Grief can be a powerful catalyst for change. In this conversation, our panellists will discuss finding new purpose and meaning after losing someone dear. Many people turn their loss into something that will benefit others, with grief becoming a driving force in their efforts to make the world a better place.
Some express themselves through art, some through literature. Others take up hobbies or interests to honour their partners, while others pour their energies into new projects or passions following the reminder that life is so very short.
We welcomed The Right Honourable Stuart Lawrence to this session. Stuart is a consultant, youth engagement specialist, public speaker and the younger brother of Stephen Lawrence, the British teenager murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993.
Artist and creative producer Simon Bray also joins us. Simon’s Loved&Lost photography project has been seen by over three million people worldwide and his most recent photography project, Siblings, was inspired by the death of his sister.
Clover Stroud is an experienced journalist and broadcaster making regular contributions to TV and radio. She has had three columns in the Sunday Telegraph and has written regularly for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar, The Spectator, RED, Elle and Tatler. Clover’s recent book, My Wild and Sleepless Nights, examines what it means to be a mother, and reveals with unflinching honesty the many conflicting emotions that this entails: the joy and the wonder, the loneliness and despair.
This panel is hosted by Dr Lesel Dawson, a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Bristol. Lesel specialises in grief, Renaissance literature and the history of the emotions. She’s leading a research project on Creative Grieving and writing a book that explores how art and the imagination can enable the bereaved to express and process their loss.
