Anna Starkey
@imaginaryastronaut.xyz
orbiting art and science | co-chair of Unlimited | tall ish | they/them 🏳️🌈
imaginaryastronaut.xyz
weareunlimited.org.uk
imaginaryastronaut.xyz
weareunlimited.org.uk
I’m so happy (and a bit shy) to share that my first ever selected poems are in this collection from @thebrokenspine.co.uk Thank you so much to editors David Hanlon and Katie Jenkins, and I can’t wait to read all the work.
Out now: Selected Poetry: Autumn 2025 — edited by @vespertine4.bsky.social & @katiejenkinspoet.bsky.social. Free to download from The Broken Spine website.
thebrokenspine.co.uk/product/sele...
thebrokenspine.co.uk/product/sele...
Selected Poetry: Autumn 2025 - Eds. David Hanlon & Katie Jenkins (Digital) - The Broken Spine
Selected Poetry: Autumn 2025 (Digital Edition) Selected Poetry: Autumn 2025 brings together bold, contemporary voices from across the globe. Edited by David Hanlon and Katie Jenkins, this downloadable...
thebrokenspine.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 9:51 AM
I’m so happy (and a bit shy) to share that my first ever selected poems are in this collection from @thebrokenspine.co.uk Thank you so much to editors David Hanlon and Katie Jenkins, and I can’t wait to read all the work.
I have loved being co-chair of Unlimited and learned so much - and after 5 years it’s time to step back and invite new folk into the role. If you’d like to contribute to making positive change in the culture sector, check out our info pack and please share widely!
Let’s change the world, together 🤝
We’re looking for two new Co-Chairs to help steer our future.
If you’re a collaborative, inclusive leader with energy and passion for supporting disabled artists, we want to hear from you: bit.ly/3L2zWEG
#ArtsLeadership #DisabilityArts #TrusteeOpportunities
We’re looking for two new Co-Chairs to help steer our future.
If you’re a collaborative, inclusive leader with energy and passion for supporting disabled artists, we want to hear from you: bit.ly/3L2zWEG
#ArtsLeadership #DisabilityArts #TrusteeOpportunities
October 27, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I have loved being co-chair of Unlimited and learned so much - and after 5 years it’s time to step back and invite new folk into the role. If you’d like to contribute to making positive change in the culture sector, check out our info pack and please share widely!
Feeling despair about all the shit going on in the world lately and particularly in response to all the flags near us, we decided to paint hope all over our house.
It’s so lovely to come home to and also to hear kids chanting ‘hope’ as they go past on the way to school.
It’s so lovely to come home to and also to hear kids chanting ‘hope’ as they go past on the way to school.
October 17, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Feeling despair about all the shit going on in the world lately and particularly in response to all the flags near us, we decided to paint hope all over our house.
It’s so lovely to come home to and also to hear kids chanting ‘hope’ as they go past on the way to school.
It’s so lovely to come home to and also to hear kids chanting ‘hope’ as they go past on the way to school.
The Decode ME study is such a big deal for people living with ME/CFS. We’ve spent decades being dismissed by docs and now there is finally a glimmer of hope for better understanding, even pathways to treatment in the long term….just need more funded research and the gov to pay attention….
Our initial DNA results! DecodeME have discovered that people with an ME/CFS diagnosis have significant genetic differences compared to the general population.
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Summary of our results: shorturl.at/pgsjk
Check out our full preprint paper: shorturl.at/VwN3s
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Summary of our results: shorturl.at/pgsjk
Check out our full preprint paper: shorturl.at/VwN3s
August 7, 2025 at 9:38 AM
The Decode ME study is such a big deal for people living with ME/CFS. We’ve spent decades being dismissed by docs and now there is finally a glimmer of hope for better understanding, even pathways to treatment in the long term….just need more funded research and the gov to pay attention….
Reposted by Anna Starkey
The Met Office is currently looking for people to suggest up to 5 names for storms...
It would be great if thousands all suggested the same 5 names (in alphabetical order as that's how storm names appear):
BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, Shell.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...
It would be great if thousands all suggested the same 5 names (in alphabetical order as that's how storm names appear):
BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, Shell.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...
Name our Storms
www.metoffice.gov.uk
June 25, 2025 at 1:58 PM
The Met Office is currently looking for people to suggest up to 5 names for storms...
It would be great if thousands all suggested the same 5 names (in alphabetical order as that's how storm names appear):
BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, Shell.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...
