Off to Antarctica

I'm off to Antarctica today so this will be my last post for a couple of weeks

From the Australian Geographic website

Just a few reminders before I go:

• "Beyond the Medical Record" Writers Workshop with Dr Hilton Koppe is on Saturday 21st March at Moore Park Golf Club - we can still fit you in if you'd like to come. For more info see earlier post or click here to contact Howard Gwynne.

• You can win a free day at the Workshop by entering the Black Dog Institute eMHPrac Flash Writing Competition with 2-300 words about your experiences with online mental health resources. Click here to send your entries to teh Black Dog eMHPrac team. Entries close 11th March 

• Don't forget to mark the dates of upcoming events in your diary.   

               - VISUAL ARTS NIGHT - Thursday 23rd April at North Sydney Community Centre
               - Writers Night - Thursday 18th June at the main lecture theatre at the
                            Black Dog Institute in the grounds of Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick
                - Performers Night - Thursday 10th September at the Camelot Lounge in Marrickville

A Story to Empower and Inspire

Several weeks ago my friend Claudia invited me to a very special afternoon tea. An old friend of hers, Jane Castle, an accomplished Australian cinematographer and filmmaker, was looking for financial support for the making of a new documentary. We drank tea and a little bubbly, ate some of Claudia's  delicious home made cake and sat down to watch the trailer for the documentary.
When the lights came up we were all speechless and in tears.
Jane's mother Lilias Fraser was also a talented cinematographer. This documentary is about Lilias. It is a moving story of a woman who made 40 films despite enormous personal challenges at a time when filmmaking was not a "suitable job for a woman". Her best known work may well be Women of the Iron Frontier, a documentary that examined the lives of railwaymen's wives. In many ways the struggles of the women in this and many of her documentaries mirrored the struggles of her own life.
Lilias was a champion of women's rights and indigenous rights and, despite her own troubles with domestic violence and eventually alcoholism, her works were always optimistic. Her life ended in tragedy.

Creative Doctors Visual Arts Evening 2015

Thursday 23rd April 2015 – starts 7.00pm
Moreton and Bay rooms
North Sydney Community Centre
220 Miller Street, North Sydney, NSW, 2060

Program:
             An exhibition of visual art of all kinds by creative doctors
                   (… don’t be shy, bring your creations, share your work)
    Short presentations by exhibitors to discuss their inspiration (optional)         

    A terrific opportunity to be inspired by the work of colleagues
                ….. creative and non-creative doctors and medical students, their friends and families are all welcome to come along even if they do not plan to exhibit.
Light refreshments provided by Judith Babich of Active Locums

• To display work and/or make a short presentation about your work please let us know with your RSVP by Friday 17th April to;  

howard@aya.yale.edu <mailto:howard@aya.yale.edu>  0402 827 156 

If you plan to attend, even if you do not plan to exhibit  art works, please RSVP to Howard so we can manage seating and catering  

• Works can be from any branch of the visual arts including paintings, drawings, photographs, made objects, sculpture and jewellery 

• Street parking is available in the small council car park behind the North Sydney Council buildings, on the surrounding streets and in the Ridge St Car Park. North Sydney Community Centre is an 8-10 minute walk from North Sydney railway station and directly on bus routes that travel up Miller St, North Sydney

Are there any poets out there?

Fiona Wright

Here's an opportunity to spend a happy Saturday with a bunch of poets and would-be poets in the beautiful grounds of the old Callan Park Hospital in Rozelle, at the NSW Writer's Centre.
This inaugural Verse and Voice Poetry and Spoken Word Festival is being jointly curated by performing artist and creative director of word travels Miles Merrill (think - poetry slams, live storytelling etc) and acclaimed poet Fiona Wright who won the Dame Mary Gilmore Prize for Poetry in 2012 with her collection Knuckled.
The program includes contributions from Judith Beveridge, Omar Mussa, Pip Smith, Yasmine Lewis and many more.
Session subjects include performance, politics and publication as well as an exploration of works written in or about the former Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital itself.
For more information go to the Verse and Voice Festival page of the NSW Writers Centre website.
Hope to see you there!
AND let us know via this blog if you are interested in having creative doctors organise a slam poetry night. We have a few enthusiasts amongst us and we think it could be a lot of fun

Win a free registration to the 2015 Creative Doctors Writing Workshop

We know you just haven't got around to it yet but you really must register for the workshop soon while we still have some places.
In case you haven't heard about it yet yet we're having a full day writing workshop called Beyond the Medical Record presented by Dr Hilton Koppe (read about Hilton and his work HERE) on Saturday 21st March at Moore Park Golf Club in Sydney
For more information and to register for the workshop contact us via this blog
We'd love to see you there

If you'd like to win a free registration at the workshop the Black Dog Institute is running a writing competition looking for the best 200 word anecdote involving the use of online mental health programs and resources. It can be funny or serious, a success story or a not so successful story, or just an opinion piece but it must involve online mental health resources in some way.
Entries received by 18th February will be eligible to win the prize and all entries will be eligible for publication in the new e-mental health blog, due to be launched this month.

For more information about the competition or to enter the fray contact us via this blog using the contact form on the right