Dragon Radio

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 01:22:00 +0100

SUICIDE AND ME

What causes someone to die by suicide?

I don’t mean by the specific mechanics used, I mean what takes someone to that place? You probably have an opinion, but do you really know? I've been suicidal many times. I've planned my suicide – in detail. I've never acted upon it fortunately, but I know that at any time I can do it within a day. I think I’ve been as close to suicide as it’s possible to get. If you want to know more about my personal experience, read on.

Why have I been suicidal?

Were things just too much for me to cope with or too difficult to overcome? Whilst certain events generally triggered my decline into feeling suicidal, it’s never been related to a rational or straight forward thought. Eg. I can’t deal with my problems = I’m suicidal.

So what’s caused it then?

I'll take my last \"episode\" as an example. There was a mixture of coming off anti-depressants over the course of a year, and dealing with the depression which crept back up on me through self medicating. It could have been alcohol, or illicit drugs but in my case it was a prescription drug called diazepam. It helped for couple of hours when I took it. This seemed to fend off the anxiety and depression. Then one day there was a trigger, and my mind flipped. I'll say what that trigger was in a minute.

When that flip happened, things changed dramatically. I became very quickly completely detached from the real world. I had a great job which I really enjoyed but I couldn't do it, no matter how hard I tried. To that point, my job was my therapy - but I couldn't think straight. This was no small thing. I couldn't even do the most basic thing. Brushing my teeth became a challenge. I completely lost any ability to do anything. Panic attacks started continuously along with a manic anxiety. Anxious > panic attack > elated > anxious > panic attack > elated > anxious ad infinitum. I struggled to drink water. I couldn't swallow properly. I certainly couldn't eat, although I tried to force myself to.

My boss rightly wanted me to see a doctor ASAP and signed me off. He wanted a letter from my doctor to say I was fit to work. I was off for a couple of weeks. I quickly saw a psychiatrist and saw him about 3 or 4 times in a short period. He weighed me every time I saw him. I lost half a stone in a week. Being normal weight at the time and not trying to lose weight, this was obviously not good. Especially as normally I could eat forever (another story). I begged him to write me a note saying I was fit for work. He did, but I wasn't.

The year leading to that point...

I suppose it's time to let you know what the cause of this episode was. At least in part for the moment. I suffered from hypervigiliance for many years. I never knew that and still didn't at this point. It's something which stemmed from my childhood. I was suffering a kind of post traumatic stress disorder causing an innate need to keep my children and myself safe 100% of the time.

What is hypervigilance?

Hypervigiliance causes the sufferer to seek out and be aware of all dangers around them at all times. Much like a lookout. Personally speaking my alertness to threats grew and grew over that year.

What were the threats?

I feared for my own safety but primarily I feared for the safety of my children. I was always looking for threats.

- Leaving them at school: I needed to know all the security precautions in place to protect them. If I saw any vulnerability, I would raise it and follow it up constantly until it was resolved. I would worry all day about them.

- Being on busy streets: I was totally aware of strangers being a threat; every bit of traffic. I knew I needed to give my kids space to grow, and I did (at least I think I did), but I couldn't take my eye of them for a second. In the park, the eldest had to make sure the youngest was with him so I could make sure they were both in my eye-line. Also, I had to be within a certain distance from them to protect them from strangers. Anxiety inducing adrenaline running through my body the whole time.

- Going on the tube or public transport: Was anyone going to kill us? I'd be looking everywhere for the slightest indication of danger.

- Taking them to soft play: Could anyone infiltrate the building who wanted to kill the kids? Where were all the exits and entrances? Keeping an eye on both kids simultaneously. I was so on edge.

That trigger then...

There were a few terrorist attacks across the world including in Western Europe. One of them was so bad I couldn't deal with it. How could I protect my kids, my family, from something like that? That was something that I felt could happen to us if we did something as simple as leaving our flat. Back to that flip in my brain. This was it. I lost all ability to think rationally. I had lost control of the ability to function.