It would be great if thousands all suggested the same 5 names (in alphabetical order as that's how storm names appear):
BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, Shell.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/forms/name-o...
Meantime, if you don’t have the spoons to respond to the very long Green Paper with the damaging proposals for cutting disability welfare support, you can sign a very quick petition here petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...
Petition: Abandon DWP Pathways to Work Green Paper & create National Disability Strategy
The DWP Green Paper Pathways to Work proposes what we think are devastating cuts to disability benefits. We think the Government must drop these proposals and instead begin a process of co-production ...
petition.parliament.uk
June 24, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Meantime, if you don’t have the spoons to respond to the very long Green Paper with the damaging proposals for cutting disability welfare support, you can sign a very quick petition here petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...
Some rare good news just now. The repairing of the harm their ‘guidance’ has caused will be hard however.
And a reminder that @goodlawproject.org are a great organisation to support.
And a reminder that @goodlawproject.org are a great organisation to support.
BREAKING: the EHRC has formally abandoned its contention that employers need to provide single sex toilets. goodlaw.social/4npg
EHRC formally abandons single-sex toilet stipulation | Good Law Project
The EHRC’s rushed guidance caused harm from the moment it was released. But now they’re u-turning.
goodlaw.social
June 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Some rare good news just now. The repairing of the harm their ‘guidance’ has caused will be hard however.
And a reminder that @goodlawproject.org are a great organisation to support.
And a reminder that @goodlawproject.org are a great organisation to support.
Yes, it's another request to sign and share an open letter. These are the times we live in... Disabled people are being cut out of working life, contrary to what the government say they are doing...if you're in the culture sector, please read, sign, share.
www.tinyurl.com/AtWLetter
www.tinyurl.com/AtWLetter
May 27, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Yes, it's another request to sign and share an open letter. These are the times we live in... Disabled people are being cut out of working life, contrary to what the government say they are doing...if you're in the culture sector, please read, sign, share.
www.tinyurl.com/AtWLetter
www.tinyurl.com/AtWLetter
Reposted by Anna Starkey
Wow, look at this: the carbon intensity of UK electricity is currently only 32g/kWh and 86.5% of our electricity right now is coming from renewables.
Come on world, this IS possible!
And it will only get better (meaning: cleaner, healthier, less intrusive) 🎉
(graphic from grid.iamkate.com )
Come on world, this IS possible!
And it will only get better (meaning: cleaner, healthier, less intrusive) 🎉
(graphic from grid.iamkate.com )
May 26, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Wow, look at this: the carbon intensity of UK electricity is currently only 32g/kWh and 86.5% of our electricity right now is coming from renewables.
Come on world, this IS possible!
And it will only get better (meaning: cleaner, healthier, less intrusive) 🎉
(graphic from grid.iamkate.com )
Come on world, this IS possible!
And it will only get better (meaning: cleaner, healthier, less intrusive) 🎉
(graphic from grid.iamkate.com )
Reposted by Anna Starkey
Open this image up fully.
Look to the top right.
That's Phobos, one of the moons of Mars.
And that bright point of light?
Earth.
Look to the top right.
That's Phobos, one of the moons of Mars.
And that bright point of light?
Earth.
March 1, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Open this image up fully.
Look to the top right.
That's Phobos, one of the moons of Mars.
And that bright point of light?
Earth.
Look to the top right.
That's Phobos, one of the moons of Mars.
And that bright point of light?
Earth.
Gutted to read this - I have posted here previously about the proposed cuts to PIP and meantime we’re seeing damaging and life changing cuts to Access to Work that are happening right now… particularly to those I know working in the arts
I’m profoundly sad to say that as of today, I’ll no longer be able to do my job as co-artistic director of #Touretteshero because of a recent decision by #AccessToWork to cut my support by 61%. Read & share this post, the hardest I've had to write: www.touretteshero.com/2025/05/23/a... 1/4
May 23, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Gutted to read this - I have posted here previously about the proposed cuts to PIP and meantime we’re seeing damaging and life changing cuts to Access to Work that are happening right now… particularly to those I know working in the arts
Dear Restaurants…especially all the cool small ones in Bristol, I’m looking at you - it is time to update your approach to access and to stop telling folk who are immune compromised/vulnerable to illness, that it’s not possible to book your outside tables. Of course it’s possible!
