Over the weekend of 13th – 15th October , Totnes in Devon did something that it is so good at doing… it held a grassroots, community event. You might think there is nothing unusual about that, but this event was the BODYKIND FESTIVAL… the world’s first ever festival of body acceptance!
And Storylines was there!
Bodykind was about honouring life in its various forms, rather than comparing oneself or anyone else to an external concept of beauty. So as a result over the weekend there were national and international speakers, inspiring workshops, film, art, drama and theatre – something for everyone regardless of age, size, shape, colour , gender, sexuality or physical ability.
We at Storylines know only too well that there are stories everywhere – in fact we are walking collections of stories, so it was only natural that we wanted to gather stories about bodies because
We all have bodies and they all have stories!
My Body, My Story was the theme of our prowl along the high street of Totnes; to see if anyone would be willing to share personal stories of their bodies. It’s a highly sensitive issue to walk up to total strangers and ask them to divulge stories of their bodies that perhaps others have never heard. We thought it might help if we looked vaguely ridiculous so we hung frames around our necks framing our request and at least people could see us coming! We did wonder how people would react and if anyone would want to participate but we were totally overwhelmed with the response and were bowled over with stories of great honesty, bravery and resilience. People were prepared to talk about their personal body hang ups, their struggles and the journeys they have made with their bodies. We celebrated these incredible stories by asking participants to choose a frame to highlight their particular body part so we could honour them in a photograph.
Thank you everyone who shared stories about noses, hair, hands, legs, tattoos, scars, fingers, weight, breasts and piercings. You were incredible!
We will now be editing together the audio stories and images to make a digital story so you will be able to hear some of these inspiring and revealing stories soon. Watch this space!
