In the South of Lebanon, whilst following the story of a Herdsman and his goats, what is apparent is the need for companionship, sustenance and life between man and animal.
The Herdsman whistles to initiate a new direction. Understanding, the goats look towards him and follows.
The sunlight comes in at a 45-degree angle highlighting the texture of the goats’ hair, and bringing into focus their expressions.
Last night in the booth. Finally getting out of my own way and putting lyrics into motion it's exciting and definitely #anewdirection for me as an artist. I'm blessed and thankful #newtimesentertainment 🙌
For the people and soon to be fans that don't know who I am, I'm JB DA FATBOI. A new upcoming independent rap artist I'm from a little small town called Boston, Ga. Where I'm from opportunity is slim. So I decided to commit to music only for a couple reasons: To be original, The truth, and to make a difference. Music is what influence the world as we know. It paints a picture, tells a story, so people can visualize where that artist is coming from. I've sat back and watch for year in and year out that it's not like how it once was. That is one issue that motivated me to make a difference. All you hear in most of the music now is phrases like this: I sell dope, I rob, I got bitches, I got stacks on deck, I got 29 cars, I'm a killer, I can go on and on. The fact of the matter is, majority of the people don't even like that music. Their just forced to listen to it because it's play throughout the radio stations, and advertised on all the music channels. My job is to tell it like it is, in a blunt manner. Some of my material i write has cursing some of it don't, because I'm writing about how i feel about a certain situation. Just like how everyone felt like it was time for a change from a political standpoint, I feel as if it's time for a change in our music culture as well. I'm making it my business to make a difference with the rap music we hear today. Thanks in advance to the ones who took the time out to read this.
During August, all mediums of media were saturated with reports of Paralympic glory. Great Britain’s medal haul and a stream of "inspirational" reports on the lives of Paralympians from around the world made for an almost universally positive crop of news reports on disability.
A month on and the games are over. England (and it’s weather) reverts back to the familiar and reality places itself back into pole position as the newspapers return to their usual abysmal reporting of disability matters.
Despite this, are people still discussing the games? Has opinion of disability really changed or will people soon forget that disability doesn’t necessarily limit ability?
Jacqueline, a member of A New Direction’s Headstart initiative is a pro-active, sociable individual. She is a member of the CREATE programmers, a group of young people who create events for other young people. In this interview, she tells me why having is disability is in trend, the affect of the Paralympics and her interests.
Q. Could you tell me a bit about yourself? Do you have any siblings? What is your disability?
A. I have two conditions. The first one is sickle cell anaemia, which is a blood disorder manageable with medication, regular check ups and blood tests. The thing I consider my disability is called spinal muscular atrophy – SMA (not the baby milk!) and that’s basically a degenerative condition so basically the older I get the weaker I get. There are 4 types; the first type is you don’t make it past the age of two because when you think of your body as a joint muscle, it shuts down quicker so you don’t make it past a certain age. Erm, there’s type two which I have, you are pretty much fine, you start to get a bit weaker but when you hit puberty and your body’s changing it’s a big change, you get a lot weaker and it goes on until the adult stage. Type three is when you are pretty much fine until about 18 (between 18 and 25 you go down hill a little bit) and there’s type 4 which is called adult onset so when you hit 25 whatever your ability is at 25 will remain that until the rest of your life or could get worse could get better but that’s probably all it is.
I have two brothers and two sisters; they are normal….well as normal as they can be. My older sister doesn’t have any conditions, doesn’t suffer from anything. My little sister has mild ADHD and my first little brother has full blown ADHD – like he just bounces off the walls all the time and my younger brother has sickle cell anaemia as well. I’m the only one in my family who has (on my mum’s side and dad’s side) spinal muscular atrophy and that’s just because it affects one in like a few 100,000 people. That’s just me – take it as it comes really.
Q. Where you born with the condition?
A. Yes I was born with sickle cell and spinal muscular atrophy and there’s no cure for it. You kind of just have to live life and enjoy it.
Q. You said you have stage 2 SMA, does that mean you haven’t always been in a wheelchair?
A. No. I wasn’t always in a wheelchair. They didn’t even know I had the condition until I was two, because my mum had my sister already she knew how you were supposed to develop so realised ‘erm, what’s going on? Let’s take you to the doctors shall we?’ and they told her I have Spinal muscular atrophy. She was like ‘ok cool, what do we do?’
