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Q and A with bill bissett at The Secret Handshake
by Sofia Ariza
Sofia
What is the main purpose of The Secret Handshake?
bill
The main purpose is to be a resource for people with schizophrenia. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, we hold peer support group days. One of our main purposes is to decrease hospital admission and what’s unique about this is that we’re all volunteers, rather than a doctor or nurse coming in because you can get that at a hospital. There are people I talk to on the phone almost three times a day, and speaking to them actually helps me because the things you say during counselling to people who are going through difficulties are words to live by.
Sofia
You have more than 40 published books, could you tell me about that?
bill
There are many levels of consciousness such as memory, meaning, sound, and visual work. I have always wanted to work in more than 7 levels of writing. The visual work I do is often displayed here in the art shows but I mostly practice sound poetry in which sound is the main component.
Sofia
Why did you become an artist?
bill
When I was 11, I wanted to be a dancer and a figure skater. But I had so many operations on my belly which refrained me from becoming a dancer or a figure skater and I had to spend a lot of time in an oxygen tank. One day in the oxygen tank I decided that perhaps I could paint, so that I could feel the lines moving through space which for me was one of the thrills of dancing and skating. My mother went to spirit when I was 13 and I started to write and read a lot because I had no social activities. I had a tube in my belly for quite a while and other children stigmatized me so I did not have any friends to play with. I spent a lot of time alone, and this trained me for the artist life.
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[Distillate © HA&L + Sofia Ariza I bill bissett {from the Greek bios} -- the course of a life.]
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