Beatty Hallas

In time for the election, the mighty Colossive Press have published my awareness and support guide for dealing with anger.

Find out more and order here.

A mini folk tale workshop for children about Robin Hood, with bow and arrow practice.

A banner for the town of Reading, featuring Otis Redding, reading. What an honour to carry soul giant and philanthropist Otis around the streets of a place that was originally spelt like his surname. No better figure to claim as our forefather. Have you ever searched online for Reading information and been offered a long list of reading material instead? Made for the March to Reading Goal.

I am proud to be looking at the story of a Wotjobaluk child brought to England in 1851, from the Wimmera region of what is now called Australia.

The initial research has been supported by a bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company.

I have written a piece about the Women’s Strikes for The Feminist Library in Peckham. It is part of Transnational Journeys, here.

12ø collective run a project challenging artists to make thirty responses on thirty days. Here is one of mine.

Listen here

Read the full transcripts

borne was commissioned by The Museum of English Rural Life, Reading as part of their 70th anniversary celebrations, 51 Voices.

I was nearly born in the lift at The Royal Berkshire Hospital, over the road from The MERL. Mum had snoozed through the night in her bed, aware that something was happening yet not feeling anxious. She kept in mind what her father had told her about animals choosing dark and quiet to have their babies.

My grandfather studied Agriculture at Reading University and my gran Dairy Sciences in the building next to The MERL, in the year it was founded. They went on to run a smallholding and my mum was born in the house there, a former inn from the 1600s. As my grandad waited for my mum to be born, he chatted to the midwife who had arrived on her bicycle. She had bought new piglets and had many questions about how best to look after them.

When my brother was born in the early eighties, Mum wanted a home birth like her mum. She worked with friends to establish the Reading Birth Centre: committed individuals with skills to support families toward the birth they hoped for.

My second child was born at home before the midwife arrived, and was caught by my mum.

As the pandemic has developed in the UK, home births and free births have risen. How has this felt for families who have had babies during this time?

Download this poster for free from Just Seeds or The Social Art Library.

At the Yafa Deli, part of Papergirl Brooklyn 2020. Thanks to Vannessa Hock (@vanessahockphoto) for the use of her image.

Public Sociologist Dr Meg Krausch used my image to accompany her post about Covid.