AUTHOR, MENTOR & CONSULTANT

Africa Brooke is a beautiful force to be reckoned with. She is calm and compassionate, yet fearless and determined.

Writing for The Temper from 2016, her unapologetic account of an arduous road to recovery brought her recognition and popularity.

Her refreshing voice and outlook on life is welcomed amongst an often stagnant conversation around addiction and recovery.

Known for speaking her truth without censorship, Africa used her life experience to motivate a change in career and step into her power.

Now leading the way in coaching, mentorship and public speaking, Africa is teaching many people cross the globe to live an authentic life on their own terms.

To find out more about Africa’s amazing work, check out instagram, her website and a conversation with Diary of a CEO.

Huge thanks goes to Africa for allowing us to tell her story within our project.

ENGLISH PLAYWRIGHT

Simon Stephens has written over 20 plays, including the adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Sea Wall and Fatherland, Co-created with Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham and Karl Hyde for the Manchester International Festival at the Royal Exchange.

After watching Fatherland, a verbatim play which confronts contemporary fatherhood in all its complexities and contradictions, "the most poignant piece of theatre I've ever seen, it literally blew me away", Sam D'Cruze, artist and Child Of's founder, contacted Simon as his father's alcoholism was mentioned during the performance.

Simon has been a supporter of the project since it first began, he was the first person to be interviewed by Sam D’Cruze, who intended to use his story as inspiration for an art work.

We are incredibly grateful to Simon for all his support over these years.

To see Simon’s Dream, visit our shop.

To know more about Simon and his conversation with Sam, see here.

To know more about Simon’s work, see here.

To find out more about Fatherland, see here.

AMERICAN AUTHOR

Lilly Dancyger is the author of two books, Burn It Down & Negative Space, multiple essays and published by Guernica, Literary Hub, The Rumpus, Longreads, The Washington Post, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and more.

Award winning, Negative Space (2021), is a beautifully written book, part memoir, part-investigative journalism, looking into her father's addiction with a potent mixture of truthful emotion and candour.

Dancyger's father, Joe Schactman, was part of the iconic 1980s East Village art scene. He created provocative sculptures out of found materials, and brought his young daughter into his gritty, iconoclastic world. She idolized him—despite the escalating heroin addiction that sometimes overshadowed his creative passion. When Schactman died suddenly, just as Dancyger was entering adolescence, she went into her own self-destructive spiral, raging against the world that had taken him away. But as an adult, Dancyger began to question the mythology she'd created about her father—the brilliant artist, struck down in his prime—using his paintings, sculptures, and prints as a guide to piece together a truer story. (Santa Fe Writers Project, 2021)

We’re incredibly grateful to Lilly for supporting this project, she has generously allowed Child Of to use the following statement -

MY PARENTS WERE JUNKIES

I HAD A HAPPY CHILDHOOD

BOTH THESE THINGS ARE TRUE

As you can imagine, this alternative narrivite from the one we often here is incredibly important to the conversation around addiction and those living within it’s reach.

To know more about Lilly’s work see here

Check out here instagram here

ARTIST & ACTIVIST

This mural would not be complete without the recognition of Nan Goldin and the incredible work she’s done, and continues to do for the people suffering from opioids addiction at the hand of the Sackler empire.

Nan Goldin is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic.

Nan Goldin and the opioid-crisis activist group she founded, Sackler P.A.I.N., planned a large-scale protest outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The story of Nan Goldin and her incredible activism has shook the artwork to it’s core.

Without her selfless demonstration and need to right the wrong of decades of pain, we would still be celebrating a family of philanthropists who white washed their own corruption and greed with their ostentatious donations to the arts.

To follow Nan, see here.

If you would like to know more about Nan and the work she’s doing, see here.

If you would like to read Empire of Pain, an in-depth account of hoe the Sackler family drowned the USA in opioid’s for their own finial gain, see here.

A fabulous new film has been released, go watch it here.

ACTOR & ACTIVIST

After rising to stardom as one of the original cast members of Bugsy Malone, Grange Hill and Cats, with over 25 year’s experience, Donald’s passion lies firmly in acting and supporting the arts.

Having experienced both sides of success in an industry he loves, Donald’s spent some time volunteering with Crisis, where he got the inspiration to harness creativity to help with rehabilitation.

Donald has personal experience with addiction and homelessness and is now dedicated to helping others.

Whilst working with the homeless over the past 8 year’s, Donald’s greatest reward has been his continued involvement with the arts world from a charity capacity and the potential of combining these two forces.

Some of his proudest achievements include being a co-founder of ‘The English club’ and voted ‘Volunteer of the Year 2008’.

To see the incredible work Donal is doing in the community, see here.

WILL, ELLEN’S DAD

Ellen is an artist who has generously lent herself to the project.

As we try to explore all aspects of this diverse and complex conversation it’s good to hear voices from all angles.

The complicated relationship between a parent who struggles with alcohol and addiction and their children can not be underestimated. The way a child relates to the world in the early years can shape their views of themselves in adulthood.

‘You can only build and grow a relationship if both of you are willing to listen, have empathy and take responsibility for your actions.’ Ellen Williams