To my beloved friend and collaborator Annabel Rook (1979-2025).
Here we hold a giant prop together after the first show of the LUNA project. Carrying together and smiling. In the same way that we held spaces for hundreds of young people and women over the 14 years I had the privilege of co-facilitating projects with her.
Our community is forever changed by her loss, and by the impact of male violence on so many of us. We created the LUNA project as a space for women from all over the world, to allow all the parts of ourselves to emerge and shine and for the stories that we care about to be told. We reject labels and we reject being put in a box with a single story written over it. We are much more than that.
Annabel is not a statistics. Annabel was an extraordinary facilitator, imaginative artist and compassionate leader, with a sharp intuition and unwavering kindness, able to respond to the needs and talents of everyone. She transformed every room she walked in into a caring and joyful space.
I am forever grateful to have called Annabel my friend, to have been her work partner, to have bathed in her light, love, wisdom and compassion.
Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible cities, this is a vision of Annabel as a land I belong to.
Annabel
Of all the places I have been, following winds and desires, the city of Annabel is the one I felt most safe in.
As you arrive by land, Annabel appears to you green and gold, sizzling bright as the tiles of its buildings reflect the sun and wash the valley around it in a warm hue. In fact, if you arrive by sea to Annabel, you won’t need a lighthouse as the city itself, a luminous spot in the distance, guides your sails to the harbour.
To enter Annabel there are no gates to open or walls to climb or borders to cross, so that the travellers who arrive not only feel welcome, but soon they develop a deep belief that they have always been there. In this way Annabel became a home to many.
The trees in the city of Annabel bend to offer you a fruit, or shade, if you need to rest. Or they stand tall, either protecting the locals from the harsh winds or letting the breeze play the leaves into a sort of melody, that to the untrained visitor could sound like a giggle.
In the streets of Annabel adults and children play together and that’s how they make decisions and create policies for the city.
If a citizen feels worried, anxious or makes a mistake, they walk up the hill where a giant rock in the shape of an ear is located, and they whisper their sorrows into the soft moss that covers the rock. The city of Annabel listens and holds the pain of its citizens so that as they walk down hill, back to their homes, they feel lighter, and a smile appears on their face.
They say that you can’t really leave Annabel, as its light continues to pour out of its citizens, everywhere they go. You can recognise them easily, because as they tread the globe gently, they leave behind drops of green and gold light.
July 2025
Here we hold a giant prop together after the first show of the LUNA project. Carrying together and smiling. In the same way that we held spaces for hundreds of young people and women over the 14 years I had the privilege of co-facilitating projects with her.
Our community is forever changed by her loss, and by the impact of male violence on so many of us. We created the LUNA project as a space for women from all over the world, to allow all the parts of ourselves to emerge and shine and for the stories that we care about to be told. We reject labels and we reject being put in a box with a single story written over it. We are much more than that.
Annabel is not a statistics. Annabel was an extraordinary facilitator, imaginative artist and compassionate leader, with a sharp intuition and unwavering kindness, able to respond to the needs and talents of everyone. She transformed every room she walked in into a caring and joyful space.
I am forever grateful to have called Annabel my friend, to have been her work partner, to have bathed in her light, love, wisdom and compassion.
Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible cities, this is a vision of Annabel as a land I belong to.
Annabel
Of all the places I have been, following winds and desires, the city of Annabel is the one I felt most safe in.
As you arrive by land, Annabel appears to you green and gold, sizzling bright as the tiles of its buildings reflect the sun and wash the valley around it in a warm hue. In fact, if you arrive by sea to Annabel, you won’t need a lighthouse as the city itself, a luminous spot in the distance, guides your sails to the harbour.
To enter Annabel there are no gates to open or walls to climb or borders to cross, so that the travellers who arrive not only feel welcome, but soon they develop a deep belief that they have always been there. In this way Annabel became a home to many.
The trees in the city of Annabel bend to offer you a fruit, or shade, if you need to rest. Or they stand tall, either protecting the locals from the harsh winds or letting the breeze play the leaves into a sort of melody, that to the untrained visitor could sound like a giggle.
In the streets of Annabel adults and children play together and that’s how they make decisions and create policies for the city.
If a citizen feels worried, anxious or makes a mistake, they walk up the hill where a giant rock in the shape of an ear is located, and they whisper their sorrows into the soft moss that covers the rock. The city of Annabel listens and holds the pain of its citizens so that as they walk down hill, back to their homes, they feel lighter, and a smile appears on their face.
They say that you can’t really leave Annabel, as its light continues to pour out of its citizens, everywhere they go. You can recognise them easily, because as they tread the globe gently, they leave behind drops of green and gold light.
July 2025