Talking Tough Dr. Martens

Christina de Witte is an Antwerp-based Belgian illustrator and cartoonist, famed for creating the character Chrostin. In this third and final bonus episode of Talking Tough, our three hosts Jill Mathon, Bo Hanna and Shamiro van der Geld talk to Christina about the value of creativity, and how her art has helped her during the lockdown.

On behalf of Christina, Dr. Martens is proud to support Merhaba with a donation through the production of this episode. Head to www.merhaba.be to find out more about the organization.

Conversations on rebellion and resilience continue on Talking Tough this week with Kriss Munsya, a multi-disciplinary Congolese artist raised in Brussels, Belgium. Our three hosts Jill Mathon, Bo Hanna and Shamiro van der Geld spoke to Kriss on the back of his recent photography series "The Eraser," and explore themes of race, gender and identity.

Dr. Martens Belgium is bringing you three special episodes of the Talking Tough podcast, hosted by Jill Mathon, Bo Hanna and Shamiro van der Geld. In the first, we sit down with Belgian-Caribbean musician Charlotte Adigéry after the release of her debut album, Foundations, to talk self-care, inspiration in isolation, and staying connected to her culture.

On behalf of Charlotte, Dr. Martens is proud to support Wikifriends with a donation through the production of this episode. Head to https://wikifriendz.wixsite.com/wikifriends/l-association to find out more about the organization.

There aren’t many more radical voices in contemporary fashion than Charles Jeffrey. The designer, illustrator and creative originally hails from Glasgow, and has become renowned for LOVERBOY, a brand and cult club night committed to pushing the boundaries of performance and experimentation in fashion. Georgia Moot and Charles chat all things self-identity, community, and the importance of safe spaces.

Emma Dabiri is a writer, presenter and social historian. Throughout her prolific career across books, television series and radio programmes, Emma has worked to ask some of the most important questions facing the Black British public, most notably in her best selling novels Don't Touch My Hair and What White People Can Do Next. For Talking Tough, she sat down with host Georgia Moot to discuss anti-racism, allyship and deconstructing race.

For Emma's recommendations on where this conversation is continued, check out the list below:

Books: Futures of Black Radicalism; Edited by Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin
The Undercommons Fugitive Study and Black Planning; Fred Moten and Stefano Harney
Capitalist Realism; Mark Fisher
Podcast: The Tightrope Cornell West and Tricia Rose
YouTube: Contrapoints

For Charly Cox, poetry has always been a way of expressing herself. Since she was 15, she’s used it to document her mental health struggles, and now as a full-time writer and poet she is an ambassador for the charity MQ Foundation and uses her experience to further the conversation around mental illness.

In this episode of Talking Tough, Charly and Georgia chatted about the importance of destigmatizing mental health and how Charly’s work so poignantly expresses the coming-of-age of a young woman surviving the modern world.

Check out Charly's recommendations on where you can learn more about this topic below

She Must Be Mad - Charly Cox

Validate Me - Charly Cox

MQ Mental Health Research https://www.mqmentalhealth.org/home/