January 12, 2012 – 2:16 pm
Maresa was featured on Central News this month to promote awareness of her book.
Link to Central TV clip
November 27, 2011 – 1:38 am
Beginning on 22 November 2011 UK Disability History Month sees an ongoing series of events and exhibitions celebrating the rich history of what disability meant and means today with a national scale showcase of experiences, stories and voices.
Nottingham Playhouse is hosting ‘What Does Disability Mean To You?’ an exhibition curated by Maresa MacKeith and Jim Hall featuring many individual’s expression of their personal responses to how society disables, with a mixture of creative writing, poetry, and image.
Maresa is part of Quiet Riot, a unique group of individuals who all use non-verbal, alternative methods of communication to express themselves, present their stories and words, allowing their collective and individual voices to be heard loud and clear.
Nottingham Playhouse’s The Mouthy Poets, have provided words and images from a blend of encounters they themselves have had with disability: from first hand accounts of having a perceived disability, to how the term ‘disability’ can impact negatively upon a person.
Interspersed with these works comes eye-opening material from 18th Century disabled poets, powerful statements of what living with a learning disability can feel like and additional background information on everything Disability History Month hopes to achieve.
The exhibition, located on the upper foyer of the Playhouse, will be on show until 22 December.
October 7, 2011 – 9:07 am
TAKING THE TIME; ESSAYS, POEMS AND OCCASIONAL WRITING Maresa MacKeith
“I want to talk about us, who can’t talk, taking part in ordinary life. It’s about learning, real learning. It’s about learning who we are, and how we think, and how we can contribute to the wider understanding of humanity.”
‘TAKING THE TIME’ is a book that contains the first ever collection of Maresa’s writing from the past decade. In these years Maresa created keynote presentations at conferences and workshops across the UK and beyond; always unique in their perspective Maresa’s thought-provoking essays are fearless in challenging how we do and don’t build relationships in the 21st century. Maresa knows there is still much to be done to secure the full inclusion of those with significant support needs in our societies and even more to be done before we recognise and nurture their unique contributions to the health of those societies. If you are looking for writing that will severely challenge your thinking about disability and difference and– this is it.
“I want to give to the world. I watch, listen, and think. I am not distracted by endless things “to do”, as I can’t do them. I need help to express myself, as I can’t talk on my own, and if I didn’t have physical help I would die. I can still give. The experience of being hidden away, with the assumption that I was worthless, still haunts me with a terror I can’t describe. Nobody should be put through that. Yet there are hundreds forcibly excluded from life everyday.
Listen to us, we can teach you.”
ISBN: 978-0-9546351-7-6
Order online from Inclusive Solutions £8.99
Maresa was featured on Central News this month to promote awareness of her book.