A darkness and evil descended upon my every thought. I was off sick now - as mandated by my boss. I wanted to get better quickly. I didn't know about hypervigilance yet. Everywhere I looked, I saw evil, I saw darkness. Happiness? peace? What were they? They were alien to to me. At times, I wouldn't feel like I was conscious. That somehow I was distanced from what I was doing. Somehow I was guiding what I was doing like a video game with some kind of controller.

I wasn't human any more and I never would be again. This was it. This was permanent. And now when I thought about my kids, it was me who became the threat. My inability to function was now the biggest threat to them. How can I be like this and protect them? They don't deserve this. I cried. A lot. Thinking of them was what made me cry. There was no \"why me?\". It just was. It was just that I knew I was never normal. I thought this as a child, and this crazy mass of messed up thinking was reinforcing that. I had no sympathy for myself. Just those around me. My poor wife. My poor mum. My poor, poor kids. Putting up with an undeserving excuse of a waste of space like me.

Suicide?

This was my life now, and I \"knew\" this was going to be my life forever. What can I do to give my family a chance? Take myself out of it was the only conclusion I could come to. Move away? No. I couldn't live without seeing them... selfishly I thought. There was only one option. I needed to die. I wanted to make sure my family was cared for as best I could though. I prepared to move all my savings over to my wife. I wrote a short book for my children about how there was always someone watching over them. I was going to ask my wife to make sure they knew that one of the people looking over them was me. I asked my brother to make sure the kids were well looked after by the family. I researched the method of suicide which would be best for me. The least gruesome. The most peaceful. I found it and prepared for it. So that was now in place. When I was going to do it, I wasn’t going to mess it up. It was going to be done properly. No messed up attempt.

Then came that prick of rational consciousness, coming through to me like the tiniest stream of light through a dark overcast sky. It wasn't the right thing to do. This wasn't the best thing for my kids. Staying wasn't either. I searched for an answer but there wasn't one. These conflicting thoughts bounced through my mind several times an hour, sometimes several times a minute. Will I do it? I don't think so. Even though I'm not thinking rationally when I've been suicidal, that specific thought always stopped me in my tracks. Would they be better off if I wasn't around? The answer was always no. No matter how detached I was from reality - always no. I knew my kids depended on me and looked to me for so many things. Internally, I swore at them because they keep me hanging on - the little buggers. I couldn't break that unconditional love and that bond.

Talking

Fortunately, I was honest with the psychiatrist, however I didn't want to take the medication he prescribed. I'd read that there was a very small chance of a severe allergic reaction causing a very painful death - part of my hypervigilance. Ironic right? I guess I just didn't want to die. But I did, then I didn't... etc, etc. Inevitably, the psychiatrist told me I should be admitted to hospital. I was. I felt a massive relief. I was going to get better! I saw light again. I saw the prospect of getting my life back again. However, sadly, those thoughts didn't last long. When I woke after my first night, everything which caused me to be admitted was there again. I was devastated. Again, my mind completely scrambled and again I was no longer in control of functioning.

Hospital

I stayed there 3 weeks. I was on constant suicide watch. There was always that risk I would think suicide was best for my kids. Wherever I went in the hospital there was someone checking on me every few minutes. We had group therapy every day. Sitting in therapy rooms with these thoughts constantly driving me mad, leaving me on the constant edge of panic. I had to stick it out. I had to get better. I kept being told I would get better. Sometimes I had to leave the sessions. I had to be given sedatives to stop the thoughts. The sedatives were addictive and wouldn't work if they were used regularly, but for now they were a blessed relief. They were a quicker, more intense version of diazepam called lorazepam. These are both a type of drug called benzodiazepines, or benzos for short.

Therapy

There were a few therapists at the hospital but there was one in particular who I remember clearly. A Canadian guy. I didn't like him. He never told me what I wanted to hear. He kept saying the same thing to me. \"I can't guarantee your safety, or the safety of anyone else\". Why not? This didn't make sense to me. If me and my kids were safe from everything, then I'd get better. Surely that's what he had to convince me of. This ***** kept saying the same thing. One day, the subject of hypervigilance came up. I researched it... actually, I mean I googled it and read the Wikipedia article. This was it. This is what I was suffering from.

