What the autumn brings

This is an image of me performing my new show, Mythcelium© at Beeston Tales in the UK. It was taken by my niece and it meant the world to me that she was there. It has been a while since I did a live performance and the fact that family and friends had turned out to support me, as well as all the audience members, was truly very moving, especially as this show means so much to me. The reviews were very positive - "Katrice was something else. She transported me 'elsewhere' and it was only when it ended that I landed back in a church hall in Beeston.. WOW! what a journey, what a tale! I am off to rub against a Cedar Tree today, just in case."

" I was fully blown away by her performance. She inspired heart thumping hope in these dark times."

I now just need to contact more places so I can perform it again. I will let you all know if that happens.

This season I have also started the Storytelling för Förändringsledarskap Course for the second cohort. It is a truly wonderful group and we have had our first session together. I cannot wait for the next two. Sometimes there is a certain alchemy within a group that is truly quite magical - that is the case with these individuals - together they are something vital and powerful. I have great hopes for how they will take the work out into their work environments and create change.

In September I worked with the lovely WSLA residential week - this is the fourth year I have been invited to run a session on 'Owning our Story.' Every year has been different as the groups change. There is always a truly incredible mix of cultures and this enables some deep, reflective and meaningful work to happen. As a result of this work, I have one-to-one coached some of the women afterwards and also this year I have been invited to deliver a days training for Data Insight Analysts, (amongst others,) for London Sports. What a joy to get to work in the UK twice in a year and with such amazing organisations.

Tomorrow I am working closer to home though - in Rydal for 200 librarians who are part of Knallebiblioteken. It is work and people who are close to my heart as I truly feel that I would not be here today, doing what I do, if it had not been for my local library. They are so fundamentally important for the community and the people who form it. It took me so long to create the presentation as there was soooooo much I wanted to say - and I only have 30 minutes, which I want to include a story in. As I pondered on what the library meant to me and perhaps what it means to people now, I came up with the idea of it being a 'Wardrobe of Identities.` I created this image to represent that thought.

For me, the library was not just about finding new identities to try on, within the pages of the books - it was about the identity I had as soon as I walked into the building. I was not a poor kid, I was not a girl from a dysfunctional family or a girl who lacked confidence etc etc... I was a learner, a reader, a girl who knew things. It was so liberating and the librarians were complete heroes to me. I still remember all their names and have such affection for them.

On the subject of books, I am just about to sign a contract with a literary agent who is going to push my book at the Frankfurt Book Festival. I feel scared and excited in equal measure! I hope my book is published. I hope it is on the shelves at that library I went to as a kid. I hope I can go there and read excerpt and let all of those people from the council estate know that my story was one that grew there, amongst the the poverty and hardship and amongst the books and the stories.

Thanks for reading this and please contact me if you want any training delivery or presentations for your organisations!

In openness and courageous vulnerability

Katrice