May 16, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Dear Restaurants…especially all the cool small ones in Bristol, I’m looking at you - it is time to update your approach to access and to stop telling folk who are immune compromised/vulnerable to illness, that it’s not possible to book your outside tables. Of course it’s possible!
Reposted by Anna Starkey
I am planning an event @wshed.bsky.social for the culture sector around our collective role in building togetherness to combat the rise of the far right. I am talking with Hope not Hate and imagining a mix of talk and workshop covering. Is this something you would be interested to attend?
May 13, 2025 at 10:28 AM
I am planning an event @wshed.bsky.social for the culture sector around our collective role in building togetherness to combat the rise of the far right. I am talking with Hope not Hate and imagining a mix of talk and workshop covering. Is this something you would be interested to attend?
Doing some reading around Time - and am loving @emergencemagazine.bsky.social’s Volume 5 on Time. In particular this piece - the best big picture poetic writing on Earth’s geology I’ve come across emergencemagazine.org/essay/wrinkl...
Wrinkled Time: The Persistence of Past Worlds on Earth – Marcia Bjornerud
“We live in a vast, labyrinthine library of time.” In this essay, geologist Marcia Bjornerud celebrates the deep time-fulness of Earth, and orients us to read the many-volume stories kept in the rock ...
emergencemagazine.org
May 9, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Doing some reading around Time - and am loving @emergencemagazine.bsky.social’s Volume 5 on Time. In particular this piece - the best big picture poetic writing on Earth’s geology I’ve come across emergencemagazine.org/essay/wrinkl...
Bug folk! Who is this lovely and very tiny winged visitor to our garden? Is it a butterfly or a moth? This is is a daisy head that’s about 1.5cm diameter….I’ve never seen a butterfly this tiny - they emerge from a chrysalis full sized right, or do you get baby butterflies?!
April 30, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Bug folk! Who is this lovely and very tiny winged visitor to our garden? Is it a butterfly or a moth? This is is a daisy head that’s about 1.5cm diameter….I’ve never seen a butterfly this tiny - they emerge from a chrysalis full sized right, or do you get baby butterflies?!
Reposted by Anna Starkey
An open letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission from the Culture Sector, in solidarity with Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex communities. Sign your name here: tinyurl.com/ehrcletter Please share widely, and if you are not able to sign for your organisation, please share with someone who can
April 28, 2025 at 8:44 AM
An open letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission from the Culture Sector, in solidarity with Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex communities. Sign your name here: tinyurl.com/ehrcletter Please share widely, and if you are not able to sign for your organisation, please share with someone who can
Reposted by Anna Starkey
The problem isn’t disability – it’s inaccessibility.
56% of the artists behind the 83 UK projects funded by @immersiveartsuk.bsky.social identify as disabled or having access needs.
Director Jo Verrent shares how we made this happen and why it matters!
🔗 Read the blog: bit.ly/42MB19T
56% of the artists behind the 83 UK projects funded by @immersiveartsuk.bsky.social identify as disabled or having access needs.
Director Jo Verrent shares how we made this happen and why it matters!
🔗 Read the blog: bit.ly/42MB19T
April 17, 2025 at 11:02 AM
The problem isn’t disability – it’s inaccessibility.
56% of the artists behind the 83 UK projects funded by @immersiveartsuk.bsky.social identify as disabled or having access needs.
Director Jo Verrent shares how we made this happen and why it matters!
🔗 Read the blog: bit.ly/42MB19T
56% of the artists behind the 83 UK projects funded by @immersiveartsuk.bsky.social identify as disabled or having access needs.
Director Jo Verrent shares how we made this happen and why it matters!
🔗 Read the blog: bit.ly/42MB19T
Reposted by Anna Starkey
Thank you @electricliterature.com and @sfmontgomery.bsky.social for including the "lyric and evocative" Ultimatum Orangutan by @mailbykite.bsky.social in your Poetry Collections About the Disabled Experience.
Read this wonderful list and explore the magazine
electricliterature.com/7-poetry-col...
Read this wonderful list and explore the magazine
electricliterature.com/7-poetry-col...
April 17, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Thank you @electricliterature.com and @sfmontgomery.bsky.social for including the "lyric and evocative" Ultimatum Orangutan by @mailbykite.bsky.social in your Poetry Collections About the Disabled Experience.
Read this wonderful list and explore the magazine
electricliterature.com/7-poetry-col...
Read this wonderful list and explore the magazine
electricliterature.com/7-poetry-col...