Leaving hospital

I now knew what the problem was, but I hadn't even started to recover from it. I hated the loneliness of being in hospital. Being the other side of the city to my family. Christmas was coming, and I had to get the hell out. This is when I faked my way out. I was still so ill though. In fact, I got worse. Remember the lorazepam I mentioned and their highly addictive nature. Well, when leaving hospital I didn't have access to them.

Hallucinations

No benzos now, and something bad started to happen constantly without respite. I began to visualise evil everywhere. I couldn't open my eyes, I couldn't close my eyes. I looked at clouds. I saw dragons. I saw devils. Many devils. I remember looking at a pair of wardrobe doors. The top mirror panels were massive eyes. The knobs below them, nostrils. It was a giant monster and it was moving towards me. Everything everywhere looked like something evil. Things just kept getting worse. I still held the belief that I was never going to get better. This proved it, but people still told me I would. That this was temporary. My psychiatrist was on holiday. In desperation I called her cover. He told me I'd developed an addiction to the benzos I'd been taking. He prescribed them straight away. Throughout this time since I first mentioned it above, I remained in that suicidal conundrum. My brain not doing somersaults, but rather spinning uncontrollably in all directions.

Relief

As directed, I started to take diazepam regularly. Wow! Just like that I was ok. How?! Everything started to become rational. It was a shock and difficult to adapt to at first. I had lost my job by this stage, so going back wasn't an option. Then, bad news. I knew it was inevitable, but it was now said - I couldn't stay on diazepam. I had to be slowly weaned off. I had to take something else instead. Something which I knew would make me a lot worse for a few weeks before I felt better. Damn. I couldn't go back to my normal life yet. I had to go through hell again to get better. Hell. Voluntarily going through that hell again. But I knew I had to do it. I knew it was my only option. I readied myself for it as best I could. I knew what was coming, and I knew it wouldn't last forever.

Back to hell

I might have thought I was ready for this medication change, but nothing could have prepared me for irrational thinking. The clue is in the word - irrational. As we ramped up the new med and tried to reduce the other, things deteriorated rapidly. The feelings of not being worthy of my family or worthy of being a human being and \"knowing\" everyone was better off without me were back. Again juxtaposed with the thought that I couldn't do harm to my kids by departing. My brain went to mush and started rolling around in my head again. Every minute. Every hour. Every day. The strong belief that this would last forever. My psychiatrist told me to stop trying to come off diazepam. The psychiatrist thought the withdrawal effects - known as Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome - were too much. The dosage froze, and I kept taking it. Getting onto the other med remained hell though.

A new symptom arrived. Emptiness. No feeling. No point. What am I fighting for? What's the point of life? What's the point of anyone living? It's futile. All these buildings around me. Offices, shops, houses, flats. Why? To prolong a pointless existence? I was having talking therapy at this point - once a week. Once when walking into a session, the therapist asked me how I was. I bluntly said \"I want to be dead\". She said I should go back to hopsital. No point was my response. But even with this new symptom I still had those little buggers, my children, preventing me from killing myself. I couldn’t leave them to get through this pointless existence without a dad. I went to therapy because I listened to people who kept telling me I would feel ok again. I saw no point, but if it was going to help my kids I had to listen.

Recovery?

Let's fast forward a few months. Maybe 6 or so. It remained hell to that point. I was given a few extra meds to try. Eventually, something started to work. With all these meds swimming around, I was sleeping 12-13 hours a day, but when I was awake I could function again. Slowly over the next few months, I reclaimed my life. I was still very drowsy from the medication - there was a ton of it, but I could now affect others' lives positively. I picked up my kids from school. I took them to football training. I met loads of other parents. I even started refereeing games and became assistant manager to the team. I started playing football myself. I started voluntary work for a mental health charity, helping others going through hell. I had a pretty senior role and helped to develop the organisation structure. I was asked to become a trustee. Wow. This was great.

