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Abrazo House

Libros y escritos

Dos libros y una selección de artículos, poemas y otros textos publicados, por los fundadores de Abrazo House

Abrazo House: aprender en la naturaleza

Por Robert Alcock y Almudena Garrido, 2016. 50pp. En inglés y español.

Cuenta la historia de los primeros diez años de Abrazo Hose, de la visión a la realidad.

La Isla que Nunca Fue: Memorias de un náufrago inglés en Zorrozaurre

Por Robert Alcock, 2015. 80pp. En inglés, español y euskera.

 

La Isla que Nunca Fue es una memoria personal que cuenta la experiencia de 15 años en la vida soñada de esta casi isla, casi desconocida incluso para muchos bilbaínos. La obra contiene diversos personajes como Berthold Brecht y Zaha Hadid, lagartijas y martines pescadores, Gargantua y la bestia de mil ojos, okupas y grafiteros, especuladores y artistas. Es la historia, también, de los posibles futuros alternativos, consensuados, habitables, verdes, sostenibles, que se han soñado desde el mismo barrio, bien distintos al futuro oficial que se ha proyectado desde fuera. Este libro es un acto de memoria ante la llegada de las excavadores. Su propósito es contar pequeñas verdades en la época del gran engaño.

"Una historia que tienes que leer y disfrutar… un cuento fascinante y alentador del poder que tenemos, aunque pasamos mucho tiempo intentando convencernos de que está en otra parte.” — Rob Hopkins, Transition Network

"Ya había oído hablar de Zorrozaurre con ocasión del plan de Zaha Hadid, pero hasta que no leí el libro de Robert no entendí la importancia de “la isla que nunca fue”" — José Fariña, Catedrático de Urbanismo de la UPM

Poemas, Ficción, Drama

por Robert Alcock

Rebellious Elements: Script. An interactive theatre piece about the climate crisis, for young people. It deals with the stories we live by, often without even realising it; and asks: can we change the outcome of these stories, and if so, how? 

Four young people are involved—some intentionally, others by chance—in a mass protest/ demonstration, which is brutally suppressed by the police. All four escape to a warehouse where they meet an enigmatic storyteller who tells them four traditional folk tales, each relevant in some way to their (and our) predicament. But can they control how the stories are resolved, or are they caught in the storyteller’s web?

Rebellious Elements: Audio excerpt (21min) from the radio play version directed by Rebecca Kilbey and featuring members of the Edinburgh Community Adult Drama Class. Released in November 2020 after live rehearsals and performance were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Bereaved: a poem with 87 artworks from the 87 Beavers art-action, an exhibition of beaver artwork to commemorate the 87 “protected” beavers killed under license from the Scottish Government, during May-December 2019. “Bereft, bereaved, the river grieves her eager lover, her healer, her sculptor.” Written July 2020.

Down the Waterslide. A darkly humorous tale about the pandemic. “You picture Mother Nature sitting at her cluttered desk typing up the letter, tutting to herself in frustration: what kind of irresponsible morons are they, anyway? Can’t they see their so-called civilisation is trashing the place?” For Dark Mountain blog, March 2020.
 

Windfall plums: a few words about haiku. An essay with nine original haiku. Published in Dark Mountain 10, autumn 2016. Last summer, out of the blue, I started writing haiku again.”

De camino hacia la revolución. Poema sobre (y leído en) la asamblea del 15M en Bilbao, mayo de 2011. Publicado en Dark Mountain 3, verano 2012. "Cuando llegamos a la revolución, había tanta gente que no la pudimos encontrar."

Articles

por Robert Alcock

Hearts of Oak: Towards a deep recipe for acorn bread.  For many thousands of years, wherever oaks grew, acorns (‘oak-corns’) were a staple food for people. Balanophagy, the eating of acorns, can be seen across a wide range of cultures since earliest prehistory.” Article for Dark Mountain blog, October 2020.
Choose Oil / Choose Life. Some thoughts on art, direct action and addiction, based on the famous “Choose Life” speech from Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. “At this point, there are no easy choices. Scotland is both user and pusher, the biggest oil producer in Europe; and kicking the oil habit will be no easier and no prettier than coming off heroin.” Article for XR Writers Rebel, October 2020.
A Pinch of Salt: Where next for Extinction Rebellion in the UK?.“It seems to me that XR-UK themselves are in need of a lighthouse. They urgently need to get their bearings before they end up on the rocks.”

 A Salute to the School Strikers from an Extinction Rebellion activist and father. “If anyone had told me back then that we’d be in this predicament now, I think I would have done less studying and more protesting.” For Bella Caledonia, February 2019.
 
Of Sun, Rain, and Anti-Utilitarianism. A review of Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era, Routledge (2015) Ed. Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria & Giorgos Kallis, for the Dark Mountain blog. “…precious few political figures dare admit openly that the sacred cow of GDP needs to be slaughtered as quickly as possible. And little wonder, when the alternatives to ‘growth for the masses’ are almost invariably presented as dark, apocalyptic, and deeply unappealing.”
 
A calendar / mandala celebrating natural cycles. “Since I couldn’t find any round calendar designs that I liked, I decided to go ahead and make my own…” Article presenting a design for a round calendar.
 
Thin blue line: Sea level rise and the new intertidal city. “The intertidal city will play host to a different project: a cultural transformation of the relationship between human beings and the sea.” Essay published in Dark Mountain, autumn 2014.
 
Build your dream house with no mortgage. “If you want decent housing without mortgaging your life away, you may need to consider radical alternatives.” Article published in Permaculture magazine 80, summer 2014.
 
Land and freedom: Low impact building in the “other” Spain. “A growing neo-ruralist movement is repopulating this “other” Spain…” Article published in The Land magazine issue 16, summer 2014.
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