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Heroine Training™

live your story | be your own heroine

Archives for November 2016

Reader, You are a Part of Something

Reader, You are a Part of Something

“Clever marketing, wannit? Now the Americans can feel like they’re a part of it too.”

This single British accented comment I overheard behind me at opening night of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them stabbed me in the heart.

I wanted to get up and slap him, Prisoner of Azkaban Hermione style.

Then I thought maybe that would be an overreaction. But I was nonetheless hurt by his comment, and spent the evening figuring out why.

Here’s the thing, English chap. Harry Potter does not belong solely to Britain.

What Hogwarts represents is a safe place that collectively celebrates its students as different. It is a space where people who feel disconnected can feel like they belong.

We are introduced to Harry as a boy who was told by his guardians that he was different and unworthy. Through his Hogwarts letter he is told that he is different BUT worthy – cherished, even – and that there is a place that will celebrate his abnormality (more on this in my TEDx talk, “How Harry Potter Saved My Life”).

Both Voldemort and Grindelwald’s regimes are about preserving their exclusive dominance, through personal immortality and favouring pureblooded wizards over non-magical people. They are motivated by ensuring that the groups in which they feel prominent remain powerful. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am ALL ABOUT the importance of place in literature.

When Monkey and I watch a film based in Boston we can hardly follow the plot because I keep interrupting to astutely comment, “oo look it’s Boston!” And of course, I chose Oxford because I wanted to live in the place that inspired so many fictional places. That said, I’ve never been to actual Hobbiton or Wonderland and I still feel a part of those places. 

English chap, how can Harry Potter possibly be successful in America by your logic? “Wow this is a great story. Shame I can’t feel I’m a part of it because I’m American!”

English chap, I give you permission to feel a part of any American story and setting you desire. Not of course, that any permission is necessary.

“There is no frigate like a book”, wrote Emily Dickinson.

By opening its cover you are transported to another world. You can feel part of that world. You can feel like you’re friends with the characters. You can feel real feelings inside the pages of a book that shape your world outside of those pages. So beyond present sensitivities to nationalism (as explored in my Katniss Was Not an Activist piece), I think what stung me with this comment is a dismissal of the fictional world AS the real world. 

Because I knew you, [Harry], I have been changed for good. And yes, I can mix fictional worlds and references because in my world, they all exist. They are all available for me to explore. For you to explore. It’s cool when worlds converge. It’s cool when I see my Exeter College on camera in Dr Strange and The Golden Compass. But the setting is just one thing we happen to have in common, those stories and me. There are so many things: like Rory Gilmore and her bag full of books or Jo March and her living room plays and handwritten manuscripts. Yes they were New England girls like me, but that detail is just one of many that define who we are.

So go explore, heroines. The library is your oyster, no passports required.

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P.S. You don’t have to be English OR living in the 19th century to enjoy Jane Austen. Join me for a year of Regency-inspired letters and training with Letters from Jane Austen.

Letters from Jane Austen

29 November, 2016Filed in: Hatstall
Tagged With: harry potter, heroine in training

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Recap

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Recap

SO WHAT DID YOU THINK OF FANTASTIC BEASTS?

My sister Junie joined me for another HTtv recap discussing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them including:

  • how adorable Eddie Redmayne is as Newt
  • what we caught on our second viewings
  • Fantastic Beasts the textbook vs the film
  • Expelliarmus, Accio, and the Elder Wand
  • insight from q&a screening Junie attended
  • what is up with those Second Salemer kids
  • thoughts on obscurials, and who might be one
  • what we think will happen next

Enjoy!

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25 November, 2016Filed in: Hatstall
Tagged With: harry potter

Katniss Was Not an Activist

Katniss Was Not an Activist

Let other pens dwell on politics.

I’ve avoided being political because ‘it’s not my place’ and because I’m so unclear about what policies I support. When I take political spectrum tests I’m smack dab in the centre because I want benefits for everyone and taxes for no one. The world doesn’t really work like my disjointed utopia.

This election, however, transcended politics.

One thing I’ve learned, from this election (and from Survivor), is that emotions are what primarily matter to people, whether we admit it or not. Emotions come before logic, before experience (For example, TIME magazine argued that “Hillary Clinton built a machine. The nation wanted a movement.”). 

November 8th was a wake up call. I remember thinking there was no way Donald Trump could be a Republican nominee let alone THE candidate let alone THE President-Elect. 

As commentators have put it, his voters took Mr Trump seriously but not literally, even as his critics took him literally but not seriously.” – The Economist

Even now I find myself thinking there is no way he will follow through on his political promises. There is no way he can continue to lead through fear. Based on my poor track record regarding our President-Elect, I’ve decided it’s time to stop assuming these things and start doing something about them.

I’m not ‘an activist’. But neither was Katniss Everdeen.

