Events: 9 September – 15 September
Some dates for your diary of woman-centric events going on around the UK this week.
Bolton:
14 September: Bolton Protest and March against the Bedroom Tax at 1pm at Victoria Square, Bolton.
Those affected and/or offended by the government’s bedroom tax are invited to meet on the steps of Victoria Square in Bolton for a short rally prior to a march through the city.
Bristol:
13 September: Professor Elemental at The Tunnels Bristol, Arches 31 and 32, Bristol and Exeter Mews, Bristol from 7.30pm
Professor Elemental is a unique and award-winning hip-hop artist. He is a steampunk mad professor who’ll brew you a nice hip-hop number, stir in some comedy, then serve it with scones and a nice warm cuddle.
On this night he will be entertaining to support Womankind, Kinergy, and The Green House which are three local charities who all offer individual and group therapy to those affected by childhood sexual abuse.
Tickets £10
13 September: What the Frock! comedy show at The Mauretania, Park Street, Bristol from 7pm
This regular Bristol comedy show which promotes talented female comedians will be hosted by resident MC Jayde Adams and features Amy Howerska (“Gnarly, gutsy”, comedian Phil Kaye, “Her comic timing is wickedly accurate”, Venue), India Macleod (“hits the spot”, The Londonist) and Miranda Dawe (“more than a little funny”, Comedy Club 101).
Tickets £10 in advance, £12 at the door.
Glasgow:
Every Thursday until 17 October: Read, Relax, Recharge at Glasgow Women’s Library, 23 Landressy Street, Glasgow from 12-2pm
Are you a book lover? Or maybe you want to get back into reading again after a long break and don’t know where to start? This friendly read-aloud group, led by Magi Gibson and Librarian Wendy Kirk, offers the perfect chance to relax and recharge for a couple of hours.
Bring along your lunch and explore stories and poems by a range of amazing women writers from around the world, all washed down with lots of tea and friendly chat.
A small donation of £2 (or whatever you can afford) is requested, to cover the costs of running the group, but free places are also available. Click here to register your interest or contact the library on 0141 248 9969 for more information.
Liverpool:
15 September: We Can Hollaback Liverpool from 4-7pm at Next to Nowhere, 96 Bold Street, Liverpool.
Street harassment, catcalling and sexual harassment are something that women face on a regular basis, some of us even experience it daily. When faced with it, deciding how to react is difficult – do we ignore it, hollaback, tell ourselves its a compliment? What do we do if we see another woman experiencing harassment?
There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer, no right or wrong way to react, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it, pool ideas and help each other feel more confident in confronting street harassment. And so that’s what this event is going to do!
This space is completely inclusive and welcoming to all self-identifying women and Next to Nowhere has a lift which will fit small to medium wheelchairs, but is not yet fully wheelchair accessible.
London:
11 September: Choicework #4 at The Feminist Library, 5 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 from 7pm
Choicework is a participatory patchwork piece celebrating and increasing awareness of the worldwide growing pro-choice movement. In this series of workshops held at the Feminist Library, you can learn new craft skills whilst participating in the project and in engaging in conversations around reproductive rights and issues.
The quilt will grow over time, with participants sought across the globe using the website, and exist as a lasting memory of the fight to protect our rights and to extend them. The peaceful piece-work will aid the pro-choice movement in showing anti-choicers that ours is a fight of love.
This event is open to all – if you’d like to be involved but do not wish to sew, you are just as welcome. Please invite friends. Materials will be provided.
The workshop is free but donations to the Feminist Library for allowing us to use the space and generally being an excellent resource, are very welcome. Accessible venue.
11 September: She Grrrowls Spoken Word Launch Party! at The Gallery Café, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 from 7.30pm
This is the official launch party of She Grrrowls Spoken Word, an event which showcases a range of female spoken word – including poetry, comedy and a music finale. Go along and take part in an all-inclusive open mic session, with this month’s theme: POLITICS
Tickets £5
12 September: DocHouse presents Camera/Woman and No Burqas Behind Bars at Riverside Studio, Crisp Road, London, W6 from 7.30pm
A double bill of extraordinary insights into hidden women’s lives in Morocco and Afghanistan.
Camera/Woman is about Khadija, a woman refusing to succumb to taboos around working women in conservative Moroccan society by making a successful living as a camera woman at weddings in Casablanca, despite her family’s disapproval.