What about the hypervigilance?

It went. Pretty much completely. In fact, I've gone in the opposite direction. I embrace risk. I embrace those who take risk for the betterment of themselves, community and society. I don't think that I'm putting my kids in harms way doing everyday things eg using public transport or things I consider safe e.g. going on a really \"scary\" roller-coaster. Overcoming hypervigilance was a long, long process. Something I can talk about, but at another time perhaps. But dare I say it, I was starting to enjoy life again.

Keeping things at arms length

As I said, I was asked to become a trustee of the charity. I was also asked to be on my kids' schools PTA. I turned the jobs down. I didn't want to let people down. I knew how ill I was before. I didn't want to get like that and let people down. Also, I wanted to minimise the risk of my brain short circuiting again. I still feel that today. My family is the most important thing and I don't want to put myself in a situation which could mess me up again.

Community, talking and other things

Nowadays, I try and do as much as possible to look after my mental health. I try to be an active member of my community through different activities. Bonding with others and talking about anything and everything is so important to me now. I also try and help people who are going through their own issues. I have my bad days. My life isn't ideal. I need to earn more money than I do and that affects me sometimes. Change can be an issue too - I don't like the prospect of my routine changing. I can deal with it though. Everyhing’s relative.

Well there we go. That's where I am right now. It's not the end of the story. The story continues and for now it remains to be written. Hopefully I'll never go back to hell again. If I do, I really hope there are people to help me through it, just as there were before... even if I was trying their patience.

"We're In The Money!"

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 23:10:00 GMT

4th of November 2013

The Dragon Café celebrates the news that we have secured funding for another year, and Sarah explains that we will reopen in February 2014, to allow time for some necessary strategic planning for the long term future of the Café. Birthday celebrations and a paean from Stephen and Tim who, after a bit of Bangra, also tell us about a missing cat flap. We compare and contrast the Art World as represented by Grayson Perry’s lecture with art world of the Dragon café and we dance with David.

Happy First Birthday!

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Tue, 8 Oct 2013 17:18:00 +0100

courtesy of Kevin McClean

John Constable wishes The Dragon Café a happy first birthday aided by Norman and David debuts his new Southwark Walks song. Eleanor Longden's TED talk introduces the subject of 'hearing voices', one we'll certainly be revisiting in the future, a snippet from Sue and Joe's amazing film, Southwark Tale (hopefully screening on this site soon!), Moonlight Sonata from Blue, The Dragons parade with samba from Bloco Maluco, and finally, voices from 'We Need To Talk About…Hope and Meaning in Recovery' (You can hear the whole of this here).

Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 20:30:00 +0100

19th of August 2013

In this weeks show we speak to D Rosier who tells us about the highly recommended blog, SLam TWIG: Operations (http://slamtwigops.wordpress.com), Barbara questions whether "life is just a bowl of cherries" in her poem 'The Turning Tide' and D shares with us the graphs and charts of her artwork. (You can see it at http://drosier.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/graphs-and-charts-illustrated-talks-and-q-as-at-dragon-cafe-19th-august/, where you can also listen to her whole talk.)

Positive Vibes

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sat, 10 Aug 2013 18:46:00 +0100

This was the day of the confluence of a didgeridoo, Lancashire clogs, a tongue drum, a darbuka, amulets and talismans, Kindred Minds at the Dragon Café, a trusty trowel and bucket not to mention gremlins….I said don't mention the gremlins!

Biscuits and Bubbles

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 9 Jun 2013 19:38:00 +0100

3rd of June 2013

Biscuit citizens tell their tale, as the Bandorians play.
Behind the scenes at Resonance we go.
With poems on the air, in our dear Dragon Café
Bubbles, my head, and counsel to go slow.
Liz Atkins talks about her compulsive skin-picking and the art she makes, in prose.
Then back to our poetic world and month we go.

Action!