Our Hunger Games heroine was not out to revolutionise Panem or take down the Capital. She volunteered as tribute because she wanted to save her sister. She threatened to eat the poison berries because she refused to kill Peeta. Through these actions she made bold political statements, but throughout the trilogy Katniss is motivated not by The People, but by her people.

Aren’t we all?

Politics and economics are systems designed to support our lives. Just systems. Ultimately we all want the same things: safety, freedom, happiness, liberty and justice for all…

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance. Without acceptance there can be no recovery.” – Albus Dumbledore

When something big happens, I want to understand. One good thing that comes with hightened emotions is an urgency, an energy, to be more aware and to react. Let’s do this constructively.

Many voices on the internet presume that the results of the election is a tragedy for everyone. Counting down to the final announcement, newscasters said in disbelief, ‘This is not what America wanted’ when, looking at the states colouring in red, it kind of looks like exactly what America wanted. Many many people feel hurt, while many many others think that this is okay. 

Politics and policy aside, right now many people feel scared, and personally attacked. It’s not about winning and losing.

I felt this way when Britain voted to leave the European Union. I woke up flooded with every hurtful comment, slur, and assumption directed towards me as an American and as a non-Brit. Everything that made me feel unwelcome, ignorant, and unimportant, even though it’s not logically about me at all. I’m not Europe nor European.

I trust that America was not voting for misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, or racism. America was voting to make America great, but the problem with this nonspecific language is that it sweeps all the baggage and complications under the rug.  Albus Dumbledore once plotted with Grindelwald to fight ‘for the greater good’. His initial desire to protect wizard-kind meant fatal harm to other humans without magical power. 

As many across the internet have said, it’s not enough to tweet hashtags in support of causes we believe in. Ranting on Facebook won’t change minds. Let’s feel the way we feel, let others feel the way they feel, and then let’s talk about it together.

So let’s talk about this.

On Election Day I shared a photo of Lady Gaga all dressed up in her voting couture, and in the back of my mind questioned whether I should have even made this much of ‘a political statement’. I realise now that telling people to vote isn’t the point. I realise now that not saying anything is not being neutral, that it instead is silent acceptance of the way things are. Mr Trump was elected, whether because of his hurtful polarising opinions or despite them. 

What I think is important is to be able to talk about these things. That’s all. Just have conversations about your perspective and my perspective and the new ideas we can construct together. I want to hear about how you feel. 

I feel compelled to do something, just as I did after the Boston bombings. Not because the two events are comparable in fact, but in how they made me feel. What I did then was write about it, and so here I am, writing about this. In my confusion and uncertainty following the election, I turned to my favourite writers. Leo Babauta wrote about Compassion in the Midst of Madness. Sarah von Bargen wrote about 9 Real Actionable Things We Can Do About Trump. 

I am not writing to rally behind a political party. When [Dumbledore and] I say that we are only as strong as we are united, weak as we are divided, I am on Team America, Team Planet, and Team Human Race.

We have to be able to have conversations before we can change minds.

If we believe that things Mr Trump says are wrong, we can’t just shout and hope people will hear and change their minds. We have to also talk with each other. My opinions are only such because of other people.

Here at Heroine Training I celebrate the value of fiction not as a means of escaping our world, but of exploring it. Through Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, and many others, I have expanded my view of politics and good and evil. I see the world through the lens of Hogwarts, and while people will always dismiss that view as childish, I know firmly that it is not. 

I created Heroine Training as a safe space for fiction to be cherished. By being your own heroine I want you to feel that this is also a space for you to be truthful and open about your opinions and experiences, the story that you have personally lived. Please feel welcome to share in the comments, in our Facebook community, or to reach out to me personally to continue the conversation.

Xandra

22 November, 2016Filed in: Hatstall

Passion Planner Tour

Passion Planner Tour

What do I use my Passion Planner for?

I get asked this a lot, and the answer is actually everything. I used to have several notebooks with several systems – because try as I might as a minimalist, I’ve come to accept that I think better on paper – until I switched to Passion Planning. Now this one book holds my calendar, life plans, business plans, blogging editorial calendar, city guides and to do’s – everything.

Take a tour of my Passion Planner:

Links to More resources mentioned in the video:

  • In Case of Emergency List
  • At the Very Least List
  • Ideal Week Template
  • How to Use the To Do Section of your Passion Planner
  • My Daily Passion Planning Ritual
  • How to Have a Date with your Planner
  • How to Write a Birthday List
  • How to Audit Your Life

Also: Get your Passion Planner Discount!

If you’re purchasing your own Passion Planner (or one as a present! That’s how I got introduced in the first place!), use code XANDRA10 to get a discount.

Passion Planner Tour

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18 November, 2016Filed in: Hatstall
Tagged With: heroine in training, HTtv, planner

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

a heroine’s travel guide to Brooklyn, NY/ by Kerrin Smith

HELLO BROOKLYN!  Somebody once told me that Brooklyn “gets under your skin” — that once you live here, you will be forever pining for those Brooklyn vibes. There a cultural mélange that nobody can quite put their finger on here in New York’s most beloved borough, so it’s best to surrender to the mystery and indulge in the aesthetic, sartorial, historical, and existential inspiration that you’re bound to find here.

