On the Irregular with Java Bere

For the final episode of season 4 I talk with undertaker and owner of the independent funeral service Natural Endings, Rosie Grant. After listening to several episodes of this season, Rosie reached out to me to suggest talking with me about her creative, personal, and as she described it ‘radical’, approach to honouring the lives of those we love. I have admired Rosie and her fellow undertaker Lis...

In this episode I talk with writer, poet and playwright, Cordelia O’Neill. We discuss Cordelia’s play ‘Anything is Possible if You Think About it Hard Enough’ about a young couple whose baby is born still. We discuss creativity as a tool for developing empathy and how experiencing loss can bring you closer to joy, love and hope. And we talk about the twist of fate where Cordelia’s life imitated he...

In this episode I talk with Yorkshire artist, Jess Kidd. We discuss Jess’ childhood as an acutely shy child who often lived in her own imaginary world, the comfort she found in creativity as a form of expressing herself, the challenges she experienced at art school and then being diagnosed with health issues that impacted her life dramatically. We also talk about cognitive behavioural therapy and...

In this episode I talk to photographer Jo Ritchie and writer Laura Mcdonagh. We talk about their work on Projecting Grief, a collection of stories and portraits from individuals who have found comfort, distraction or hope in a creative pursuit after losing someone they love. We also talk about how they came together creatively, their own experiences of grief and how it has changed them in defining...

In this episode I talk with writer and disabled content creator, Helen Lear. Helen and I met at drama school in Manchester, sixteen years ago. Since then, a lot has happened. In her twenties, Helen dropped her life in the Uk to travel through Australia and New Zealand, envisioning a life of further international travel ahead of her. During this time she began to experience serious health issues th...

In this episode I talk with autoethnographic artist Hannah Turlington. We talk about growing up as a people pleaser, training as a teacher despite wanting to study textiles, eventually becoming a textile designer and realising it was no longer what she wanted, grieving the person that she thought she would one day be, Coming to terms with not being able to bear children and her experience of the a...

In this episode I am talking to calligrapher, bookbinder and writer Gaelle Jolly. Gaelle and I have followed each other on Instagram for many years, and it was a joy to finally meet over zoom. In this chat we talk about our shared love of writing letters, Gaelle’s passion for getting lost in imaginary worlds, we talk about losing her husband and how instagram helped her process her grief We discus...

In this episode I am talking to gardener and allotmenteer, Heidi-Lee Gregory. In 2020, having experienced a sequence of losses and readjustments in her life, Heidi turned her back on twenty years in the corporate world and decided to start from scratch and completely change direction with her path. We talk about Heidi’s move from her native South Africa to the UK, losing her father at a young age,...

In this episode I talk with Susanna Amato, who describes herself as: actress, theatre maker, writer, clown and humanitarian. Susanna also has a podcast where she invites guests to bring a paper based memory to talk through and shred, based on her theatre piece Landfill of Memories. We discuss Susanna’s identity, how this forms a huge part of her creative process, she tells me about losing her fath...

In this episode I am talking with author, art historian and lecturer Joanna Wolfarth. Joanna was the first person I interviewed for this season. I was feeling nervous and out of practice, but Joanna’s gentle warmth and grace shone through my headphones and I immediately knew that this was exactly where I wanted to be. Sat, listening to her story. In our chat, we discussed Jo’s shifting approaches...

In this episode I talk with my dear friend and neighbour, the author, Rozie Kelly. On a sunny autumn morning, Rozie and I headed out for a walk through the fields. We talked about about losing her dad in lockdown and how this time of enforced solitude helped her embrace her grief, and also, how Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured heavily in this process. We talked about her soon to be published debu...

Hello and welcome to season 4 of ‘On the Irregular’ with me Java Bere. In previous seasons I have chatted to women from all walks of life about their unique, creative journeys. How they got here, and how their story has shaped their creative process. For this season, I wanted to specifically explore the way in which grief informs the creative process, how transformative it can be and how it weaves...

