Profile: Dorone Paris

For Utopia no.1

Lives in: Dublin, Ireland.

Contact :doroneparis@gmail.com

Create: I'm an Israeli-born contemporary composer and a professional saxophone player living & working in Ireland. Being raised and educated in Israel, influenced my political ideas and affected my musical creativeness, aesthetics and philosophy. I am the founder of PATH art: an organisation dedicated to convincing my people that a peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel-Palestine is both possible and necessary.   Living in Ireland and being directly involved in the abortion legalisation debate, PATH's mission has expanded as an artistic human rights movement. 



Other creative stuff: as I mentioned before, my creative work in Ireland deals (for now) with the abortion rights needed in the country. Therefore, under the wing of PATH a new project called For Utopia has emerged. The project, which is this time in based in Ireland, aims to separate religion from state laws.

The first performance of this project, 'For Utopia no. 1', took place on Friday 7th of June, on Grafton street in Dublin city. 
This piece  raises the subject of women’s rights specifically in relation to the ongoing abortion debate. We preach for the protection of the lives of Irish women over archaic religious legacy. 
The piece is composed for a female singer Justine Murphy, guitar & pedals Edgar Grunewald and tenor saxophone (myself)  .
The singer wears a veil throughout the piece as a symbol of mourning for the basic human rights that were taken away from her. She opens the piece by walking down Grafton Street while singing dramatically texts from various feminist groups supporting abortion. 
As she continues walking down the street, the liturgical melody of Kyrie from the Catholic requiem mass is being played, for the remembrance of the women whose basic human rights were taken away from them. I hope that by this combination of text and melody, people will acknowledge the sad fact that the singer is actually begging for the rights of her own life. 
When the singer finally meets the guitar and saxophone she loses her voice almost completely, which is a metaphor for blocking and ignoring women's rights. 
As the piece progresses the guitar and sax lose their conventional sound  and become a raging chaos which joins together to the singers cry. 



Here is a link to the performance on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXUi_OCw5v0



Feminism... is the most important movement there is. Genesis begins by separating the man from the woman and discriminating her.This is the most ancient discrimination in the world and sadly the most persistent one. Therefore, feminism is not only important but  it is a crucial movement for human rights around the world. 



Links:  www.DoroneParis.com

Profile: Eesie Lee

Lives: North London.

Create: The difficult with being a trained director is that you can't - on waking up at 4am with a brilliant idea - go downstairs and direct a play.  So I simply have to sing, to write, to draw, so I can flow (or occasionally vomit) out whatever is making me wriggle, whenever I please.   I'm irritated by the quantity and quality of female characters in the fantasy/sci-fi genres, and am currently working on a collection of five-chapter novels which I hope will challenge that.  Think feminism meets time-travelling zombie dragons, etc.  I'm also partial to penning a poem or two, I sing/songwrite in collaboration with my other half and I really REALLY want to illustrate my own graphic novel.


Tell us any other creative things you do:
Pianist, Cellist, Director, Actress, Painter.


One thing you love about feminism or feminists.. I love feminist for how diverse a group we are!  With every conversation there is something new to learn, a new perspective to consider.

Contact: eesielee@gmail.com


'Zombie Love' 

Profile: Sian Norris

Lives in: Bristol 

Create: Ever since I can remember, I have written. As a child I wrote stories, odd fairy tales and then moved on to angsty poetry. As a student I mixed political and creative writing in my zine, Crooked Rib, which evolved into my blog:

www.sianandcrookedrib.blogspot.com

In 2011, I self-published an anthology that brought together women's and men's experiences of becoming a feminist. The Light Bulb Moment is available to buy here:  http://www.lulu.com/shop/sian-norris/the-light-bulb-moment-the-stories-of-why-we-are-feminists/paperback/product-18726169.html  and brings together funny, painful, inspiring and poetic narratives of our feminist lives. 

In 2013, my first novel, 'Greta and Boris: a daring rescue' was published by Our Street Books. A book aimed at children and adults from 7+, it tells the story of Greta as she goes on a magical adventure to rescue Boris, her cat, from the Rat King. 

I'm now working on my second novel and laying plans for the third. 

As well as fiction, I do feminism - and write about it. I've published articles on feminism in the Guardian, Liberal Conspiracy and The F Word. For six years I coordinated the Bristol Feminist Network - organising marches, demos, petitions, gigs, film nights, panels and discussion groups. In 2013 I founded and organised the first ever Bristol Women's Literature Festival - an event that will continue to grow and flourish (I hope) for years to come.