Your hosts, Laura Guthrie and Jay Sandhu, speak to Neal Pike and Max Marchewicz. Neal is a poet, playwright and performer. Max is a BSL interpreter, access provider, musician & performer.

They discuss how they became artists and how their work has developed alongside life changes. Frustrations with poor access provision come up, and we ask, "why are accessible toilets still the place to store mops?"

Our guests talk about how to raise your access needs if you are a neurodivergent person with intersecting experience of physical disability. Plus, they let us know which artists' work they seek out and admire.

NEAL PIKE

Neal is a poet, performer, theatre maker. He started writing in 2013 as part of Nottingham based group the Mouthy Poets. He has performed across the UK and internationally. Neal has published a collection of poetry, 'Identity Bike Ride', and has written plays. His first play, 'Five Years', is an autobiographical piece describing his time as a student in the local SEN school system.

Neal's website: https://www.nealpikeprojects.co.uk/about/

MAX MARCHEWICZ

Max is a performer, BSL interpreter, access consultant, audio describer and trainer. Max started their creative life as a dancer before studying physical theatre. They are also a folk singer. As a queer, disabled and autistic person, they are passionate about community work around intersecting identities. Max has performed and toured with Graeae Theatre as a performance interpreter for their recent chamber opera 'The Paradis Files'.

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