Hamilton House

WHO’S WHO#1

Whos who?Hello. this is a new paper all about the people who make up co-exist, at hamilton house. the center has floors devoted to dance, art, healing, bicycle r epair, art, fashion, illustration, graphics, festival organiza-tion, and much more, but do you know who the people here are? this guide aims to explore and reveal what goes on behind the scenes here, and give an insight into the people who make up this place.

Sityalila- teaches meditation on the wellbeing floorW Well ive been meditating for about 18, 19

years, ive been teaching for- well I was ordained in 2005, im a member of the trira rather budhist order, it was founded by an Englishman who lived in india for 20 years, and it’s a budhist movement that draws on what the budha actually tought, and now were working out how you prac-tice that in the west, well not just in the west but across the world, india, austrila-sia, across the world, so its not a particu-larly Chinese thing, its sort of- what was the root in what the budha tought and how do we practice it?

\Our temple is just up Gloucester rd on pig sty hill. Same center as Sitajala, theres a big community of us, a good couple of hundred.

my name- Sitya-lila. Sitya means truth, and lila means faith.

The person who ordains you gives you your budhist name, someone whos very experienced, and the idea is that its based on qualities you have, and potentially what you can also develop.

Joe- barman in the canteen

Lioba- shiatsu.how long have you worked here?

2 months

I am based here so I get a slot for example Friday 2-6 and ive also recently got a position here for 16 hours a week as a kind of marketing assistant for wellbeing, this is all wellbeing, and to try and help it run a bit better and to try to help us get more clients.

So basically there’s a lot of things here, d-map, a dance and music kind of section over there where they have all kinds of dances, capuera and things, and I think because it’s a kind of com-munity based thing, its all run by co-exist, it’s a community interest enterprise or one of those things, so we get really really cheap rent and the idea is that we use this space in a way that ben-efits as many people as possible, y’know artists and musicians and there’s lots of other charities in the building, some people just rent offices.

So wellbeing is just this section here. Its really lovely, totally community vibe, everyone helps each other out, skills sharing and that kind of thing, upstairs is the hot-desking area

Kate and Jane- therapists

Im a music therapist, and im an art therapist, together we do workshops art music course, were sort of setting it up at the moment so trying to get support, but we both work totally independently in different places, cant do them today of course as it may disrupt the other sessions.

Kesty- teaches yoga on the wellbeing floor.

Nim - freelance film maker

I do filmmaking myself and I hate, well, I like being on the other side of the lens.

I am on witness protection as well though- joke. we’re on stokes croft mate, that’s standard.

Just started working here, inside. Its lovely man, im originally from here, used to live down there just off Picton street, moved away to Nottingham for about 6 years, just come back now and im just like, theres no work in Nottingham, so I came back here and managed to get work in film straight away, especially here, just doing what I wanna do, video editing.

I work for studios, basically they’ve just moved in, Im working from home most of the time, just popped in today just cos its here so we might as well use it, Im working freelance. Ive only been here a little while.

Its amazing here man, when I lived here, this whole street was completely dead, there was no community at all, Its amazing how much its changed, massively, like in just 5 years, Even Gloucester rd has come on absolutely amazing.

Its nice to be back here, I used to walk down this road every single day for years and years, and it was just like, id basically feel worried more than anything, like that area there, full of people trying to mug you ad stuff, and its just turned out really nice and beautiful really.

Corina- Puppeteer

Her company, Little Ray Puppets, is based at Coexist Studios. We’ve got a whole building full of people doing wonderful things, I’ve lived and worked in Bristol for 11 years, the last five as a puppet maker, puppeteer and puppetry teacher, I grew up in Colombia, Mexico, the US, the UK ... I went back to Argentina when I was 15, I left when I was 18, and I’ve been here ever since. Gran-ma. She’s ancient, the first puppet I ever made, the show was called Scaring Gran-ma, about a cat’s at-tempts to bump off its elderly owner because he’d heard on the radio about another cat that had inherited a lot of money and therefore assumed his owner was also rich. Which, of course, isn’t true at all …

It was fine because no one knew it was me. The Gran-ma puppet works with you sitting beside it and wearing a black hat with a veil. I’d literally lose all inhibition and say what I wanted … Gran-ma’s really terrible at flirting with young men and they seem to enjoy it. So I had the time of my life. You can submerge yourself in a character in a way you personally can’t as a performer. I can’t be an old woman; you can put make-up on me, but I really don’t know what it feels like. Whereas with a puppet I’m observing and putting those characteristics into it, and I can see it in front of me and it’s physically easy. For me anyway, it’s something I can engage with easily. It can take over when I’m doing a show, but it doesn’t feel like work most of the time because it’s so much fun. I really hate having to rely on funding. I guess hav-ing been brought up in a business family, I’ve always thought that if things are worth it and provide a good service, they should be sustainable. But when it comes to making artistic shows, the reality is that it’s always a gamble. You need to have the space and the money to experiment and make mistakes.

Phil & Twitch - Locals and canteen regulars

Sally & Hope- day visitors,