Do Elephants Have Souls?
Welcome to The Trove.
Welcome to the first edition of The Trove, a roundup of wonderful things across arts, culture and beyond to expand your heart and mind. Arriving on the first Wednesday of the month, I hope you enjoy the treasures below 🌸
🚍 To Visit
I discovered Christina Kimeze’s art towards the end of last year and totally fell in love. Drawing on a lineage of Black feminist writers and thinkers, Kimeze’s work is rich in colour, texture and sensuality, capturing her protagonist’s innermost landscapes. Her work is part of a new exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Soulscapes - a contemporary retelling of landscape by artists from the African Diaspora, exploring our connection with the world around us and reflecting on themes of belonging, memory, joy and transformation. On now until 2 June 2024.
The 10th Arab Women Artist’s Now (AWAN) Festival is now on at venues across London. The first festival since 2020, the programme is full of music, visual art, performance, comedy, film, and more, with a focus on Gazan and Sudanese voices. On now until 30 March, this is one not to miss.
“This edition of AWAN is more an act of defiance than a celebration. During a time when we witness horrific injustices on our screens unrelentingly – the work, voices, and perspectives of artists become radiant beacons, casting hopeful and uplifting rays of light.”
📖 To Read
Before I could say “elephant,” I called them “effitits”. I still hold a special place for these wonderful creatures in my heart (clip of my dream job above). This long read is an awe-inspiring exploration of elephants on their own terms:
“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals…For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time.”
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’s newsletter Quality Sheet, what are you doing?! Each week she delivers a curated selection of delights across the internet -articles are sure to inspire, make you think, or make you say '“huh?” (in the best of ways). Click here for a personal favourite issue.
🎞 To Watch
Past Lives. Past Lives. Past Lives. (It is worth the hype. Three months after watching the film – and watching it twice in 36 hours no less – I still think about it often.) (Sidenote, in an interview, director Celine Song describes “directing [as] being a professionally passionate person” which is how I’ll be describing myself as a writer going forward.)
Who’s your favourite director’s favourite director? Chances are, Hong Kong filmmaker, Wong Kar-Wai, is pretty high up that list. The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square is showcasing his films, including the irresistibly beautiful In the Mood for Love.
🎧 To Listen
A rebellious troublemaker, an icon and feminist voice, Oumou Sangaré is a titan of music in her native Mali, across the African continent and the globe. If you’re not familiar with her work, start with the debut album she didn’t want to make, Moussolou, which has been keeping me company over the past couple of months.
At 13 years old, Michael Sanford had a traumatic accident that left him paralysed from the chest down. In this On Being episode, he shares his thoughts on the body and trauma, the mind-body connection and how living more deeply in our bodies leads to greater compassion for all of life. There were so many quotes I wanted to include, but I’ve restrained myself to two quotes below. The full interview is well worth a listen.
I mean, obviously, we’re all moving our bodies through space; we’re in the physical world. But then there’s a realisation that comes when you’ve been disconnected and start to bring your, what I call silence, or your mental energy back through your body, where you see how beautiful the connections are. And it makes you more compassionate, less willing to do violence, I think.
I took advantage of my body, as a 13-year-old, by leaving my body to absorb all the trauma that it did. And one of the lessons that I’ve learned is that it was my body that kept me living, that — your body, for as long as it possibly can, will be faithful to living. That’s what it does…It might get confused; it might not know how to grow the right cells. But I’m telling you, it’s moving towards living for as long as it possibly can.
Thank you for reading the first edition of The Trove! If you read/watch/listen/visit any of the above (or if you have any other suggestions of wonderful things), leave a comment below 🌼
See you on Sunday for Wonderings!
Sarah :)
PS. London is bursting with daffodils this year. Perhaps I didn’t notice before, or maybe I’ve had a keener eye for Spring this year. Their presence has been a welcome reminder that the sun will come again.
