Dr Persephone Sextou

Prof Sextou's research engages deeply and meaningfully with the community through participatory arts for vulnerable children and young people in hospitals and hospices. to my research hospitalised children are treated as creative participants rather than patients. I use imaginative and innovative media to shift the identity of the ill person to an 'I can do' identity in illness. There is no one culture here, no single idea, no expectation of what the children should do when they are unwell; so if the actors tell children in hospital that a story is a heaven of opportunity, kindness, possibility, and escape to imagined worlds through embodied and mediated stories, a place where everyone is invited to be who they wish to be and say what they feel is the right thing to say-or remain silent, then, actually, children believe them. In my research projects in paediatrics and hospices, actors and storytellers have conspired to tell children that magical boots can fly to the moon, dragons can have ears made of eggplants, and a glittering star can be touched. It is the child's right to own their illness and the potential of their stories; how to create them, live them, change them, remake them, neglect them, revive them, and perform them with assistance, when needed, from actors. I expect and believe that children can be playful and creative in illness, and as a researcher, I support this creation. What a wonderful outcome of empowerment that is!