TALKS
with SAGG NAPOLI
sagg napoli
@sagg_napoli
Introducing Volume 05 of Cou Cou Talks; Naples-born multidisciplinary artist & archer Sagg Napoli talks on Toni Morrison, discipline & resilience.
Q&A
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
I am from Napoli, Italy.
WHEN DO YOU FEEL YOUR MOST FREE?
When I am in the sea or when I’m training.
HAPPINESS IS...
Having something to wake up for.
WHAT THOUGHTS CURRENTLY OCCUPY YOUR MIND?
Training for nationals and my current crush. When I have to train a lot, I try to just direct my thoughts towards not very complex and potentially self sabotaging directions, I keep it basic (as much as I can).
Q&A continued
SOMETHING I LOVE ABOUT MYSELF IS?
I am extremely disciplined.
WHAT DOES DISCIPLINE MEAN TO YOU?
Discipline is waking up everyday and working on being the best version of myself - no excuses. To maintain your body calm when your head is not responding and to keep your head calm when you feel like you’re losing your body. To tell yourself you’ve been strong before and you’re going to be strong again. To see the bigger picture, to know that progress isn’t a straight line, to learn to fuck up with dignity. These past few months I really tested my love for archery. I have been practicing when I was broken, when I was injured, right after a mental break down. I simply put my head down and did it.
“Discipline is waking up everyday and working on being the best version of myself - no excuses. To tell yourself you’ve been strong before and you’re going to be strong again. To see the bigger picture, to know that progress isn’t a straight line, to learn to fuck up with dignity.”
― Sagg Napoli
Q&A continued
WHAT'S A STRUGGLE YOU HAVE OVERCOME?
Mental health. People who don’t struggle with mental health have no idea of what it means to. I am able to do unimaginable things, I have done unimaginable things, but then one day my mind just says no, not today… I tried reminding myself I am made of water and when water is trapped, water will find a new path. I am the only one that can see that path.
WHAT HAVE YOUR LEARNED THAT HELPS?
To ask for help and actually accept help from other people whom have proven to deserve my trust. That has been a major major major achievement for me.
“Archery gave me a purpose. It gave me a way to quantify progress when my mental health made me believe I was not gonna ever feel myself again, feel proud of me again, feel love and satisfaction again.”
― Sagg Napoli
READ
A PIECE THAT IMPACTED ME AND CHANGED MY PERSPECTIVE IS...
Actually not a book, but an interview with author, Toni Morrison in 1987 by Don Swaim where she talks about anger.
HOW DID YOU COME ACROSS THAT PIECE?
It probably found me when I was ready to receive it.
HOW DID IT SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE?
I have struggled and I still do, dealing with anger management and I guess I have believed in the past that being angry and passionate was the same thing, I have only recently realized that anger came from fear.
“Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless ... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever.”
― Toni Morrison
Excerpt from an interview with CBS radio host Don Swaim, September 15, 1987.
WATCH
THREE FILMS THAT SHIFTED MY PERSPECTIVE ARE...
Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1969); Operazione San Gennaro by Dino Risi (1966); Hands Over the City by Francesco Rosi (1963)
MY FEEL GOOD MOVIE IS...
The Hunger Games.
“I get obsessed looking at the way people move when they’re doing something they’re really good at. There is nothing sexier to me than looking at people performing whatever skill they’ve mastered.”
― Sagg Napoli
LISTEN
FAVORITE ALBUMS?
One Foot Out – Nines; Per Averti – Gigi Finizio; TamAli Maak – Amr Diab
ANY PODCAST YOU FREQUENTLY LISTEN TO OR RECOMMEND?
Small doses by Amelia Seales![Apple Podcasts]
