In this interview for You Are Here, Jet Moon talks to Francesca Dolor about their journey into Survivor Writing and why it matters.
You Are Here – peer to peer survivor writing – is Jet’s second survivor writer’s platform; building on the first: Playing With Fire which took place in 2021. You Are Here offers an expanded series of workshops, a survivor writer’s group, via Spread The Word, and a series of interviews for the Wellcome Collection archives.
Listen along as you read
“I think the most important thing for me personally, today is
the importance of private writing. Private writing for me is very
much important to my survival, and how I deal with things on a
daily basis. I think we’re dealing with powerful things, you know,
the word ‘survival’ is not to be taken lightly. People who consider
themselves to be survivors in whatever context that is…you’ve
had to overcome something that was very dangerous, or multiple
things that were very dangerous to your wellbeing in your life. And
I think that carries a long legacy for a lot of people for different
reasons. And I think that is why the private writing practice is so
important, because it allows me to live with those experiences.
And I think that is the most vital thing…it’s not about importance,
it’s about a need, isn’t it? Like for me, I need to do that, because
I need to carry on. Need to find a way to live, basically.
The thing with sort of more public facing (writing) is that, who
knows how that will manifest.. but I do think that humans are
creative. I think that’s part of a human desire to be creative, and
that that can manifest in lots of different ways. It’s not necessarily
an artistic thing, always. But I think that creating something or
making something or producing, they’re very important to the
survival of humans in general, aren’t they? you have to make stuff
do stuff, otherwise, you can’t get your basic needs met. And I think
that that’s why often creative stuff, it does have a sort of defiance
to it and such a powerful transformative mode, because it’s doing
the opposite of what some adverse experiences would want, which
is to destroy you. You know, so it’s like, do it, I suppose. It’s doing
the opposite of what…of what you think is being asked of you.”
Listen and read the full interview here
About the artist
Francesca Dolor is a visual artist and writer who lives in London. Their work is concerned with areas of extremity to form a type of psychic self-surgery. Their paintings and drawings are formed of self-automated internal subject matter, which explore internal landscapes and architecture, ideas of subversion, as well as the subconscious. You can find Francesca on Instagram.
Jet Moon is a multi-disciplinary artist who writes, performs and collaborates on fierce work for radical social change. Collaborating for many years with the LGBTIQ, kink, sex worker, disability and survivor communities they belong to, dedicated to creating intimate spaces of sharing, visibility and resistance.
In 2021 Jet launched their peer – to – peer survivor writers project ‘Playing With Fire’ and completed ‘Peachy,’ a novella based on Jet’s teen experiences.
‘You Are Here’ expands Jet’s survivor writer’s platform; including interviews and a collaboration with Wellcome Collection. Jet has recently completed their novel ‘Artists Are Demons’: a glittering time capsule of a queer city. Dealing with themes of friendship, collectivism, grief, displacement and migration. It explores the collapse of idealism and what happens next. Based on Jet’s time in Sydney, Australia as part of the Anarchist left in the early 2000s.
Jet lives in London. You can find Jet on Instagram and Facebook.