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Feeling Freely

Alexandra McKinney

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I am a London-based designer, facilitator, and writer. Drawing upon both research and lived experience, my work takes a loving approach toward community-building and discussing issues faced by marginalised people. 

I am a London-based designer, facilitator, and writer. Drawing upon both research and lived exper...

Combining academic and creative writing, Feeling Freely explores how marginalised people can go about celebrating their anger and joy in a world that discourages us from expressing those emotions in the first place. It draws upon both extensive research and my lived experience, breaking down what it actually means for your emotions to be stigmatised.

Feeling Freely also provides instructions for the the creative workshops I have developed to help marginalised individuals feel more comfortable engaging with and expressing the emotions of anger and joy. 

This publication presents a mixture of various methods and mediums, from risograph printing to poetry writing - producing a bold and loving anthology which informs and provides emotional support to marginalised readers. 

Final work

A book with a coral cover with "Feeling Freely" printed on the front in white handwriting placed on a white background surrounded by craft objects.
An open spiral-bound book with an illustration of a blue and pink burning house on the left page, and blue text on the right page.

The content of this publication includes (but is not limited to!) excerpts from my dissertation analysing the ways in which marginalised anger and joy is stigmatised, a journal entry describing my own relationship with emotionality, and poems exploring these themes through a more abstract lens.

Feeling Freely contains instructions to workshops I have developed with the purpose of getting marginalised people to feel more comfortable with expressing anger and joy. The workshops include using poster making and dough sculpting (and smashing) to express anger and catharsis, while the joy-oriented workshops use textile patch-making and zines as a means of engagement. 

Research and process

Posters with black speech bubbles and white typed text. Flourescent red handwritten text annotates the rest of the poster.
Person writing with green pen on poster with black speech bubble containing white text. The poster already contains other colourful handwriting.

In order to develop the writing and workshops that would be included in Feeling Freely, I experimented with various print and textile processes as a way of working through my own marginalised emotion, taking what I learned from each project and applying it to the final publication.

These craft processes then served as the inspiration for developing creative workshops to help other marginalised people engage with their anger and joy in a new way. 

Photographed above is a poster series titled "Yes, I am angry", where each poster contains a questionable comment that was said to me, accompanied by annotations written by myself and others. This then inspired the development of the workshop I created of the same title where participants could make and annotate their own posters.

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Feeling Freely

Combining academic and creative writing, Feeling Freely explores how marginalised people can go about celebrating their anger and joy in a world that discourages us from expressing those emotions in the first place. It draws upon both extensive research and my lived e...

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