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:10:00 GMT

Aside from the lovely 4-handed piano duetting of Elena Riu and Peter Bridges, this week’s DC podcast is really an assemblage of film soundtrack lucky enough to escape the cutting-room floor, all garnered from the Cafe on the day Declan’s film month gets off to a lively start. Action!

Well-Being

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:09:00 GMT

In this episode our intrepid reporter, Mick, guides us around the tables at the Mental Well-Being Market Place, hosted by dragon Café. In theses days of change as personal budgets come in, it was good to see so many stallholders representing local creative, recreational and mental health groups, and to get news from Southwark Council about day services, personalisation and reablement. We also hear extracts from presentations by The Confucius Institute, Vivien’s singing group, Amanda’s Sonnet group, Thomas Tobias singing Caritas Abundat and the sound of samba from Bloco Maluco, outroduced by Agueda and Monica.

Transitions

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:00:00 GMT

Transitions is the theme of this programme and we start with a saunter around Tania’s drama group, Vivien’s singing group, Mestre Mags’ samba bash and Latin Dance with Ariella and Renzo, then an interview with Sarah, Maiuko and Marianne and David about the Transitions writing project.

Sarah reads part of her piece for Transitions 2, John Constable sings Spark In The Dark with a little help from the Hawklords and we meet Jennifer who tells us bout the Dragon Café quilt and we end with the sublime Maiuko.

Birds Rule the Roost

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 16:23:00 GMT

You may wonder what it is that is rocking Sarah's boat so much at the beginning of this Valentine's programme - listen to the end to find out! Sarah and The Eurythmics explore the theme of love in all its forms, artist Simba talks about his graffiti writing, Raga responds to Ken and Paul's homelessness drama. Sally Scantlebury reads us a poem rather than a menu and Martin chunters on about the new Dragon Café computer and, before Sarah takes us out with Ode To A Nightingale, the Rude Mechanicals give us a song.

Ta-Ka-La-Ka

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:29:00 GMT

This week starts with a collage of sounds from our new singing group led by Vivien Ellis followed by Simba telling us about his exhibition of paintings which you can see for just one more week at the Café. A sonnet from Amanda, a 'Bit' from MrH and MfH and part of Paul and Ken's exploration of the issue of homelessness and TAKALAKA! - samba with Mestre Mags and Handel with Tomas Tobias. (You can hear the whole of this talk by clicking here.)

Stay Young and Beautiful

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:01:00 GMT

In this week's programme Sarah Wheeler answers the question, "What have you done with the last ten years?", Barbara Robson stays young and beautiful, and we hear from Barnaby of Cooltan Arts (in full Dickensian sartorial elegance) about their photographic exhibition, Ben Okri reads from the 'Turn On Your Light' section of 'Mental Fight', and an excerpt of David Neita's talk "Beauty and Mental Wealth".

Key 56

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:05:00 GMT

In this week's programme Patricia Dark from the local studies library with one of two Southwark stories of forgotten heroes followed by some reaction to our new Drama group and a poem from Stephen Micalef. We then hear from Sarah Wise who explores the themes from her book, 'Inconvenient People' which tells the stories of people banished to psychiatric institutions for no better reason than to get them out of the way, a theme continued in the discussion following Kathy Crockford's reading of 'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox' l. After another poem and an introduction to Sarah Wheeler's Extallation we bring the theme to the present day with the documentary film by Alex Hamel about a Canadian Psychiatric Hospital and part of the discussion it engendered. You can hear the whole discussion here.

Did you take my piece of pie?

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:05:00 GMT

A more than usually busy Dragon Café, with its new group activities including script writing, film making, drama and Shakespearen sonnets as well as our new exhibition of art works from the Bethlem Gallery and Museum, also brought us performances around a Survivors Poetry evening hosted by Dave Russel and Celia. In this programme we hear an Appalachian chant from Dave Russel, a poem from Frank Bangay, verse and song from John Constable, "Bloody Normals" from Stuart Black, "Intimacy" from Lidsay Burns and "Little Rose" from Ugly Sulk.

