In this podcast Kimberly Campanello, a poet, novelist and academic, talks frankly about her early onset Parkinson's disease and how this lead her to pursue her Italian roots in Puglia. On a visit there, to her great grandmother's village, she literally discovered Dante's 'Comedia', which she is currently 'reversioning' - a method that involves processing the original Italian, a range of translations and commentaries, plus her life experience, coloured by her condition. She discussed making creative use of the effects of Parkinson's and the beneficial effects of her writing on her motor function, similar to the benefits of walking on irregular surfaces. We discuss the recent remarkable finding that, not only does PD influence movement, but also use of language, and especially verbs (see the link to the paper below). Along the way Kimberly reads one of her poems based on a canto from Dante and extracts from her published and recently finished novel. We end with a reading from her current poetry collection. This is 'Brainland'! Grreat conversation.

Participants:

Kimberly Campanello, Poet, novelist and Professor of Poetry, University of Leeds. https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/

Ken Barrett, artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist. http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/

The books discussed: https://www.kimberlycampanello.com/lastestbooks

Kimberly's short story linked to 'paradoxical kinesia': https://checkout.somesuch.co/products/somesuch-stories-7

A paper on Parkinson's disease and use of language: file:///Users/kenbarrett/Downloads/Words_in_motion_Motor-language_coupling_in_Parkins-1.pdf

Kimberly's recent and really interesting Parkinson's disease inspired poem 'Moving Nowhere Here' is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzRJTZ2lHgU

Opening and closing music: Prelude to 'Brainland', the opera by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Follow us us on Instagram:#brainlandcollective #brainlandthepodcast

Portraitsketch by KB.

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