Brooklyn’s magic is best discovered by way of spontaneous wanders, those walks with no bookends during which you can let your mind turn into a cinema reel. If you want to pretend to be a local, I recommend touring by bike, but in the interest of staying safe and savouring every little detail, let’s do this day by foot.

The triangle we’ll see today spans several of Bed Stuy’s neighborhoods (including Clinton Hill, Park Slope, and For Greene), and the diversity you’ll see is provocative, especially since there is a conversation we cannot ignore about the gentrification of the area. Today you’ll hit a blend of the uber-local and the textbook favorite, I hope you see something that rocks your world in a good and important way. What makes this city so special though is that everything is inspiring, especially since a heroine can spot the inspiration or the learning in whatever she encounters.

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Take the C or the G train to the Clinton Washington stop. Did you know that the C train is the only line with cars still in use from the 1960’s? Who knew! Think of it as a “living history” experience.

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Fuel up with a fresh juice from Mr. Melon

In a city where we are hard pressed to find a juice for under $8 (pun? intended?) Mr. Melon gives us sixteen ounces of freshly squeezed goodness for $5 or less. Pick up a box of $1 strawberries to kick off your adventure wondering why there is a $7 discrepancy between the same box of strawberries in the grocery store three doors down…somebody please call Freakonomics. (Be sure to pick up  goodies here for your Prospect Park picnic later his afternoon.)

975 Fulton Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Park Delicatessen is the probably coolest shop in Brooklyn

Skateboards, flowers, dry goods, oh my! One part skateshop, one part flowershop, consider this concept shop a surrealist experiment of the Brooklyn variety. I recommend you purchase the Brooklynette’s alternative to those uber trendy fur keychains by way of an oversized yarn pom pom keychain.

722 Classon Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Brooklyn Museum

A true staple that is well worth “the hype.” This is one of the only places where an oversize baroque frame is mounted against a neon orange wall. Need I say more? Be sure to stop by The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago — there is a place setting designed in honor famous heroines (both real and mythical)! Can you pick a favorite place setting?

Insider tip: Museum admission is pay what you wish.  

200 Eastern Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Picnic in Prospect Park

Brooklyn’s Central Park, but better. Pick your picnic spot (every one is a good one) and bon appetit.

Dig for buried treasure at Beacon’s Closet

…the best location of the best secondhand clothing chain in the city. When it comes to shopping secondhand, the secret to success is to unlock your imagination. You love the fabric, but the fit is off…can you belt it? Cut it? Wear it as a top instead? Shopping secondhand calls for us to engage in a sort of creative problem solving that isn’t limited to just the sartorial, which is why “Beacon’s” is an important stop for every Brooklyn-bound heroine.

92 5th Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217

Explore the Park Slope Historic District  

Park Slope’s main artery is Fifth Ave, the other one. Full of neatsy salons, quintessential New York delis (this is a thing), and one-of-a-kind coffee shops, you could spend an afternoon on this street alone. It’s hard to find a bad cup of coffee here, so to avoid over caffeination, weave in and out of Fifth Ave to get a taste of the gorgeous architecture in this area, particularly up by near the park.  

Park Slope Historic District (map linked)

Dip south to No Relation Vintage

For true vintage, No Relation is the answer. This warehouse-style destination is your go-to for anything tastefully tinsel or divinely denim. Decidedly not contemporary, the secret to success here is to pick your era, cue your vibe, channel your favorite heroine, and GO!

654 Sackett St, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine

Catch an outdoor movie Habana Outpost

With an outdoor courtyard showing outdoor movies in the summertime, the best grilled corn in the city, and a larger than life portrait of “Comandante Biggie” on the wall, it doesn’t get any better than this. Where Habana’s Manhattan location on Elizabeth Street is decidedly more “scene-y,” the Outpost, however popular it may be, still feels like the real deal.

757 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11217

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Brooklyn, NY / Fit for a Heroine Kerrin is the founder of CATiD, a project committed to responsible global citizenship in the fashion industry. A pseudo-Parisienne who is proud to call New York City home, Kerrin burns for a world in which empathy is a core social value and has recently launched COOL AND THOUGHTFUL, an initiative to shift social values by redefining “cool” as generosity rather than rebellion. Her favorite heroines are her mum and her Auntie Jeri.

> Xandra recommends: Start with the COOL AND THOUGHTFUL Vision statement, then enjoy the treasure trove of photography and vignette-esque commentary on intentional living through aesthetics, sustainable fashion, and love.

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Is your hometown the perfect fit for a heroine? I’m always looking for fabulous locals to contribute to this Fit for a Heroine travel guide series. If you’re interested in writing for Heroine Training, read the guidelines and get in touch.

15 November, 2016Filed in: Hatstall, Travel Guides
Tagged With: heroine in training, United States

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