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Dolly Sen is a writer, director, artist, filmmaker, poet, performer, playwright, mental health consultant, music-maker and public speaker. She has 8 published books since 2002; has taken on performance roles at The Young Vic, the Royal Festival Hall, and around Europe; undertaken a poetry tour; won a poetry award from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion; directed two plays and several TV films; and performed spoken word at City Hall and Oxford University.

APPARENTLY I AM WEIRD
26 August 2008

Blog

Lost Freedom Passes

Yesterday I had very long-term friend say to me, 'Dolly, you have the strangest brain of anyone I have ever met. You must tell the readers of your blog about your freedom pass art intervention." Well, readers, you no doubt have realised my strangeness by now, but what my friend was talking about was this: In London, the disabled travel pass comes in a nice bright orange pass holder, and I got to think there are some people who deserved a pass but didn't get one. So I made one for Frida Kahlo,...

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BE A PART OF 'HUG A MAD PERSON' DAY
23 August 2008

Blog

Hello people, last week I was thinking how I miss the campaigning part of being a mad person, and an idea popped into my head. Why not organise a march to challenge stigma and discrimination, where the marchers wear 'Hug a Schizophrenic' or ‘Hug a Mad Person’ 'Hug a Manic Depressive' t-shirts and invite the public to do just that. The march would stop at some psychiatric hospitals to invite the psychiatric staff to hug the marchers. We have already some good media interest in the...

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RUBY WAX TALKS ABOUT ME IN AN ARTICLE
11 August 2008

Blog

Hey guys, I am in the Times today (11/8/08). Ruby Wax was interviewed for the Times for her Edinburgh Festival Show where she is doing comedy around her own mental health issues. She talks about her interview with me, and how my experiences shocked her pretty unshockable self. See in my teens, I saw demons on a daily basis. So what any negative person can say to me now looks so silly compared. Although I didn't want those experiences, they nearly killed me, I have a strength now that is pretty...

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2 MORE POEMS ABOUT MAD PEOPLE
1 August 2008

Blog

ECCENTRIC FISH Eccentric fish swimming in set concrete But still making the shore Still seeing the sun Still growing flowers Still smiling in a world of endless liars. LOST AND FOUND It was the meeting of two minds of 2 people that were lost who discovered they were not lost at all. It was the world around them that had gone astray The World used maps like ‘work’, ‘judge’ ‘hate’ and ‘blame’ These two did not like to be in those places there was no...

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