Panel discussion chaired by Professor Aoife McGrath on Lucy Jones's book 'Matrescence', part of the Belfast International Arts Festival.
Lucy Jones is joining a panel discussion on matrescence at The MAC on Sunday 18 October, as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival. She'll be joining virtually, with the conversation chaired by Professor Aoife McGrath and featuring panellists Dr Sally McFadden, a specialist clinical psychologist in the Perinatal Community Mental Health Team; Professor Victoria Simms, a developmental psychologist and Chair of the NI Science Festival; and Helena Hamilton. The whole thing runs for 90 minutes, starting at 2:00pm on The Main Stage.
The conversation is curated by Helena Hamilton, creator of Becoming, in partnership with the NI Science Festival, and forms part of the wider public programme around that work. Becoming is an immersive, multi-sensory piece Hamilton made with Janie Doherty and Aisling McGeown, rooted in their own lived experiences and in qualitative research with mothers across generations. It explores matrescence through spatial sound, haptics, moving image and first-person spoken material, including poetry by McGeown. Matrescence is the term for the physical, emotional and psychological transition to motherhood — the 'becoming' a mother that the work takes its name from.
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Lucy Jones's book, Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood, has helped bring the concept into wider public conversation. In it, she draws together research, personal experience and cultural reflection to consider how motherhood changes the body, the mind and the sense of self. The panel takes the book as its starting point, so the discussion will be built around the ideas she puts forward there. Tickets are £7, or £6 for concessions, and the session is sold out.
