Pankhurst Made My World Get Wider

I think Jodie [Crisis Arts Tutor] told me, she told me ‘it would be good idea if you would be

Pankhurst’. I decided it, uh, it, would be very interesting to be Pankhurst.

And it was very interesting – because by being dressed as her, posing as her, I became Pankhurst, I

feel myself as Pankhurst. It gave me a much clearer picture of her as a woman.

I think it was very important for me and for many people. Because it was opportunity to think

about a person who did a lot of good things for women and for the world. Emmeline showed that

one person can open the world and give people the opportunity to decide how to think, feel, and

act. Emmeline help women step up a level.

But, I tell you what Pankhurst made for me more. Now I feel myself not my age, not seventy-nine,

I feel like I am twenty-five. Much energy. Much energy; I can concentrate on important things. I

admire now many women who have helped to change the world. Like Ellen Sirleaf, the first female

president in Africa. Pankhurst make me think about women who make a lot for the world. She

opened my eyes. Yes, yes. And Rosa Parks, who helped to end segregation.

Also, many more people who do good works. Without, uh, without ever being famous. Like my

friend, Alison Michael. Nearly, nearly ninety years old, who was and will be my icon, who uses

warmth, friendliness and kindness. My best friend, my icon. And for me, everyone who works at

Crisis and the Old Fire Station can be icon. Because I have never seen, and I never can imagine, that

people could be so kind, so clever, so patient.

Because Pankhurst is in every person. Being involved in the ICON project, give me much better

understanding of empathy and trust. I feel ICON at all times as a warmth in my heart. It’s real, I feel it.

Yes. Yes, yes, it changed me as person. I think that something changed inside me. I became not

so strong to criticise myself. I became more confident when I look at world through the eyes of

Pankhurst.

After ICON, I wrote a song, it’s my first song, and I performed my song on stage. Because, because,

Pankhurst made me more confident. I think it maybe was, uh, buried deep inside me, because

before Crisis, before ICON, I was a very shy person. Shy. Shy. I..I..I am afraid to ask something, I am

afraid to go somewhere, I am afraid I didn’t know how to react.

In the photo I was Emmeline Pankhurst. And yes, it gave me another life. Yes. I feel that I have

another life. Pankhurst, Pankhurst opened for me, really opened my eyes. Pankhurst made my

world get wider.