Creative Advocacy

For me creative advocacy is where justice, art, and truth-telling meet. 

 

I have always had a drive towards what’s just and what’s fair and throughout my career I have been outspoken when I felt something needed change and always aimed to make space to allow myself to be my most authentic self at work, realising it is only then you are most safe and comfortable and that’s when you produce your best work. I decided authenticity was my superpower and championed others to be so and encouraged organisations to create open spaces to allow authenticity to thrive. 

 

But above all, I have always written. I write because I must—because some truths demand to be spoken, even when they’re uncomfortable but some truths can only be shared when they are written. A pen and a notebook is where I am my most authentic and most happy as I feel I can express myself in an infinite number of ways or explore infinite number of situations. 

 

My pen has always been my salvation and it has been my voice, even when I was silenced, even when I didn’t have the courage to speak and when I didn’t know the answer to a question. 

 

Through poetry, plays,and thought pieces, I explore and expose the systems that shape us—violence, honour, control, silence—and how we survive them. My work challenges, heals, remembers, and reclaims.

 

This is advocacy of another kind:

•Speaking the unspeakable

•Giving shape to pain

•Creating platforms for dialogue and change

 

Advocacy doesn’t always require pancards and marches. In fact I have never felt comfortable in such large crowds. My advocacy has always been through my own. My support has always been through the ink that flowed. 

 

My writing is for my soul and un recent times I have gained more and more confidence to share it with others, and highlight causes I believe need highlighting.

 

My advocacy falls in several buckets, you’ll find some on Substack in my writing, some in my performances of spoken work, others in my poetry and soon, through my upcoming podcast – Dia’Log—a space to explore conscience, creativity, and courage.

 

Selected Works

•From My Father’s Noose – a published collection of 86 poems- click here to learn more 

•Seed of Violet – poems in translation from Turkish, exploring mental health and legacy

•Seventeen – long-form historic poem on the power of young women across time

•Wood Green, Art, Pious Bloody Virgin, Positive – plays tackling coercion, rape, politics, and fertility

•Thirty-Eight – an autobiography of matriarchy, memory, and meaning

•Honour is On Her – a forthcoming exploration of honour-based narratives through time

 

If you believe art can be a tool for change, or just want to sit with something real, you’ll find it here.