Science tells us biological sex is not binary, good legal practice tells us this ruling is not fair, and trans representation would have told us the real impact- nobody is any safer from this decision and trans folk are now at even greater risk of harm. This is a great org to follow and support👇
The Supreme Court ignored trans voices, harming trans people – and the fairness of its ruling.
I’m ashamed of what our law has become, says @jolyonmaugham.bsky.social 💬
goodlaw.social/83qa
I’m ashamed of what our law has become, says @jolyonmaugham.bsky.social 💬
goodlaw.social/83qa
The Supreme Court ignored trans voices. I’m ashamed of what our law has become | Good Law Project
The Supreme Court’s decision to exclude trans voices has harmed trans people – and harmed the fairness of their ruling.
goodlaw.social
April 17, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Science tells us biological sex is not binary, good legal practice tells us this ruling is not fair, and trans representation would have told us the real impact- nobody is any safer from this decision and trans folk are now at even greater risk of harm. This is a great org to follow and support👇
Reposted by Anna Starkey
Since we’re all talking about it I want to blow up a real female space pioneer, Mae Jemison, an actual astronaut. She’s a graduate of Stanford and Cornel Medical School, served in the peace corps, started an educational nonprofit, and worked for the CDC researching vaccines. That’s a woman in space
April 14, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Since we’re all talking about it I want to blow up a real female space pioneer, Mae Jemison, an actual astronaut. She’s a graduate of Stanford and Cornel Medical School, served in the peace corps, started an educational nonprofit, and worked for the CDC researching vaccines. That’s a woman in space
Reposted by Anna Starkey
“The Royal Society is dead. Three hundred and sixty-five years of history, and it’s ended it as a beard for a fascist. What an utterly utterly shameful end for a once-great society”
April 5, 2025 at 9:01 AM
“The Royal Society is dead. Three hundred and sixty-five years of history, and it’s ended it as a beard for a fascist. What an utterly utterly shameful end for a once-great society”
A clear, thoughtful and open piece about the decision not to cancel a Mayoral Transport Hustings event @wshed.bsky.social Makes me think that perhaps the nature of our times is that we need truly democratic platforms to remain open AND for peaceful protest to exist alongside each other.
Here is a piece from our CEO @clarered.bsky.social on the WECA Mayoral Transport Hustings taking place today.
In it Clare shares some context in response to public feedback (some are angry we haven't cancelled the event, others have expressed support).
www.watershed.co.uk/articles/not...
In it Clare shares some context in response to public feedback (some are angry we haven't cancelled the event, others have expressed support).
www.watershed.co.uk/articles/not...
A note from Watershed CEO on The WECA Mayoral Transport Hustings
Watershed CEO Clare Reddington responds to feedback
www.watershed.co.uk
April 2, 2025 at 12:12 PM
A clear, thoughtful and open piece about the decision not to cancel a Mayoral Transport Hustings event @wshed.bsky.social Makes me think that perhaps the nature of our times is that we need truly democratic platforms to remain open AND for peaceful protest to exist alongside each other.
Colander partial eclipse in bristol.
March 29, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Colander partial eclipse in bristol.
Made it along for a bit to the #cripsagainstcuts protest on College Green in Bristol - so great to see Green Party co-leader @carladenyer.bsky.social showing up to speak
March 22, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Made it along for a bit to the #cripsagainstcuts protest on College Green in Bristol - so great to see Green Party co-leader @carladenyer.bsky.social showing up to speak
Five things you might not know about PIP and a thread.
1) PIP is not a ‘benefit’ of disability, it’s welfare support to cover the additional costs of living with chronic illness or disability - medicine, transport, therapy, specialist equipment (and no, not all of these are available on the NHS)
1) PIP is not a ‘benefit’ of disability, it’s welfare support to cover the additional costs of living with chronic illness or disability - medicine, transport, therapy, specialist equipment (and no, not all of these are available on the NHS)
March 19, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Five things you might not know about PIP and a thread.
1) PIP is not a ‘benefit’ of disability, it’s welfare support to cover the additional costs of living with chronic illness or disability - medicine, transport, therapy, specialist equipment (and no, not all of these are available on the NHS)
1) PIP is not a ‘benefit’ of disability, it’s welfare support to cover the additional costs of living with chronic illness or disability - medicine, transport, therapy, specialist equipment (and no, not all of these are available on the NHS)