Introduction
For certain people walls can be important and for me too, walls are important. Only I'm not seeking to build a wall, but break down walls. The wall in question, i.e. the wall in the picture is part of the wall which between 1939 and 1943 surrounded the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland. The inclusion of this wall here is symbolic and no, I'm not seeking to destroy one of the most important monuments in the history of Warsaw.
About me
Dzien dobry. I am Stella Baker. I'm a former Fringe dramatist, stage director, independent film maker, a photographer, writer, researcher. I'm also the creator of a theory known as Creative Law and the person behind Qultura, a non profit which combines human rights and cultural development. This is my story. It's quite long, but not typical. But I'll try to keep it brief.
More about walls..
I became a writer back about 1989, being in the performing arts. I started out by writing plays and scripts and at the time curious about what was going on on the other side of the Berlin Wall, and a continent which was divided in two halves by events of the Second World War, decided to explore and discover what was going on on the other side. Originally I wanted to be creative, to develop culture in positive ways, and to find a relationship or link between these two halves of Europe through my creativity and through culture. This is how all this started.
My relationship with Poland
I'm not Polish, have no Polish family, but decided to settle in Poland to introduce the concept of modern Fringe theatre to Poland. This was to be the first half of the link between the two halves of Europe. I emigrated to Poland in 1993 or thereabouts from London, found a job teaching English in a college and then a university and set about learning the language, culture and history of Poland.
This was how I came across Marek Kotanski, the man in the picture. Marek Kotanski was one of the early pioneers of social exclusion. He was a psychologist and charity worker who in 1970's Poland developed the MONAR method of drug rehabilitation and later founded MARKOT, a charity which brings the socially excluded back into society - which at the time in Poland meant such people as homosexuals, ex-offenders, drug addicts, the homeless, single mothers and people with disabilities.
This influenced my work in theatre. Fascinated by 1960's culture I decided to write stage plays on social issues and social realism. I found success in Polish theatre through what many believed to be my innovative work - in the space of 11-12 years I wrote and directed around 15 plays, some comedy, some drama. I have created several theatres, worked with non professional actors, have trained hundreds of actors, given several hundred drama workshops and from 1996 to 2005 started working with socially disaffected people, such as the unemployed, former criminals, young people, people with addiction, and from my work started developing a theory of modern drama. Emulating Kotanski's work after his tragic death in 2002 from a car accident my last theatre was developed entirely from people with issues such as addiction and mental health.
Within this same period, from 1994 or thereabouts, I became active in humanitarian and community and cultural activism. My first issue was against the death penalty in 1994 and I was part of the movement which led to the abolition of the death penalty in Poland in 1995. Through my work and my activism I got to meet different people, becoming well known enough to meet former members of the Polish Solidarity movement, Polish politicians, people from the Polish filmindustry and entertainment, journalists and newspaper editors, and for a while enjoyed the sort of success and lifestyle that many people dream of but never really achieve or experience.
Coming out, my downfall and return to the UK.
In the first part of this century I started to become more outspoken in my work. In many ways I became dissident about life in the West, critical of the EU, I was vehemently opposed to the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and I also spoke out against austerity long before it was an issue in the West. Increasingly I was becoming opposed to the rise of the far right in Poland and was even sent to the Ukraine to participate in the Orange Revolution in 2004 by left wing politicians. Shortly after I gave my public support for equal rights for the Polish LGBT community.
It was in the context of the 2005 election campaigns for the Polish presidency which Lech Kaczynski won, when he started banning Equality Parades for the Polish LGBT community and various far right activists started turning up and stoning the LGBT community that I chose to come out publicly as a transgendered woman. My downfall was rather public and spectacular. My artistic career and achievements were all erased, I lost my translation agency, home, contacts most of my family and friends to end up street homeless, destitute and isolated. It was November 2005. It was a gamble to begin with, andn I lost. But I didn't care. I was living a lie anyway, I was tired of living a double life undetected by the Polish media for some years and I was happy to lose the money, popularity and trappings of a lifestyle to be myself and be real. I have zero regrets.
