Vingar & Våld - Malmö Kvinnojours podcast
In February 2017, Malmö Kvinnojour launched the podcast Vingar & Våld. Host Paula describes here the podcast, how it is designed and how it has been received:
The format of the podcast gives me the opportunity to create what I think is needed in the work against violence in close relationships; a room for women exposed to violence, a room free from judgment and full of reminders about their own power and about the possibility of a life free from violence. My desire and my purpose with Wings & Violence has become to create this room in the form of sound, image and message.
I believe in the importance of finding different ways to reach a person who is in crisis and I believe that there are more ways to do that than through regular support calls. Thanks to the podcast's format and character, one can on their own listen, create the images I describe and in peace and quiet get to feel what it is that is aroused inside. Yes, precisely because the listener does it on his own; at home, on a walk, on the way to work or in a sheltered accommodation, it gives the listener an opportunity to give himself a mere hour that can provide an insight - not only into the world of violence - but also into his own inner world.
What I consistently try to convey are reminders of the places inside a human being that no perpetrator can take away from one. After a woman told me that she felt her perpetrator had hijacked her brain, I wanted to do a podcast where I would try to reach the listener's heart.
The podcast is based on a world full of parables. On the edge of the world of violence stands a giant oak and it is to the oak that I invite my guests. Either we meet in the oak's treetop to talk about the view of the world of violence. Or we meet in a pot down among the oak roots. Down there, under the world of violence, there is a sanctuary full of music, poetry, dreams and visions.
In addition to the conversation with the guest, the listener is invited to a chronicle written by Madame Eli. Madame Eli is a real madame, a wise old woman, a wise gray-haired man, a dancing lone wolf. She is a pipe-smoking, caftan-bearing creature who puts dates in her mouth and presses with her tongue until the flesh has split and she can work out of the core. Madame Eli lives in one of my rooms in my heart and there, in her turquoise bathtub or on her yellow divan, she hammers down chronicles for Wings & Violence on a black typewriter. She gives her own interpretations of what is happening, either in the world of violence or in her own inner world.
Malmö Kvinnojour's hope with the podcast is to reach out to some of the twenty-five percent women in Sweden who are exposed to violence in a close relationship during their lifetime. We want to raise more perspectives, arouse new thoughts and shatter still living myths about violence in close relationships and we also want to reach relatives, friends and acquaintances as well as professionals in violence in close relationships.
The listeners say:
"When I listen, it feels like coming home"
"I know what my own will looks like now, I can feel her in my stomach, it feels so safe! At first I was annoyed that there was a man in the podcast but it passed when I heard the conversation. "The own will with Emil Jensen"
“For the first time, after twenty years of long and difficult marriage, I was reminded of who I really am, deep down. "Candle lighting with Johannes Anyuru"
“Now I also want to look for something bigger to spend my time on, it gave me inspiration to listen to women who have just found something bigger, a life that is not just about one's relationship or even family. "The dark night of the soul with Stoika Hristova"
“I listen to the episode over and over and over again. I recognize myself so much in what it is like to live with a narcissist! "On Narcissism with Caroline van Kimmenade"
"I have learned more about evidence. I wanted to know all that when I was in the relationship. It hurt to hear, but now I understand how difficult it is to be cared for alone, no matter how disgusting the father has been. ” In the tree crown with Barbro Sjökvist / In the tree crown with Ulrika Rogland ”
“When I listened, I got goosebumps. I was just crying. Most of the relief I think. Now I will listen to music in a whole new way. "A private room with Eric Schüldt"
“They were so lovely! I was pissed! "In the treetop with the Chaos Family"
"I listen to the episodes even though I have already heard them, they calm me down when I have anxiety."
The guest of the episode is Bracha Barad from the feminist organization Kulan Organization. With 40,000 members on Facebook, the organization tries to bring together feminist voices from all ethnicities and religions throughout Israel. The ball means together and their work is based on just that - that together we are stronger!
In this episode, Paula takes the oak over her shoulder and heads to Tel Aviv and to Jerusalem to invite guests to the oak's roots and listen to voices about inner peace in the world of violence.
The author Nir Baram visits the treetop and tells about his book A land without borders which describes how he went to East Jerusalem and the West Bank to listen to voices from worlds he had not previously visited.
This is a section about the power of creativity, the one that exists regardless of circumstances and that can be shown through everything from street art to dance to song to writing.
An episode with the actress Catherine Westling who makes the monologue called The Predecessor. It is about a woman named Gulli Petrini who lived at the beginning of the last century, she is one of those who fought for women's suffrage.
Klara Svalin is a researcher in criminology at Malmö University. Her dissertation is about the police's risk assessments for repeated violence in close relationships. The dissertation shows that the accuracy of the police's risk assessments for repeated violence is low, only slightly better than chance.
The end of the season in a conversation about freedom.
About disobedience, defiance, slavery, love and Eros.
About leaving a life to go your own way.
An episode about dance, freedom & poetry
The music in the section:
Bat Techno from Deep Time, music by Jonas Sjöblom, soprano soloist Tua Dominique (this track is available on Spotify)
Morpho Z, music by Luis Cortés from the performance Morpho Z MorphoZ Cortés
Bardo whispers, from the performance Bardo, text reading in different languages from the Tibetan death book, voice collage by Akemi Ishijima
O Eterne Deus by Hildegard von Bingen and background electronics by Jonas Sjöblom, soprano soloist Tua Dominique from the performance Deep Time
A section on Malmö Women's Shelter and on resilience. In a room inside the oak trunk, Paula meets our new business manager Jeanette.
Paula talks to opera singer Suzanne Flink about metoo, about the call #vi sings out and about the demonstration concert - an opera roar.
At the end of the season, Gunilla Röör talks about her resistance root and intuition. We hear her tell about the filming of the Norwegian film The Angel, as well as about her roles as Frida Kahlo and Gertrude Stein.
A section on resistance to violence. Tiffany Kronlöf and Thom Gisslén talk about their thoughts behind the work with the song Take the night back, which they wrote after the increased number of reported rapes and sexual abuse at festivals. The conversation in the treetop is also about the power of music, humor and sisterhood.
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The Chaos family let us play, the songs: So Fucking PK, Take the Night Back, Take Your Position and Sisterhood.
About his latest novel They will drown in their mothers' tears, says the author and poet Johannes Anyuru: “The world is full of darkness, shadows and violence. My job is not to back away from it, but to search for hope and light that I know exists. ” When Paula heard his words, she invited him down to the roots of the oak in a conversation about lighting candles in the darkest of darkness.
Caroline and Paula sit in the oak crown of the oak tree and talk (in English) about people with narcissistic traits, about what a relationship with a narcissist can be like, about the price of staying and how one can do to get out of it.
An episode about Florence Nightingale, about the oppression of the family and about the denial of the gaze.
A section on crime, evidence and treatment.
A section on the power of one's own will and on the necessity of the imagination.
A section on the view of the world of violence.
A section on reminders. About what exists regardless of external circumstances.
Six minutes introduction from the oak in the world of violence.