Under The Healing Tree

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 10:03:00 GMT

This week we hear sounds from Sadie, news from the kitchen, Native American music and words of wisdom from Barbara, Sarah and the bane of the picture hangers's life, Amanda introduces us to iambic pentameter as her new group explores Shakespeare's sonnets, Paul Ashton tells us about the joys and wonders of volunteering as he relates his experience of Crisis at Christmas and we meet Lee and Jill under the Healing Tree.

"Can't wait til next year...."

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Thu, 3 Jan 2013 00:14:00 GMT

New Year’s Eve inevitably means a time of reflection and this week’s Dragon Radio looks back at the first three months of the Dragon Café with sound pictures drawn from the vast array of music, poetry, discussion and the general chit chat that makes up a ‘typical’ day at the Café collaged together by Mick and Monica. We also look forward to the Dragon’s roar in 2013!

Ice Dragons and Shadow Puppets

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:55:00 GMT

It was Christmas Eve at the Dragon Café so what better to accompany your Dragon Roast with all the trimmings than a reading of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" from Lois and others, the presentation of an 'Ice Dragon' by Ivan and Julia, Jill Rock telling us about some of the beautiful artworks made by Café patrons in 2012 and looking forward to 2013, and Max's shadow puppet show, all topped off with an instrumental rendition of "Puff The Magic Dragon".

Dragons and Feedback

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:38:00 GMT

In this episode we hear from Jill Rock on her art table, Carrie reads from Faffnir and Knights by Stevie Smith, words of wisdom from Barbara, Learning the Hard Way, feedback with a heartfelt appreciation of the Café from Paul Ashton and Grooving With Mr Blow as we go out with a taste of Will Simpson’s Peckham Soul Train, which had us all up on our feet for a joyous conclusion to the day.

Chopping Veg and Southwark Mysteries

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 22:12:00 GMT

In this special issue we spend time in the third space at the Dragon Café, the kitchen, where Mick talks to Marc and Sally and volunteers Martin, Agnes and Anastasia - marvel at their rhythmic chopping skills! Then we take a stroll around the area with john Constable as he takes us on the second of three Southwark Mystery walks.

The Goose and The Crow

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 9 Dec 2012 22:04:00 GMT

In this programme we greet the new ‘calmest’ month of December, the month in which we explore the meaning of locality, and specifically, the spirt of Southwark. Guiding us are Carrie Thomas who reads from a piece by Adriana Enciso Diaz, describing her search for Little Dorrit that brought her to St George The Martyr, Sarah and Thomas Tobias tells us of arriving in Southwark and the developing relationship with the ‘Outlaw Borough’, Chris Haydon who whets our appetite for the film making collaboration he will be undertaking with the Dragon Café in January and again in May of next year, interspersed with songs extracted for John Constable’s fantastic performance from ‘The Southwark Mysteries’.

Sandpaper and Illuminations

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 2 Dec 2012 21:33:00 GMT

The end of our Blakean Month is celebrated in this programme with performances from The Children (John Gibbens and Armorel Weston), a poem from DiDi, a blend of Blake and Dylan from Dave Russell, Songs and poetry from Michael Horovitz and Venessa V, Stephen Micalef accompanied by an improvised piece from the Ring Mod Orkestra (Tim Flitcroft) and last bit not least, Grassy Nowel.

Blake Cake and Cream...

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:55:00 GMT

This was our third Blakean week, and we feature in this programme performances from Micalef, Cathy, Paul, Nik, John Constable, Musa, JJ and Jazzman John. We also have an extract from Blake's Book of Job performed by Thomas Tobias and Liam Smith, and Rod Tweedy's presentation, Blake and The God of the Left Brain. We're treated to a performance by long time collaborators Pete Brown (who wrote for Cream and Jack Bruce) and Phil Ryan (formerly of Man) which brought our night to a close.