My mum’s the kind of person who drives me because she’s like you are as normal as everyone else. You will clean rooms and wash dishes like anyone else!
Yeah so I was born with it. Don’t get me wrong, there are days where you wake up and think ‘why me?’ but I think I’ve gone past that (well I still have those days now and again) I’m too old to waste time especially since life expectancy on it.
Q. What’s the life expectancy?
A. For someone who has spinal muscular atrophy, 45. If you make it to 60 you are pretty lucky and because I have sickle cell as well that life expectancy is 40 onwards. So if you are putting both of those conditions together, I’ll take each day as it comes and I’m laughing for the rest of mu life. It’s like you have that but you can’t let that stop you from what you want to do. My friends will tell you I’m like a shark! I’m always on the move – if I stop I will die. I try and do what I can if I can.
Q. As a result of the Paralympics, more people want to learn British sign language and that’s a new craze, a new trend; for you, has having a disability made people treated you different? Are you in trend right now?
A. I think I’ve always been in fashion, let’s get that right (laughs) but I don’t think people treat me differently but they do want me to do more things, I’ve been part of a couple of theatres for a while and before I was just Jackie but since the Paralympics people have been like ‘aw Jackie do you think you could write something for our blog’ or ‘Jackie, can you be our poster child?’ so it’s a bit like……The thing is at first I was a bit like ‘oh yeah you are just using me’ but then you’ve got to actually take the opportunity. I’m not going to lie, I’m 21, I will get every young person opportunity whilst I can now. At first I did feel like people weren’t asking me for my talent or because they knew I am a hard worker, they need me because they need to tick a box for them and at first it did hurt because they’ve known me for a long time. At the same time, I can take those opportunities and put it on my CV, at the end of the day I did it – I’ll get the experience whether I like the circumstance or not. I think being in fashion like it is kind of frustrating because it’s like, we’ve been around before you got the Paralympics so ……but just work it
Interview by Bianca Manu
Conducted on 5th September 2012
This is an extract from a transcribed interview.
Q. One of things you said that I found quite interesting is you made the comment that people assume all black people know each other or look the same, for someone who had a disability, when you see someone else with a disability do you say, ‘hey!’ - What’s that like?
A. Well there is a little ‘oh are you alright’ but it’s not like ‘you my brother, what’s gaan’n on?’ There is a little acknowledgement but now there is also of disabled people in London, now when you are in a lift it’s not that awkward. You do acknowledge each other but I acknowledge everybody.
Q. Do you think the games, particularly the Paralympic games have made people more positive to people with disabilities? Or will it be short lived?
A. To be honest with you, the Paralympics has shown a lot and inspired people but the other things is I feel like it is just for this moment. What’s going to happen in six months? What’s going to happen years from now? People from other parts of the world will remember this forever. This is major for them and will hopefully create change. They’ve put their country on the map!
Q. I don’t know what your friends are like or other people with disabilities but what is it like with them, do they feel the same?
A. The thing is, I don’t really have (this is going to sound really bad) disabled friends.
Q. But I don’t think you have an obligation to…
A. Yes but when I was younger I thought like I needed to
Q. Really, why was that?
A. I think it’s because my mum never treated me differently, she was like ‘you will get a whooping like everybody else, you will do your chores like everybody else’ but when I was 16 I went to a two week camp thing and it was all disabled kids and at first I was like ‘I’m not one of these people’. I feel bad now but that’s how it was – I wasn’t raised with other disabled kids around. After that experience I realised they are just like me but they have a different disability.
It opened my eyes because I was ignorant to other people and their disabilities – but then saying that people assume that every disabled person understands another disabled person’s disability. Someone expected me to know sign language and I was like we don’t know each other, we don’t all live in some magic forest in a bubble in the middle of nowhere – that’s not how it works. Someone once said to me, ‘oh I know a disabled person, he’s always at Stratford station, his name is Jim – do you know him?’ I said ‘Oh Jim, yeah yeah, I know Jim’ but seriously, who the hell is Jim? It’s like (this is going to sound bad) but you know how before certain people think all black people look the same – it’s kind of like people think all disabled people know each other. I don’t know Jim from Adam, Eve, Bob or Steve!
