And of course it's fine to not want to be something, of course it's fine to not know how to do something, it's natural, I really believe that.  I'm just trying to be honest with myself.  But what I haven't been able to do is be honest with others.  I've not been able to stand up and say 'I'm not her husband', or, 'I'm not her boyfriend', and 'I'm not in love with her' and 'I'm not able to commit to this' and 'I'm not able to cope with this'.  To say that out loud is something that is very very difficult.

Matthew Nicolas Hopwood's Album

IT'S THE FIRST FOREVER THING

"I’ve never said to my mum ‘I love you’ and my mum has never said it to me. I know she loves me but I’ve never heard those words. My mum’s eighty-three now so, you know, I don’t know how much longer I’ll have her. I mean, every time I leave her I give her a big cuddle but I can’t say those words. What if my mum passes and I’ve never said it? I know, if I don’t tell my mum I love her, I’ll regret it."

I NEVER SAID I LOVE YOU

"I’ve always known that I’ve had mental health issues. And I was frightened of getting close to people because I didn’t want to be a burden.   I felt I was weak and I was needy and I needed pity.  I can remember being terrified, absolutely terrified, of them turning round and saying ‘no, I don’t want to be your friend.’ But I have such a lovely network of people, and I love the bones of them.  And I don’t think any of us have met and I think that’s incredibly powerful.  It’s lovely that you can have such a strength of feeling towards somebody you haven’t actually met."

I LOVE THE BONES OF THEM

A Love Story from Gal Gael. "You can make mistakes, you're not going to be cast out, so there's a sense of acceptance.  This is a community of solidarity, there's something very powerful in that.  That's what our time calls for, nothing short of love."

NOTHING SHORT OF LOVE

I didn't feel for a long time that I was worthy of loving myself.  And it's not that long ago that I came to the realisation that 'yeah, I'm worth loving'.

I'M WORTH LOVING

Get it here: https://smarturl.it/ADID046

At a time when national identities are creating more problems than they are solving, Padre’s slice of pure Englishness shows that music can always rise above borders.      

Another ADID newcomer, Syrian born Quatri, transports the track to the Parisian streets of his adopted home. 

Finally, our favourite Russians,  Gorje and Izhevski, bring Vaughan Williams’ soaring Lark, and Nigerian singer Oe’s pleas for love and unity, squarely to the dance floor.

Love, Leee

A1: Padre, Oe – Sweet Transport
B1: Padre, Oe – Sweet Transport (Gorje Hewek & Izhevski Remix)
B2: Padre, Oe – Sweet Transport (Quatri Remix)

Padre Oe - Sweet Transport

"Well, my mum had just had my brother. Within six weeks she was pregnant with me. And she was pregnant with me by someone else. So I’m sure she felt ashamed by the fact that, when she went back for her six-week check-up for her first baby, she was pregnant again. And so she didn’t tell anyone. And she kept it a secret...So she kept me a secret and I knew that being in secret I had to be still. You can hear faster in water than you can through the air, and I believe babies can hear when people speak. And, usually, when people see women pregnant, they ask about them. You know, they’re happy. You know, they ask, ‘Oh you’re having a baby, what are you having?’ Well, I never heard those words –
I was kept a secret, and so I stayed still."

STILL BEING STILL • Stories of Mother

"I kind of put myself in my mother’s shoes and thought what would it be like to have this baby and just be with that baby all the time, carry this baby for these eighteen years. And then this baby just goes and won’t return calls. I mean, ‘What the fuck?’ So I really felt that pain of hers and I felt how strong she was not to bother me. She just had to sit with it. She knew I was going through something huge – a transformation of finding myself – and she never intervened. She just stayed where she was. I could feel how much effort that took."

LETTING ME GO - Part 1 - Stories of Mother

"I could feel there was my mother and there was her mother and so much history, so much history. All these mothers in line, one after another, passing down all of this history to me and to us through this cord, this umbilical cord, it’s just all passed down. And, eventually, this line reached down to the earth and I could feel this ultimate mother earth and how much grief that mother earth held for her children, for us. It was the same kind of grief that my mum held for me and for her mother."

LETTING ME GO - Part 2 - Stories of Mother

"The love that you feel when you have a child is the most amazing love  -it’s not like anything else that you ever experience, or that I will ever experience. Even though I love my husband, of course, it’s totally different. They come from you, you made them, they’re part of you. Everything from Jason is familiar – I just knew it. And the love that I feel for him: that’s probably one of the scariest loves that I’ve got because it is so deep and it’s different from the love I can put to one side."

THEY COME FROM YOU - Stories of Mother

Thrilled to share this beautiful poem from Roseanne Watt.  Written in both Shaetlan and English this was part of a conversation between us as we explored her award winning poetry collection 'Moder Dy' and my book 'Mother' in preparation for Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019.

THE SLOCKIT LIGHT by Roseanne Watt - read by Roseanne & Matt Hopwood

A Human Love Story - a compelling audio collection of love stories gathered from around the world.  Stories of connection, of identity, of belonging.

These stories express our shared human endeavour to love and connect in every continent on this beautiful earth. Our love stories are global tales from our worldly family. 

A Human Love Story takes me walking as a pilgrim, seeking hospitality where it is offered, meeting people where they are; on the path, in the street, around the corner, in prison, in church, on the towpath.  We share our love stories together, recording these emotive and powerful human experiences and bringing them to the public all around the world through this online audio archive.

This project began in 2012 as An English Love Story but has now grown and expanded to A Human Love Story. The walking journeys are set to reach out into Europe and beyond: beyond borders and divides.  The work will delve deeper into the lives of the outsiders, the asylum seekers, the refugees, those in prison and on the outskirts of our societies. We will be sharing loving stories that explore what we have in common, until we recognise ourselves in the stranger, so we can connect and be compassionate.  So we become less strange to one another:  Until We All Have Faces.   

A Human Love Story is all about sharing; our lives, our experiences, our humanity.  I believe in facilitating encounters where people can connect deeply, feel safe, tell their story, be heard, and discuss matters of the heart, wherever and in whatever way that conversation may find its form.  Through these sharings we help to nurture 'true community', connecting people deeply with their emotional and spiritual self, with other people and with the place they live in.  The sharing of these stories together becomes an act of connection, something that can transform and continue the world. A act of re-membering that allows us to re-vision the world and begin the process of social reclamation.

An essential tool of the project is the journeying; by foot, as a pilgrim. Since 2012 I have walked over 1000 miles. I walk, carrying only a simple bag and stick. I explore the idea of hospitality, the stranger, the guest. I present individuals and communities with the opportunity to extend hospitality in a variety of ways.  How do we respond to the stranger in our community, at our front door?  What does that tell us about our community and the way in which we communally express love? What is the importance of a smile? An open hand? Through walking I enter a place stripped of my possessions and status, open to an open encounter, gently arriving, quietly leaving, unencumbered and free to meet people where they are.

IT'S THE FIRST FOREVER THING

A Human Love Story

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