Mental Wealth Festival Speakers 2021

Baroness Sheila Hollins

City Lit Fellow Baroness Hollins is the Patron of the Mental Wealth Festival.  She is the founder, editor and lead author of the Books Beyond Words series and Chairs the Board of Beyond Words. She is Emeritus Professor of the Psychiatry of Disability at St George’s, University of London, and sits in the House of Lords as a crossbench peer.

Mark Malcomson CBE

Mark Malcomson CBE has been Principal and Chief Executive of City Lit, Europe’s biggest adult education college, since 2011. Previously, he was the Director of Executive Education at London Business School and President of the New York Institute of Finance. Mark was awarded a CBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours List for services to adult education.

Antony Gormley

As a renowned artist and sculptor Antony Gormley has made a huge contribution to the arts in the UK. One of his best known works is the ‘Angel of the North’, a public sculpture in Gateshead in the North of England. Gormley won the Turner Prize in 1994 with ‘Field for the British Isles’. He has been a Royal Academician since 2003, and was a Trustee of the British Museum from 2007-2015. Gormley was knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to the arts. 

In Conversation with Antony Gormley at the British Museum / 15 October / 18:30-19:30 

Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE

Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE has had a hugely successful corporate career which he attributes to the kindness of his school headmaster “He was determined his pupils would never feel excluded”.  In 2015, Her Majesty the Queen appointed Sir Ken as Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant for Greater London and he was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to business and philanthropy. Sir Kenneth is Founder and Chairman of Restoration Partners and is a City Lit Fellow. 

In Conversation with Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE / 12 October / 18:30-19:30

Dr Kathryn Mannix

Kathryn Mannix is a retired palliative care doctor campaigning for better public understanding of dying, using her experience drawn from 30 years working in hospitals, hospices and people's own homes. Her book about the way people live while they are dying, With The End In Mind, became a best-seller and was short-listed for the Wellcome Book Prize. She has written and spoken extensively about end of life care and supporting dying people, across the UK and around the world. 

In Conversation with Kathryn Mannix / 15 October / 11:00-12:00 / City Lit 

Paul Farmer

Paul Farmer has been Chief Executive of Mind, the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006. Paul is Chair of the NHS England Independent Oversight & Advisory Group which brings together health and care leaders and experts to oversee the current mental health long term plan for the NHS in England. He has an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of East London, is an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford, and The Royal College of Psychiatrists, and was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours 2016.

In Conversation with Kathryn Mannix / 15 October / 11:00-12:00 / City Lit 

Sandra Kerr CBE

Sandra Kerr, Race Equality Director, Business in the Community, works together with business leaders and government policy makers to influence action on race in the UK. Prior to working at Business in the Community Sandra worked for DWP and the Cabinet Office. Between 2012 and 2016, Sandra chaired the DWP Ethnic Minority Employment Stakeholder Group, advising the Government on employment barriers facing individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds. In 2012 Sandra was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to Black and Minority Ethnic People.  In 2019 Sandra was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours list for Services to Equality and Diversity. 

Self-Care and Wellbeing for Ethnically Diverse Women / 14 October / 14:00-16:00 / City Lit 

Carly Binger 

Carly Binger, Wellbeing Advisor, Business in the Community, works together with businesses, wellbeing and HR leaders to create compassionate workplaces in the UK.  She brings a dedication and over 18 years’ experience to the wellbeing sector, including project management, consultancy and delivery of frontline mental health and clinical services in the business, charitable and educational sectors.  She is registered a Health and Care Professional since 2008 with the HCPC (Arts Psychotherapist). 

Self-Care and Wellbeing for Ethnically Diverse Women / 14 October / 14:00-16:00 / City Lit 

Jonny Benjamin MBE

Jonny Benjamin MBE is an award-winning mental health campaigner, film producer, public speaker, writer and vlogger. At the age of 20 he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar, and later began making films on YouTube about the condition that have been watched by millions of people. Jonny now speaks publicly about living with mental illness and has written articles and given various interviews on TV, Radio and in print around the world to help educate and break stigma. He has also produced and presented documentaries on BBC Three and Channel 4 on the subjects of mental health and suicide. 

Finding Hope / 12 October / 10:00-11:00 / City Lit

Steve Gilbert

Steve Gilbert is an emerging Anti-Racism consultant who works with senior leaders, helping them tackle racial inequality in their organisation, to deliver better outcomes for users of their service and staff alike. Steve is a Trustee for the Association of Mental Health Providers (March 2018 – current), and Mind (Sept 2017 – current) representing the experiences of people with experiences of mental illness, supporting work to reduce racial inequalities. Steve was recognised in the 2019 Queens Birthday Honours List and appointed OBE for services to mental health.

