NEWS
Dolly featured in South London Press

AND/ORGASMHead thrown back in ecstasy
to see the stars fall on my face
and travel down the length
of my body
to exit
as
an
electric
flower
Orgasm, a star
that dissolves the skin
turns blood into the speed of sound
The heart sings beautifully
without knowing the words
to the song.
Everything is on a cosmic scale
Bliss creates and destroys worlds in an instant
my nerves orbit an imploded universe
chaos theory as orgasmChaos theory as love
is that you and I are here together
in the smiling rain
our eyes seeing only each other
in a world that is collapsing around us...



MP3s available now of my music to download: Chipmunka now sells my music too under one of my stage names Sugar Psychosis. Check out http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk/shop/
I am making my first 16mm film: at South Thames College, along with other film students, we are filming a script I wrote called 'Milk'. It is a dreamlike piece where balloons are common currency and hostages are stuck inside cows. Makes perfect sense to me really!
Reading The Maenad Angel Poetics after Some Moments of Love was a totally different experience. Dolly Sen has produced in this book a long totally modern poem. Though on first glance it appears possibly a performance piece, on closer inspection it is incredibly complex and well worth the effort taken to understand it. Think of Eliot combined with the underside of city life, add a touch of madness coupled with cynicism and the key to this poem is found.
It is a well-crafted, didactic, satirical paean of epic proportions. It rails against the 9-5, telly addicted, larger drinking, high mortgaged, credit crazy life. The maenad comes from the Greek and refers to the bacchanal; therefore the maenad angel is the angel of the rave - and does she rave. Using this angel metaphor, haiku, tanka and nagatu-uta this poem winds its way through city and relationship observing, being, both prostitute or bag lady with the harsh intensity of the outsider. It pulls no punches either in pace or language. No stone is left unturned or expletive barred as the angel raves against life and mortality. The only relief occurs on page 23 where two sets of dotted lines are used to mark a change of pace, a period of introspection before a period of balanced free verse precedes the final denouement.