The Many Voices And Visions of William Blake

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:56:00 GMT

The Many Voices and Visions of William Blake was the theme and that's certainly what we get in this weeks programme as Susanne Sklar channels the spirit of Blake's Jerusalem, Tim Heath and Stephen Micalef introduce us to The Blake Society and The William Blake Congregation, Butterfly Wheels play their first ever show, Andrea Mclean talks about her wonderful paintings and Blake's influence on her work, Dave Russell sings Tull(!), poems from Hanna, Thomas Tobias and John Constable, instrument of the week and Debbie Eckman Sings Jerusalem

William Blake and Fireworks

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:11:00 GMT

Sally's Plinth Sculpture

This week William Blake arrived at the Dragon Café! Phil showed us around his London, Stephen Micalef introduced us to his cat and The Ghost of a Flea, Carrie took us to The Garden of Love and we had Infant Joy from Thomas Tobias. We also hear in this programme poems from John Constable and Blodwyn, a song from Musa, The Book of Job discussed by Barbara and Andrew Solomon and Jah Wobble and fireworks!

Remembrance of Things Past and the Revenge of the Toast!

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 4 Nov 2012 18:50:00 GMT

Thomas Tobias performs Remembrance of Things Past

This week our theme was remembrance and friendship, and we had many, moving perspectives on this subject from Thomas Tobias, Barbara Robson, John Constable and Renuka Bhakta. We also hear a song from Musa Ali, the mystery instrument of the week, Hooray for Hamlet and the revenge of the Toast!

The Dragon gets connected

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 09:30:00 GMT

This week we hear the instrument of the week, as Mick Hobbs plays a Chinese marching song, the voices of people attending the Networking Salon, hosted by the Dragon Café in partnership with the Southwark Arts Forum and SLaM. Pete Woodcock reads his poem accompanied by the music from Martin Harrison's film, Two Days In Autumn and Sarah Wheeler reads from 'The Mystery of Mushrooms' and Mikalef takes us on a Blakean journey.

Bach and Boxing!

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:13:00 +0100

Bach and Boxing! Not an obvious combination, unless, of course you're a regular at the Dragon Café.

This week, as well as Carlos Moreno teaching non contact boxing, we had lessons from the Tai Chi Masters of The Confucius Institute, David and Marianne of the Transitions journal, the poetry of Dylan Thomas read by Carrie, Paul Ashton talking about his gift of a painting to The Dragon Café and video from Animated Minds. All in this weeks podcast

Poetry, Music Discussion and Muffins!

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 19:07:00 +0100

The wet autumnal weather couldn't dampen the spirits on the Dragon Café, and in this podcast we hear the wit of Dr Stewart, the poignant haiku-like poetry of Bill McKnight, part of the discussion led by Sarah Wheeler, in the series 'We Need To Talk About.... ', on the theme of this year's World Mental Health Day, 'Depression: A Global Crisis' and the music of Channel One from Sound Minds. Plus we hear from the voices of you, the people who make The Dragon Café. Click here to listen

Over 300 people come to the first Dragon Café

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 22:22:00 +0100

The Dragon Café opened its doors for the first step on its year long journey. Over 300 people came to sample the soup, listen to poetry and music, experience the play "Dervish" and take part in the discussion panel "We Need To Talk About Mantal Illness". You can hear a taste of the day here

We Need To Talk About...Mental Illness

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Sun, 7 Oct 2012 21:26:00 +0100

The first in the "We Need To Talk About..." series of discussion panels discussed issues of mental health and well being from the perspective of mental health professionals, friends and family of service users, arts development and peer support. Speakers were, Dr Khaldoon Ahmed, Amy Meadows, Dr Jo Allen, Thomas Tobias, Paul Emerson, Garry Ellison & Helen Shearn

The Launch of The Dragon Café

podcast@dragoncafe.co.uk (Dragon Café) — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:58:00 +0100

This is the first of what will become regular podcasts from Mental Fight Club, whose new home will be the Dragon Café, in the crypt of the church of St George The Martyr, Southwark.

In this episode we get a taste of the launch event and party that took place on 23rd. of April 2012, St George’s day!