We are bound together by stories, our own personal story we tell ourselves and our stories
of the world we live in, that we share with others".
of the world we live in, that we share with others".
Myrna Shoa mixed media artist filmmaker storyteller
Can we ever convey a time that is other than the one we live in? We barely register the changes from year to year, as like a wave rippling on to a shore the currents change imperceptibly. Our yardstick of what we think of as good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable change. Trying to express it, however, allows us to see where we are today and where we have come from, without judgment but simply to pay attention to how our thinking and worldview has changed without us noticing it.
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The power of images and stories places us in a historical context and helps us make sense of the world, in finding out who we are, what has shaped us, and who we can become. With all my creative projects I am interested in the stories we tell ourselves and how sharing stories with others can bring fresh insights. As an historical records of a time I created.
World Turned Upside Down is an animation I made in January 2018. |
"I am still adding to the other websites I developed, The Fool 1973 as well as A Childhood Remembered. I am now creating and developing a Patchwork of Stories, films that capture powerful untold stories from so called ordinary people. They convey a time and mindset of another era that can help us all take a fresh perspective on our world today", Myrna Shoa
All my energy now is in telling stories through film, photos, words and artwork.
Yvonne Reed, Donald. Dede, Caroline Poole
In 2024 my film The Suitcase was shortlisted for a prize at The Portobello Film Festival.
Watch my films on my westlondonfilms YouTube channel
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Yvonne Reed is a creative, talented woman, storyteller, writer and Bridal Dress Designer. She was in and out of hospital with an unknown illness at that time from the age of one to thirteen years old. At thirteen she was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease. Yvonne has triumphed magnificently finding ways to succeed and thrive in her life. A story about ignorance and survival.
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Graphic designer Donald Dede lived through the Biafra War, the Nigerian civil war (1967 - 1970). This is his story. Donald speaks of torture, sabotage, courage, luck and survival. Donald as an ammunition technician never went to the war front.The problems that led to the civil war have not been tackled.
Remembering is important if we are to learn from what happened. |
Artist Caroline Poole tells the story about the suitcase her Hungarian Jewish Grandparents brought to England in 1946. The suitcase contains stories about her childhood, her family members murdered in Auschwitz and stories about survival. The family were living in the shadow of an existential threat in Hungary at that time: Hitler was looming over their shoulders. Life is fragile, what seems stable and secure can turn upside down overnight.
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"I am more than ever in a story gathering time," Myrna Shoa
A World In A Suitcase
A World in a Suitcase is an innovative mixed media visual storytelling project, conceived and developed by Myrna Shoa and Timuchin Dindjer that inspires people from diverse communities to take a fresh look at their 'Worlds' through sharing stories, art, photography, paper collage & film.A World in a Suitcase project is a resource for people to take a look at their lives, share their stories with others. For now the Suitcase is closed. The project as it was has come to an organic end, yet the material,
knowledge gained can be used and adapted for future activities.
knowledge gained can be used and adapted for future activities.
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A World in a Suitcase worked with a diverse range of Grassroots community groups ensuring that there is a tangible, meaningful outcome, that the participants can feel ownership and part of.
The aim of the project: To foster closer relations, understanding, empathy and tolerance between communities. |
A Childhood Remembered - Stories that may resonate with yours
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In the last year of my sister Sandra's life we passionately gathered together our stories from our childhood for this website - Sandra and Myrna
We disagreed sometimes about what happened realising that we saw the world through our own eyes. This enlivened the recollections, made them richer. Without this wonderful story gathering I would not have been able to write, illustrate and have published Strange Ways stories about our shared upbringing.These stories are mainly for our families to read, to answer questions about their backgrounds, history and connection to the other cultures they have come from. |
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Out of the blue, at the end of 2021 I had 2 emails from people from my past that had 'found' me after approximately 65 years, a relative and a school mate of Sandra and me, "The Past, Present and Future are entwined in these bizarre events. People who have known me when a child at primary school have in 2021 found me, through my website, got in contact with me and filled in gaps in my stories, and memories," Myrna Shoa
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PAST PRESENT & FUTURE - Through these new encounters I am able to reach back onto the past and add information, my truths to those times which in turn will affect the future for all of us who knew those stories from so long ago.