Appearance on 2 Radio shows: On 14th June, I hosted a show called 'Creative Routes Radio' on Resonance Radio 104.4fm or http://www.resonancefm.com to launch CR Records'd first CD' Statute of Liberty'. And on the 19th I was interviewed by Sabrina George for her wonderful website http://newcomedyradio.com/ about my comedy. When the interview is uploaded, I will put the link on this page.
2nd Memoir now out in Ebook: The followup to the acclaimed 'The World is Full of Laughter' is now out on the Chipmunkapublishing website. To read more about it and to buy a copy, click here
HOW TO BE MAD BOOK: I have also just finished editing the anthology 'How to be Mad' and we are aiming for an October book launch. Here is sneak preview of the cover, which I have designed.
Award winning author
Dolly Sen
launches her new book
Am I Still Laughing?
at the first annual Mad Book Fair
Tuesday 10 October 2006
South London Gallery, 65 Peckham Road, London SE5
6.30pm to 9pm
FREE
Am I Still Laughing? is an epistle to
equality, tolerance and the true beauty of madness. Dolly Sen's powerful personal
pilgrimage to love, life and humanity again is a very intimate tale about the
power of dreaming, taking control and fighting for the right to be oneself and
to be equal and to be accepted
David Morris, Senior Policy Adviser to the Mayor (Disability) Greater London
Authority
Dolly Sen is a writer, director, artist, filmmaker, poet, performer, raconteur, playwright, mental health consultant, music-maker and public speaker. She was born in 1970 in London, and had her first psychotic experience aged 14. She dropped out of school, and has had to share her life with severe mental health problems ever since. Despite being told she’d never amount to anything - that she’d probably end up in Broadmoor - she has achieved astounding success, proving, as Dolly says: ‘that the mind is an amazing thing; it can drive you mad and inspire you in the same breath... You can do anything if you believe you can’.
Dolly Sen’s new book, Am I Still Laughing?, is the follow up to her acclaimed memoir, The World is Full of Laughter. Her first book started out as a possible suicide note and ended up as a celebration of life. The brutally honest account of living with madness has been an inspiration to readers around the world, and has positively changed many peoples’ lives. Dolly’s father was a small-time singer and actor, and through him she worked as an extra on various films including the Star Wars epic, The Empire Strikes Back, until Steven Spielberg sacked her because he thought her child-breasts were too big for the part of an underfed child slave. Confused by sci-fi reality and day-to-day fiction Dolly traces her madness ‘all the way back to when I worked on The Empire Strikes Back. It wasn't a film, it was reality, and it was up to me to maintain the good and evil in the universe'.
Since the publication of The World is Full of Laughter by Chipmunka in 2002, Dolly has published a further three books; taken on performance roles at The Young Vic, the Royal Festival Hall, and around Europe; undertaken a poetry tour; won a poetry award from Poet Laureate Andrew Motion; directed two plays and several TV films; and performed spoken word at City Hall and Oxford University. In August this year she was featured on the Radio 4 programme Between Ourselves, discussing the reality of living with schizophrenia. She’s still mad, but is she still laughing?
Dolly is a member of the Camberwell-based charity Creative Routes, an award winning interdisciplinary arts organisation run by, and for, the survivors of the mental health system and of mental distress. It aims to dissolve the stigma of mental illness by encouraging the unique creativity of mad people, promoting mental well-being and the acceptance of individuality in the wider community.
The Mad Book Fair offers the opportunity
to buy and browse books, and to meet Dolly and other writers; it also features
the launch of a major poetry competition taking the theme of ‘lost sheep’
as inspiration. The prize will be awarded by Andrew Motion in the new year.
There will also be free book giveaways; eccentric music and performance from,
amongst others, Dogfood, a dada-ish motley crew specialising in issues of
madness, love, death and silliness; plus an open mic spot for mad poets, art
installations and mental health stalls.
www.dollysen.com
www.myspace.com/dozzyangel
www.chipmunkapublishing.com
www.madbookfair.org.uk
Dolly Sen is available for interview
Photos and review copies available on request
press enquiries to: Helen Maleed
tel/fax: 020 7732 4624 mobile: 07986 235 855
email: helen@greendesk.demon.co.uk
A YOUTUBE VID of me performing at the abovementioned event. Thanks to Mad Pride's Ted Curtis for the filming.
July
2007 has been quite busy: a spoken word gig at Reading Irish Club, a poem included
in the Dutch poetry anthology 'Het Woord Over Ruigoord', and kind words from
DadaSouth's Colin Hambrook 'Whether
writing fiction or biography her narratives unfold with humour in the face of
harrowing and painful reality. Perhaps there is a Church of the Pink Hatted
waiting to save you? If you are looking for enlightenment you – or even
just a pinch of insight then you've come to right place."
Music
Myspace: I have put my music up on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/sugarpsychosis
Check out my latest composition 'milk' on it.
MENTAL HEALTH MEDIA AWARDS: Two of the radio interviews I participated in have been shortlisted for a Mental Health Media award. Winners will be announced Oct 10th. Go to http://www.mhmawards.org/
I've uploaded a 3 minute film showreel of mine up onto youtube. Click here to see it.
I know I have been quiet these last few months but I am at university now studying film, but I will be still working some amazing side projects. I am helping put on a mad chicks gig on March 8th, performing at Bonkersfest in June, also I will be blogging for 1st time for Disability Arts Online and looking forward to it.
A little something from me to you for 2008. A free download of one of my old books MAENAD ANGEL POETICS . ENJOY! Robert Dellar called the book, "The deranged descendant of Allen Ginsberg's 'HOWL'"
Feb 2008: It's been awhile since I added something to the news, but I have been having problems with my hosting company, but things are resolved now. Anyway, back to business. I am now blogging for Disability Arts Online, click here to check it out.
I am also going to perform at my university's LGBT's event on Feb 29th. More details when I have them.
I am putting on with the other mad chicks, a gig on 9th March at Corsica Studios. Go to our website for more details.
Also, I am making a film called 'Why am I Mad?' asking a variety of people with conflicting viewpoints just that question. It should be an interesting experience!
The latest 'The World is Full of Laughter' review from Chris Barchard of the magazine 'Perceptions': 'She succeeds in doing something very difficult, which is to describe the process of going mad in an intergrated way... it is not a book for the squeamish and is completely unsentimental. However it is a book about hope, the conquest of adversity and forgiveness that should be an inspiration and a lesson to all of us.'
LONDON LADYFEST 2008:

I will be part of the film festival, presenting a couple of films at Islington Arts Factory on Saturday 10 May. http://www.ladyfestlondon.co.uk/
A film at Cannes: One of my films 'Life as a Side Effect' has been shown at Cannes, hosted by Cannes in a Van http://www.cannesinavan.com/ and will also show at the Movieum at County Hall.
JULY 2008
I was interviewed for a Sunday Times article about pushing madness into the limelight. If the image below is not readable. Check out the online version here.

Bonkersfest
The reason the article was written is because the 3rd Bonkersfest is on this Saturday 19th July on Camberwell Green. BonkersFest! is a free annual one day summer arts and music festival, illuminating and celebrating madness, creativity, individuality and eccentricity; combating stigma and promoting good mental health.
Armed with nothing more than a stepladder and a light bulb, I will attempt – at set periods during the day – to screw the lightbulb into the sky. I am doing this because the world needs more light. To quote Groucho Marx - 'Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light'.
If you are attending, come say hello to me. I will be very easy to recognise: I will be holding a lightbulb. For more details go to the Bonkerfest website
RUBY WAX
I will also be interviewed by Ruby Wax this week for the Headroom Campaign
on the BBC website. More info when I have actually done the interview and
know when it is online.
BBC London
radio Breakfast Show with JoAnne Good and Rowland Rivron -
On Saturday 19th July I will be
on their morning show from 8am - check it out. Here’s the link to the
show/presenters: http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/05/24/weekend_breakfast_feature.shtml
THE RUBY
WAX INTERVIEW: Despite
the fact I had a cold, that my shirt collar was upturned, and my hair kept
getting into my eyes, I thought it was a good interview. (There is a point
in the interview where Ruby brushes the hair out my eyes, which I thought
was very sweet of her.) Click here
to watch it.
Here's me in my local paper, the South London Press, screwing a lightbulb into the sky, with the original photo next to it.
photo by Carina Wint.