{"id":56502,"date":"2025-07-02T10:01:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T10:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zealous.co\/about\/?p=56502"},"modified":"2025-11-27T08:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:59:29","slug":"from-burnout-to-hope-hana-walker-browns-in-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zealous.co\/about\/spotlights\/from-burnout-to-hope-hana-walker-browns-in-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"From Burnout to Hope: Hana Walker-Brown’s ‘In Pieces’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Congratulations on winning the public vote for Zealous Amplify: Future! You describe yourself as a storyteller, sound artist, and speaker. How do these three titles sit together? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thank you so much, I\u2019m honoured and so touched that this piece meant something to people. It feels really special to have a sound piece up there with such incredible visual artists. Titles wise, I think those are the three that align most with how I express myself as a storyteller. Sound has always felt uniquely powerful to me in its ability to take us out of our everyday and straight into someone else\u2019s experience just through our ears! It\u2019s totally disarming and such a special kind of intimacy; to listen but also be listened to, but I think like most freelance creatives, I\u2019ve got about six or seven more titles in the locker I can whip out when required! I really believe that to create work with impact we need to exist in the world, not confine ourselves to a single category or convention. I feel the same way about the work I make; I\u2019ve translated podcasts into films into books into installations. I believe stories aren\u2019t static. They live, breathe, and evolve just as we do to find their people. I\u2019m especially drawn to the tension between art and activism and how we can create real lasting change (on micro and macro levels) through human stories told beautifully. I think a lot of my work lives at that intersection of craft and conscience, prioritising intentionality and a commitment to social impact in artistic expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hana Walker-Brown by Liz Seabrook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You work through so many different topics from cheerleading grannies and freedivers, to fisherman’s wives, gangs in East London and sportspeople with brain injuries. How do you choose which topic to work on? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My passion for documentary storytelling goes way back to age four when I destroyed a rare collection of my dad\u2019s cassettes by recording my own interviews over them. So, it\u2019s always been instinctive\u2026 and 30+ years later at least I followed through! To me, stories are our interface to the world, and I\u2019m drawn to anything that lets me explore what it means to be human. My work balances intimacy and investigation, grounded in journalistic rigour but driven by a deep commitment to help us better understand ourselves and each other. I\u2019ve always been curious and intentional about whose voices are centred, how narratives are being framed and whose experiences are being platformed and seeking to redress any imbalance. At the core, I\u2019m always asking: will this leave the world better than I found it? Sometimes that \u201cyes\u201d comes through a hard-hitting investigation into brain injury. Other times, it\u2019s the wild joy of cheerleading grannies in the Arizona desert!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your work ‘In Pieces’ explores burnout. What drew you to this topic? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My own very personal experience. I reached breaking point a couple of years ago and everything fell apart. For the first time in my life, I couldn\u2019t work\/hustle\/power my way out of it having always prided myself on my resilience and my relentless pursuit of conquering whatever was thrown my way. Facing that truth was deeply painful. Yet, as strange as it sounds, there\u2019s a way forward that comes from accepting that we\u2019re not in control. It enabled me to move forward and make a commitment to replace self-improvement with self-understanding while gently resolving to move slower, grow softer and bravely confront the shame that so often tells us to hide in order to put myself back together. Part of that exploration was making this piece. Proper sublimation through creativity. I also knew from my research and conversations with so many people that this was an epidemic, that so many people were feeling the same way, ashamed and isolated, and not reaching out for the help they needed, not even feeling deserving of it! It\u2019s always easier if someone else goes first, so this was me going first. I recently read an essay by the formidable Alya Mooro on Substack about why she tells stories. In it she wrote \u201cBell Hooks wrote that love is a form of attention. Maybe art is too. To make something with care is to look closely. To witness. And in witnessing, to say: this matters. And maybe that, more than anything is a radical act.\u201d I think that sums it up beautifully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n