It’s just things like that which make you think there is still ignorance out there but I’m not going to penalise you for it – don’t get me wrong there will be a day when I’m having a bad day and someone will want to push me over the edge and I will just go from zero to 60. That’s a rare occasion now because I am now an adult and I can get trailed as an adult so I need to be calm and try to explain. I’m a very open person so if you want to know about my disability I’d rather you ask than assume ‘Oh, so you …had an accident?’
Q. Do people assume quite a lot?
A. Yeah. A lot when I was between 16 and 18. I got it more because that’s when reality hits you. If you live with it you get on but it was a kind of like ‘oh what happened, did you have an accident? Can you feel your legs?’ I don mid people asking but it’s the way you ask me – why do you automatically think it’s a bad thing? It’s like why do you pity me?
Q. How do you deal with that? People obviously don’t mean it in that way but it’s how they address the question or you address it straight on?
A. That’s the thing, because I know they probably don’t mean it and that’s coming out instead I just answer the question and once they get to know me (I’m a very jokey person) I will make a joke out of it. A lot of the time (most of my friends are boys) and we will be wrestling and fighting. They might say ‘oh, I’ll kick your arse’ and I would say ‘you can’t see my arse’ (laughs) I make jokes to make other people feel comfortable but there is a line – not like a serious line but there is a limit, because I’m 21 now I have been to clubs and been out and when people are drunk they don’t know how to handle themselves. When the cross a line I say, ‘No. That’s a line you’ve crossed and I’m now doing to walk away’. There’s no point being aggressive because it makes me out of character and it puts me down and other disabled people down because that might be that person’s first experience with a disabled person and I don’t want to ruin it for the rest. My little brother (he’s 12) and when he was younger he understood why I was in a wheelchair but he didn’t understand why other people were – so it’s that thing of he knows I’m a good person so he’s not going to treat someone else with a disability differently because he knows they’re good people too. Here are people with disabilities who are bitter though
Q. Bitter about having a disability?
A. Yeah - and they just take it out on the world. First of all they are wasting time, your using a lot of energy and you’re just making yourself miserable. I’d rather be laughing, happy, joking for the rest of my life than be miserable for a week. It’s not worth it – you age much quicker too.
Q. One of things you said that I found quite interesting is you made the comment that people assume all black people know each other or look the same, for someone who had a disability, when you see someone else with a disability do you say, ‘hey!’ What’s that like?
A. Well there is a little ‘oh are you alright’ but it’s not like ‘you my brother, what’s gaan’n on?’ There is a little acknowledgement but now there is also of disable people in London, now when you are in a lift it’s not that awkward. You do acknowledge each other but I acknowledge everybody.
BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra’s Academy officially opens on Friday, 1st June 2012 ahead of the Hackney Weekender.
There’s been a lot of hype around the academy and after reading the line up (name drop galore!) I can definitely assure you it’s the place to be if you are looking for a career elevation.
Specifically aimed at young people with an interest in the arts, the programme aims to educate and address the questions of anyone starting out.
It’s the place to go to ‘Get Inspired, Get Involved and Take It On’.
Speaking of getting involved, our very own SMJ blogger and photographer, Joe Mason will be featured on a panel on the 13th June 2012.
If you are around come down and listen to what he has to say about having his work showcased in an exhibition.
To make it easier, I copied a few helpful pointers you might want to bare in mind from their FAQ page.
What is the Academy?
The Radio 1 and 1Xtra Academy is three weeks of workshops and events happening in Hackney throughout June. It will focus on skills development in four main areas; business, the arts, career development and media skills.
Why are they doing it?
We want to celebrate the uniqueness of the young people and the area of East London in the lead up to Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend and the Olympics. We will be working with local organisations in and around Hackney to give the young people a voice and give the rest of the UK a chance to witness a moment in history.
What will young people get from it?
The Radio 1 and 1Xtra Academy will be a place to be inspired, gain practical experience and share ideas.
Workshops, Q&A's and various other events will take place at the Academy covering the following themes:
Music , Radio , Business , Fashion, Film. Gaming and Programming, Comedy , Journalism and Career Development