Finding Hope / 12 October / 10:00-11:00 / City Lit

Melissa James 

Melissa James is a Singer, Songwriter, Artist who uses the gift of her voice, and her writing of songs, for personal and collective healing. She is the Founder of the charitable mental health and Big Sing initiative SING4SANE. This project was spearheaded by Melissa's song Live Again after she decided to organise a pop-up Big Sing in which she invited members of the public to sing this song alongside her at Caffe Nero in Heathrow in February 2016. 

The SING4SANE Big Sing / 14 October / 11:00-12:45 / City Lit

Suzanne Alderson

Suzanne Alderson is the author of 'Never Let Go - How to Parent Your Child Through Mental Illness' that was published by Penguin in 2020. In 2016, she founded Parenting Mental Health, because she couldn’t find the support, connection or information she needed when her 14 year old daughter became depressed and suicidal after bullying. Parenting Mental Health is now a global community and UK charity that supports over 35,000 parents of young people with mental health issues as they navigate the practical and emotional impacts on themselves,
families and lives.

Parenting and Mental Health: Never Let Go / 11 October / 13:00-14:00 / Online

Tanja Sharpe 

Tanja Sharpe is the founder and community leader of the Creative Counsellors. Creative Counsellors is a growing global movement of over 11500 counsellors and therapists from 99 different countries. Tanja is also the Founder of Confident Hearts, an organisation that has trained over 180 coaches worldwide to Inspire & Empower Youth through Creative Wellbeing & Mindfulness. She loves to connect with people through speaking, writing and community and she has worked with communities and charities around Mental Health & Community Leadership.

Parenting and Mental Health: Never Let Go / 11 October / 13:00-14:00 / Online

Benjamin Hicks

Ben Hicks trained as actor and spent 15 years working in television, film and theatre. He then moved into the charitable sector and ran The Guardian Foundation, the Guardian newspaper’s charity which promotes diversity in UK newsrooms and supports freedom of expression around the world. Ben has recently moved in the field of mental health and leads ADRU’s creative work with patients. He is passionate about the therapeutic potential of the arts and compassionate communities.

Panel: “Keep Up Art” - creativity and mental health in a pandemic / 12 October / 16:00-17:00 / Bethlem Hospital

Ian Tucknott

Ian Tucknott is an educator, cultural theorist and creative practitioner, with 15 years experience of teaching & managing in the areas of contemporary art, critical & cultural theory, and art history. Ian is currently Head of School for Humanities & Sciences at City Lit.

Poetry Circle / 12 October / 14:00-15:30 / Bethlem Hospital

Keith Clapson

Keith Clapson is Trustee of Friends of the Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit at Bethlem Hospital, volunteers for Bethlem and Stonewall, and is a developing ceramic artist. In 2017 Keith spent four months in SLaM’s Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit at Bethlem undergoing life changing therapy, and in the process re-discovered his passion for art.

Panel: “Keep Up Art” - creativity and mental health in a pandemic / 12 October / 16:00-17:00 / Bethlem Hospital

Sam Curtis

Sam Curtis is an artist and curator based in London. Working with other people is central to his practice. Through dialogue, walking and making with others; his work explores ideas around agency, autonomy, exchange and labour. He has exhibited and worked with Seymour Art Collective, Whitechapel Gallery, Edgware Road Project: Serpentine Galleries, Turner Contemporary, CREATE London, The Showroom, Eastside Projects, Arts Admin, Ateliers de Rennes Biennale, Beursschouwburg, News of the World and Pi: Artworks Istanbul. He has an MFA from Goldsmiths College and his work is represented by Division of Labour. He is currently curator at Bethlem Gallery.

Panel: “Keep Up Art” - creativity and mental health in a pandemic / 12 October / 16:00-17:00 / Bethlem Hospital

Vaccasin

Vaccasin started meditating with the Transcendental Meditation School in London in 1981. In 1986 he joined a Buddhist community in Sydney where he also began to practice yoga. He started his yoga teacher training with Peter Scott in Melbourne in 1990 and completed it at the Maida Vale Iyengar Institute, in London in 1994. He has been teaching yoga and meditation ever since and set up Yoga Point in Brixton, in 2010 with his partner Rebecca Hopwood. Together they endeavour to make Yoga Point a place that is welcome to all.

Yoga and Compassionate Mind Workshop / 12 October / 9:30-11:00 / Bethlem Hospital

Charlotte Seirberg

Charlotte Seirberg is a Feldenkrais practitioner with a passion for raising awareness and optimising your physical, emotional and mental wellbeing with movements, hands-on functional integration and mindfulness-based approaches

Workshop: Unlocking lockdown with the Feldenkrais Method / 13 October / 14:00-15:15 / Online

Clare Barton-Harvey

Clare Barton-Harvey is a practising artist and tutor, specialising in art and mindfulness, drawing, painting and slow looking.

Drawing, mindfulness and creative practice: a conversation / 15 October / 11:00-12:30 / Online