In its UK premiere, No Burqa’s Behind Bars follows 40 Afghan women serving long sentences in Takhar prison for ‘moral crimes’. These crimes largely involve the defiance of men, from rejection of forced marriage to infidelity to fleeing violent relationships.
13 September: Carbon Bubble at London Liverpool Street Station, London EC2M.
If you liked the housing bubble, you’ll LOVE the carbon bubble! Not content with speculating on people’s right to a roof over their head, our banker friends are now gambling on catastrophic climate change! We can’t burn 80 per cent of fossil fuel reserves without causing dangerous climate change, but in the City traders are still gambling huge sums, including workers’ pensions, on these reserves!
Organised by Occupy the London Stock Exchange, Louise Rouse of Share Action and energy expert Jeremy Leggett will explain the issues, with climate poetry from Pete the Temp, followed by a discussion/debate on how we can together help the City to tackle its addiction to carbon.
Until 28 September: Collagism FREE PUSSY RIOT! at The Vestibule, 81 Redchurch Street, London, E2.
Collagism and friends present an exhibition of collaged screen prints in support of Freedom for Pussy Riot.
It’s a year since the shockingly unjust trial and imprisonment of Russian Feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot. A series of works have been created for exhibition in protest of this atrocity and support for the group. Proceeds from the sales will be donated to the band in aid of their continued appeal for justice. The campaign aims to raise awareness and support for the freedom of speech, equality for women and basic human rights for all.
Until 11 October: Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale at Shakespeare’s Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, London, SE1 from 2pm and 7.30pm
It is 1896 at Girton College, Cambridge, and Elizabeth Welsh is preparing for battle. Girton is the first college in Britain to admit women. The girls risk their reputations for their education. They study ferociously and match their male peers grade for grade. Yet, when the men graduate, the girls leave empty handed, with nothing but the stigma of being a ‘blue stocking’ – and unnatural, educated woman – to their names. They are unqualified and unmarriageable.
Principal Elizabeth Welsh is determined to win the girls the right to graduate, whatever the cost. Can they persuade the University? Not if the average fellow or undergraduate can prevent it.
Meanwhile, Cambridge offers far more than merely educational opportunities to the Girton Girls. The battle for the vote, it seems, is the least of Elizabeth’s worries. Blue Stockings follows Welsh and the Girton Girls over this tumultuous year in their fight to change the history of education.
Until 12 January 2014: Margaret Desenfans: The Woman Behind the Dulwich Picture Gallery at the Dulwich Picture Gallery Gallery Road, Dulwich London SE21 7AD.
When plans to build the Dulwich Picture Gallery were in jeopardy because of a lack of funding in 1811, Margaret Desenfans (1731-1813), the wife of the paintings collector and dealer Noël Desenfans, stepped forward and provided the missing funds to enable Britain’s first ever purpose-built public art gallery to be built.
She also contributed a lasting legacy to the Gallery by donating her fine collection of furniture and establishing a tradition of Royal Academician visits to the Gallery.
This special display restores her reputation as the remarkable woman she was, and a key figure in the founding of the Gallery.
Newcastle:
10 September: Centrefold, first public screening, at Tyneside Cinema, Electra 6pm
The ethics of plastic surgery in the UK is the subject of this event, with particular focus on the increasing trend for women to undergo labia surgery (labiaplasty) to neaten the appearance of their genitals.
This event will feature the first public screening of ‘Centrefold’, an animated documentary film made right here in the North East, which presents the personal accounts of three women who have had a labiaplasty.
There will also be a screening of ‘What the Experts Say’, which provides commentary from a medical and psychological viewpoint.
Following the screenings a panel discussion and audience debate will take place. The panel will include experts in the field, including the director Ellie Land.
Tickets £4
Sheffield:
13 September: LaDIYfest presents Carol Robson, Chella Quint, Sarah Thomasin at Harland Café, 72 John Street, Sheffield from 8pm
LaDIYfest are putting on an evening of poetry and comedy to celebrate a new collection of poems by Carol Robson entitled “Finding Me”. Carol will talk about and read her poetry that relates to her life, coming to terms with her gender identity and sexuality. It will also include some of her first collection “Words of Darkness and Light”, which reflects the journey she’s made in finding herself.
Support comes from comedian and writer Chella Quint who will be performing some of her work as well as being the compere for the event, alongside poetry from Sarah Thomasin.
Donations will be collected for VIDA (formerly the Sheffield Domestic Abuse Forum).