History is fluid, the way we look at events is dependent on what information is gathered from different points of view, the context of the times. Memories of past events and stories will inevitably become fixed if no new input has been added to those recollections. |
"With Sandra's passing I am the last of the Horowitchs. No one else is alive. As children the only relatives we had were our parents, Uncle Morris and Aunty Rosie. The relatives on our mother Ina's side, the Hendrys we thought were all dead as there had been no contact with them since we were children, until 2021. Sandra and I met Aunty Betty in London our mother's sister several times in London and Uncle James our mother's brother and family in the 1950s, in Scotland.
Sandra lives on in these stories, These stories may resonate with yours," Myrna Shoa 2020
Sandra lives on in these stories, These stories may resonate with yours," Myrna Shoa 2020
"Since Sandra's death I have been trying to find out any more information about our backgrounds. In May 2021, I discovered the actual newspaper articles about our grandfather Myer, Rosie and Morris, recently digitised, uploaded and available free from the British Newspaper Archive. Sandra would have been amazed and delighted to see all this. I hope she is looking down and smiling. SEE STRANGE WAYS STORIES our version of these stories told to us over our upbringing."
The Fool 1973
Myrna Shoa created The Fool website as a historical record of a time and resource showing how she, Ruti and other creative women gave birth to a successful enterprise. The Fool a designer women’s hippie fashion company started in 1973 with a little bit of magic. The Fool caught the zeitgeist, the spirit of the time.
Myrna Shoa and Ruti -Then & Now
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Myrna, Aury, Ruti, Laila
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The Fool designed manufactured and sold colourful, flowing, lacy hippie style women’s clothes around The Portobello Road area at a time of great change. From Aden, Manchester, Eritrea, Cheetham Hill, Scotland, Clydebank, Dvinsk, Russia, Ruti, Myrna and Aury set up The Fool.
This hotchpotch combination made the magic happen brought the spark alive and created a successful entrepreneurial business.
STORYTELLING through film - powerful stories about marriage, men, war, survival
Attitudes towards women have changed over the decades, centuries formed by the context of the societies at a given time about how women are seen. It would have been a male focused viewpoint about the world and women. It still is a mans world in most parts of the world.
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Marriage is a short documentary that gives a
voice to women who have not been heard before. Four older women from diverse backgrounds in conversation with Myrna Shoa about Marriage, Expectations, Women's Rights, Race, Religion, Men, Contraception and Love. Stories about womenstoriesaboutwomen.wixsite.com/stories- about-women- |
A record of stories from women, their perspectives on Marriage, Mothers, Men, Sex, Women's Rights, Expectations, Dreams, Older Women, gained from a lifetime's experiences. We need these stories to see where we have come from and find out whether there has been any real change in a woman's life.
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A Patchwork of Stories apatchworkofstories.weebly.com - Older Women, Myrna Shoa and Yvonne Reed creative entrepreneurial friends share stories from their lifetime experiences about Older Women. and Marriage. These films are part on an ongoing series giving a voice to untold stories.
Storytelling connects us to the world
"Stories, both those we tell ourselves and those we encounter, profoundly shape our identities, beliefs, and behaviours. They provide frameworks for understanding the world, inspire action, and connect us to others. Recently, Donald Dede and I have been telling each other stories from ancient tales. The telling of stories transported us to a place where we could think and feel in a fresh way. I created the illustrations for the exhibition's catalogue, Glass Odyssey, based on The King's Son story. Glass by artist/ storyteller John Patsalides," Myrna Shoa
Strange Ways Stories tales that are true yet unbelievable.
I have written and illustrated true family stories, Strange Ways Stories published by Gatehouse Books.
The Sofa, The Marriage, The Box of Chocolates and Rosie & the Iron Bar. I co - wrote with author Hazel Riley and also illustrated the beginner readers 'From The Heart' series, retelling the Greek myths in a modern urban setting.
The Sofa, The Marriage, The Box of Chocolates and Rosie & the Iron Bar. I co - wrote with author Hazel Riley and also illustrated the beginner readers 'From The Heart' series, retelling the Greek myths in a modern urban setting.
Creativity can rise from the ashes of difficult, chaotic times
Innovation comes about through necessity
"The Covid Pandemic now seems a distant memory. Over Covid Lockdown 2020- 2021 I conceived and created 3 video animations. The Man in The Red Suit. I also made Our World in Lockdown with Timuchin Dindjer. I recorded Inma Meruelo reading her delightful book she wrote and illustrated for children, Once Upon a Time in Covid -19 Time". Myrna Shoa
https://thesuitcaseproject.weebly.com/ A new website in collaboration with artist Caroline Poole
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