Valerie Mason-John (Warwick Avenue)
Born 1962, Cambridge, England.
‘When I learned to give myself loving kindness, it gave me the strength and courage to have my voice to speak out against bullying.
Valerie Mason- John*
Valerie Mason-John, also known as Vimalasara in Buddhist Dharma communities, is an award-winning writer, performer, public speaker and Co-Founder of Eight Step Recovery - Using the Buddha’s Teaching to Overcome Addiction. As a spoken word poet, they have also performed under the stage name Queenie.
In their 2013 TEDx talk on bullying, which has been viewed more than 370,000 times, Valerie speaks about the many hardships they faced as a child. Born in Cambridge to a single mother who had recently moved to Britain from Sierra Leone, Valerie was placed in foster care at six weeks and moved to a Barnardo’s orphanage at the age of 4. They remained in the care of Barnardo’s The Village, Barkingside Essex until 1973, when they went to live with their birth mother, only to be removed by police and was moved to Beech Croft assessment centre at Warwick Avenue, where she met Carol Gallaghar who fostered them aged 16. Valerie survived their first suicide attempt at the age of 12, and a second attempt aged 13. When they were 15, they lived on the streets for six months, until they were caught shoplifting and sentenced to 18 months in Borstal Institute for Juveniles. They developed bulimia nervosa, and survived a third suicide attempt at the age of 18.
Valerie accepted a place at Leeds University to study Philosophy and Politics in the 1980s and became a founding editor of Jezebel, a feminist student magazine. They moved to London before completing their studies to report on world events as a journalist for The Voice and Pink Paper, and as co-editor of Feminist Arts News (1992-1997).
Valerie eventually left journalism to take up a place at the Desmond Jones School of Mime and Physical Theatre after realising the media wasn’t the right place for the stories they needed to tell. They began writing plays, creating one-person shows such as Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) and the box office sell-out Sin Dykes (1998). They directed the London Mardi Gras Arts festival (1997-2000) and served as Director of Pride Arts Festival for four years. Completing an MA in Creative Writing at Sussex University led Valerie to explore classic literary forms. In 2005, they won the Mind Book of the Year Award for their debut novel, Borrowed Body (2005), a fictional memoir of growing up in the care system.
Valerie was ordained into the Buddhist order as Vimalasara in 2005. In 2014, they co-authored Eight Step Recovery - Using the Buddha’s Teaching to Overcome Addiction with Paramabandhu Groves, using mindfulness techniques to overcome trauma. Valerie continues to share their strategies for overcoming trauma as a public speaker and as a teacher. In 2013, Valerie was an Artist Collaborator for the Vancouver Biennale Big Ideas programme, brining poetry and performance to classrooms.
Valerie has written and edited ten books, including their latest book, Afrikan Wisdom: New Voices Talk Black Liberation, Buddhism and Beyond, published in 2021. Their recent publication, I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin (2020), was shortlisted for both the Dorothy Livesay and Gerald Lampert Awards. Valerie was named one of Britain’s Black Gay Icons in 1997, and in 2021 Gay Times recognised them as a Black British LGBTQ+ Icon. In 2007, they received an Honorary Doctorate for their lifetime achievements from the University of East London.
Sources
‘Dr. Valerie Mason-John’, Barnardos. Accessed 15 February 2022. <u>https://www.barnardos.org.uk/oral-history-project/valerie-mason-john</u>
Mason-John, V. ‘We are what we think’, TEDxRenfrewCollingwood, YouTube. Accessed 15 February 2022. <u>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TKR-IKtaCg</u> *The quote above is taken from this source.
Parker, E. ‘“Odd girl out”: an interview with Valerie Mason-John, aka Queenie’, Textual Practice, Vol. 25, Issue 4, 2011. Accessed 15 February 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2011.586786 [Accessed 15th February 2022]
Raza-Sheikh, Z. '10 Black British LGBTQ+ icons you should know about’, Gay Times, 1st October 2021. Accessed 15 February 2022. https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/culture/black-british-lgbtq-icons-you-should-know-about/
‘Valerie Mason-John: from Out of Home Care to Honorary Doctor of Letters and Black Gay Icon’ Real Life Superheroes 26th September. Accessed 15 February 2022. <u>https://drdeereallifesuperheroes.blogspot.com/2018/09/valerie-mason-john-from-out-of-home.html</u>
Valerie Mason-John. Web. Accessed 15 February 2022. www.valeriemason-john.com