Creative Law and Qultura
It took me four days to hitchhike back to the UK after spending a month or so street homeless in the harsh Polish winter of 2005 - ankle deep snow and subzero temperatures. I arrived back in the UK with frostbitten feet and not much else but the couple of bags of stuff I managed to take with me from Poland. I started developing my theory and my theatre. I was recommended to become the T in Stonewall but Stonewall didn't want to hire me, nor did I want to work in the Old Vic. I wanted to start again from the very bottom, recover and work my way up from the very bottom.
It was in 2009 that I discovered that my theory of drama wasn't, and that drama was connected to the development of consciousness. Out of this I developed Creative Law and developed Qultura as a non profit human rights and cultural development organization to promote human creativity and human individuality.
About my cause, my mission and my humanitarian work.
I am a trans activist but not in the way you think. I actually dislike being the centre of attention, have no wish to create or develop a personality cult, or become a SJW. I feel I have proven myself through my work, my writing, my creativity and would be disappointed if this was to focus on me or what I can do.
This isn't my objective. It never was all about me, and everything I have achieved has been achieved in cooperation and collaboration with other people and many of who haven't had the sort of opportunities or creativity that I have had. From the start I have chosen to do what I can to help, support and empower other people - people such as the homeless, people with disabilities, the sick, the poor, the people who have mental health issues, women, people of colour, the excluded, the marginalized, the dis-empowered, and all the people who have faced issues far greater than mine, who aren't inspirational, whose lives haven't come together, and people who struggle each and every day, the people with dead end jobs who struggle to survive and make ends meet.
There is a real need for an organization in this country which stands for human rights, opportunities and cultural development in support of the individual against the corporate, the institutional, the collective and most of all the State. An organization which can empower people, which can tell you that it's okay to be different, that it's okay to be yourself, and which can work with the people who are discriminated against, marginalized, shunned, excluded, and who are often unsupported. Let's get beyond the labels, the categories and the various ideologies.
There is a great need out there in society to be human, there is a need for compassion, for empathy, for community, for friendship, for people to be able to say to each other you are not me, and I am not you, but you know what? This is okay. This is our strength. Even though we are different we can still reach out and support each other, we can still be friends, we can still share a community.
Where I am at today
Even though I have never managed to find regular or stable paid work through various health issues - mental health and physical health - I have thousands of hours of unpaid voluntary, community and charitable work behind me, I have developed Creative law and Qultura as much as I can, I'm an established community figure in my local community in Battersea, a member of the Green Party. I have stood twice in local elections and am currently serving as the Equalities Officer for the local party, through which I have a keen interest in humanitarian issues, welfare reform (well UBI) and working to end white supremacy.
I have got as far as I can on my own. I am currently recovering from eye surgery and two years of struggling with failing eyesight. I'm trying to pay catch up with utility bills and often struggle to buy food and fuel from my limited income. I'm still funding Qultura and its work from my almost non existent income. I try to find paid work but thousands of job applications and diminishing benefits means I struggle, my applications vanish seemingly into thin air. I have some rent arrears I'm struggling to overcome, unpaid bills and am often, due to failing health close to either eviction or a benefit sanction.
This is where I need your support
I've worked out a 'ballpark figure' budget of some £300 to catch up with my bills and cover most of the basic operational costs for Qultura to ensure that it retains its domain (which I almost lost in the New Year) web hosting, databases and basic running costs. I'd also like to purchase a second hand computer off eBay for the community space.
I also need some volunteers who are local to Battersea Park in London, or online if not, to help reopen Qultura and get it properly functioning and perhaps one or two more trustees. I'm very openminded and flexible when it comes to volunteering roles. See volunteering shouldn't be anything like work and certainly not unpaid work, it should be rewarding, fulfilling, meaningful, significant. Opportunities exist in administration, IT, project management, project development, and some friendly positive people to be on hand to interact with others. I'm also looking for people who can get involved in videos, either presenting or doing voice work (voice overs). I'm always open to new ideas and people say I'm fun to work with.