On histories and storytelling

November 6, 2020

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I’ve been working on letting go of expectation, both my own, and the expectations of others. Sometimes I get lost in all the rushing and the fuss and forget that a huge part of slowing down and minimising our lives was that I have the time and space to create exactly what I want, how I want, without worrying about how it’s received or having eleventybillionlikes. This online space, and the OUTSIDER blog were always about that, and I intend to honour it. So, inspired by the lovely response to my knitting attempts (I’m wearing another one now – and yes that is another of my many thermal vests underneath), here’s a knitting-poem. It’s also a poem about storytelling, about how female stories are often lost to history, relegated to being no more important than nattering & gossip, when the truth is far from that. It’s a poem questioning what we pass down through the generations instead of those stories, and is also a celebration of all the many and beautiful ways we womxn have woven stories & histories, while also lamenting the fact that perhaps this is becoming something of a lost art. Title of the poem is Hanes, a Cymraeg word meaning both history and story. #poetry #spokenword #performancepoetry #slowliving #knittingismytherapy

A post shared by OUTSIDER [Sophie McKeand] (@sophiemckeand_outsider) on Nov 6, 2020 at 5:49am PST

I’ve been working on letting go of expectation, both my own, and the expectations of others. Sometimes I get lost in all the rushing and the fuss and forget that a huge part of slowing down and minimising our lives was that I have the time and space to create exactly what I want, how I want, without worrying about how it’s received or having eleventybillionlikes. This Instagram online space, and OUTSIDER blog were always about that, and I intend to honour it.

So, inspired by the lovely response to my knitting attempts (I’m wearing another one now – and yes that is another of my many thermal vests underneath), here’s a knitting-poem. It’s also a poem about storytelling, about how female stories are often lost to history, relegated to being no more important than nattering & gossip, when the truth is far from that. It’s a poem questioning what we pass down through the generations instead of those stories, and is also a celebration of all the many and beautiful ways we womxn have woven stories & histories, while also lamenting the fact that perhaps this is becoming something of a lost art. Title of the poem is Hanes, a Cymraeg word meaning both history and story.