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In this episode I chat to artist and community organiser Sapna Agarwal. Sapna is one of my oldest friends, having met in Manchester twenty years ago when we were both running around the city pretending to be the stars of a Jean Luc Goddard film. This was a soft, gentle talk, fitting for a rainy day across Yorkshire and Glasgow.  Sapna tells me about dropping out of architecture school, how having...

In this episode I chat to Poet, Writer, Performer and Educator Fionna Inward Allen. I first met Fee around six years ago at a mutual friend’s picnic. As soon as she flashed her stellar smile, I knew I wanted to talk to her. And talk we did, all afternoon. We have since kept in touch via social media and on the 10th of September we finally met again when Fee performed a few of her beautiful poems a...

In this episode I chat to Life Coach, Speaker, Writer Syreeta Challinger. It’s an emotional one, Syreeta shares her unique story of love, creativity and transformation. We discuss growing up with a high level of academic expectations, her experience studying a degree in textiles in Manchester, the impact she believes the contraceptive pill had on her decision making in her twenties, her time in Ho...

In this episode I chat to writer, artist and creator of the Moon Journal, Jo Cauldrick. With her Moon Journal website, instagram, book and patreon, Jo has created a space full of resources and wisdom about working with the moon cycles and how these can help us find balance, rhythm and focus. Beautifully illustrated and full of inspiring writing, they are not only informative but also a delight to...

In this episode I chat to creative coach Kathryn Ho, or as she describes herself on Instagram 'Psychological witch and self-doubt coach’. This felt like a deeply thoughtful and delicate conversation. Kathryn’s meditative pace and considered answers to my questions led us to the big questions, the big feelings, the essence of it all, in many ways. We talked about her awareness of the arbitrari...

This conversation comes with a trigger warning regarding baby loss. Eight Years ago, Jon and I lost our daughter Alma at six months in the womb through a late stage termination due to medical reasons. We discuss the pregnancy, the procedure, her birth and her funeral. At certain points we express a humour which could be uncomfortable for some listeners. This was, and still is, one of our ways of p...

In this episode I chat to Interior Designer, Diversity Consultant, Instagram Influencer and Location House Host, Natasha Landers. I first came across Natasha when I spotted her magnificent yellow kitchen floor on Instagram, and instantly fell hook, line and sinker for her sense of style both in her home and her dress sense. I’m not the only one who noticed. So did 14K other followers on instagram,...

In this episode I talk to actor, writer and singer Sandra Cole. Once upon a time, many years ago, I had the honour of being Sandra’s acting agent. I adored Sandra and always knew there was more I’d like to talk to her about than audition times and self tapes. So, finally I got my chance. Sandra graced me with her gentle, winding thoughts on grief, the fear we often have of our own power, how her r...

In this episode I chat to Annie Ridout: journalist, author, poet and founder of the business community for women The Robora When I listened back to this conversation, recorded in July, I realised that Annie is such a natural coach that I had accidentally ended up talking more about myself than I usually would. Thankfully I managed to shut up long enough for Annie to find the space to talk to me ab...

In this episode I chat to artist, designer, maker and soon to be qualified yoga teacher, my friend Lynne Morris. Throughout this conversation, amongst many things, you will witness Lynne’s ADHD in live, gorgeous, technicolour action, and you will also witness my giddy inability to stop cackling every thirty seconds. We grasshopper all over the place, covering: Lynne’s long lost career dreams of be...

In this episode, I talk to the singer songwriter, Josephine Oniyama. Born and bred in Manchester, Jo grew up listening to her mum’s record collection, never knowing a time when music and writing weren’t her focus. Starting gigging in her teens, her career took off very quickly, leading her to touring and working with huge names in the industry and eventually recording the widely applauded album ‘P...

This week I chat to Deborah Eydmann Beau, writer, model, life long creative. In this inspiring and at points, tear inducing chat, Deborah tells me about coming into her own  at 55, her childhood in Yorkshire and how this formed her, a lifelong passion for drama, her life in France with her three children, successful careers in translation and blogging the three years she spent walking to find hers...