. It’s a variation of a phrase I have often heard but, just recently, the urge to interrupt and […]
Read More… from Parents for a Future – how do we broaden the movement?Rupert Read
John Richard Granville Stevens — Granville to everyone who knows him — is standing in the field behind his farmhouse, showing me his roots. While he’s doing this, I’m thinking about Franz Kafka’s short story “In the Penal Settlement”. Farmer Granville Stevens standing in one of his cover crops. [Photo credit: JAMES FLINT] […]
Beth Pitts interviews Alexandra Narváez, an indigenous Kofán defender from Ecuador’s northern Amazon region. Alexandra’s community of Sinangoe is famous for winning a historic legal battle against gold mining in 2018, which protected 79,000 acres of mega-biodiverse primary rainforest and the headwaters of one of Ecuador’s most important rivers. As the first woman to […]
Read More… from Watch: Interview with Amazon Defender Alexandra NarváezBeth Pitts
Beth Pitts entrevista a Alexandra Narváez, una defensora indígena Kofán de la región norte de la Amazonía del Ecuador. La comunidad de Alexandra, Sinangoe, es famosa por ganar una batalla legal histórica contra la minería de oro en 2018, que protegió mas que 30.000 hectáreas de selva primaria megabiodiverso y las cabeceras de […]
Read More… from Ver: Entrevista con Defensora Amazónica Alexandra NarváezBeth Pitts
This month I’m looking at two of the sacred monsters of Screenwriting Guruhood – Robert McKee (Story) and Blake Snyder (Save the Cat). If you’d like to read what’s gone before, start here; if not, read on. STORY: SUBSTANCE, STRUCTURE, STYLE AND PRINCIPLES OF SCREENWRITING ROBERT MCKEE 1997 Of […]
Read More… from How to Tell a Story to Save the World 3Toby Litt
Terry Tempest Williams and Eva Aridjis took part in Writers Rebels’ Insectageddon event on May 24th 2021, at which they both spoke piercingly about the fate of the Monarch Butterfly. In this video, we share Terry’s contribution. Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, Terry Tempest Williams is the author of the environmental literature […]
Read More… from Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel?Terry Tempest Williams and Eva Aridjis
‘Why are we here, Mummy?’ My four year-old son asked, as we joined the swathes of Extinction Rebellion protesters in Glasgow’s George Square in September 2019. ‘The ice caps are still melting. This isn’t really going to help the polar bears, is it?’ I was slightly taken aback. Caspian had always been fascinated by wild […]
Read More… from Children of the Revolution: On Parenting and ProtestChristiana Spens
It was last August, at around three in the morning when my phone rang. I lay in bed and listened, the darkness spreading around me. Through the phone, Tania ‘Nena’ Baltazar wept. Our home is on fire. “Nuestra casa se está quemando.” I could hear the crackling of flames. I could smell it, feel the […]
The Names of Trees I I should know the names of trees and birds, and where to find them. I should have this, poised to give, to any who might need it. Dirt should sit, be lodged, tattooed, beneath my fingernails. And I should know its feel, and warmth, and temperament […]
Floating in the clouds of Venus Tie me to a met balloon and let me drift in Venus’ atmosphere, that planet masquerading as a star. Suit me up so her sulphuric acid won’t sear my lungs, turn my sugars into dirty carbon sludge; give me a microscope, so I can scan […]
Threading Our Way Peace River territory The Peace purls a ripple stitch across the Rockies down through fertile valleys air shimmers in waves over the hot road to Hudson’s Hope glistening fish hide in hollows fishers patient hopeful on the farm Grandma weaves a sheaf of wheat into wreathes […]
The Prayer of the Common Newt In a muddy pond, in the outskirts of Clydebank, a mother, with over two hundred eggs inside her, is beginning the process of giving birth. Over the next few weeks, each day she will deposit about a dozen of them not on a folded over leaf, […]
On 22 April, XR co-founder Simon Bramwell and six other rebels appeared at the Southwark Crown Court, charged with causing 25K worth of criminal damage to Shell’s London headquarters. In a historic ruling, six of the defendants were found not guilty despite admitting to criminal damage, and the judge indicating that the law pointed to […]
Read More… from The shaping of History: THE PEOPLE VERSUS SHELLSimon Bramwell
Tom Bullough was arrested during the September rebellion for failing to comply with a section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. This is the statement he read in his defence at the City of London magistrates’ court. He received a nine month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay costs. I would like […]
Read More… from On behalf of myself and my children…Tom Bullough's Defence Speech: Edit
This time, I’m looking at two hugely influential screenwriting manuals – Syd Field’s Screenplay and Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. Through the gap between them, we see the idea of heroism emerge and start to dominate the very idea of ‘a good story’. Like all film producers say, ‘The audience needs to knows who to […]
Read More… from How to Tell a Story to Save the World 2Toby Litt