international women’s day – and so she thinks

Girls To The Front

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 18:21:57 +0000

Girls To The Front is a celebration of women in music. Curated by artist Ana Hine, and taking place at Madigan’s Bookshop and Café on Castle Street in Dundee, the exhibition features photographs, screenprints, and paintings of women in music, all based on Ana’s own gig photography. Ana graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2013 with a first class degree in photography and film, and this exhibition running from March 4-16, is her first solo exhibition in her hometown. It’s one of a series of events running as part of Dundee Women’s Festival.

Ana knows that she can’t single-handedly combat the sexism and discrimination in the music industry, but does believe that she can do her bit to bring the work of some amazing musicians and singer-songwriters to a new audience.

I asked her a bit more about the project.

How long have you been photographing musicians and gigs?

I’m an indie music journalist and early-career artist and I’ve been attending gigs and festivals as a multimedia reporter for several years. Highlights include seeing Kate Nash, Florence + The Machine, and Amanda Palmer. But I also enjoy giving a bit of press coverage to smaller acts, which is one of the reasons I make a zine.

What’s the fascination with female musicians?

For the last several years I’ve made a conscious effort to buy music by women, whether that’s mainstream artists or buying EPs at local gigs. I know I can’t single-handedly combat the sexism and discrimination in the music industry, but I can do my bit.

Also I just really appreciate the female perspective – like the female gaze in art – I’m interested in what women think and feel. I don’t want to lump us all together, but I think there’s still a level of difference in the experience of being a woman that comes through in the music that’s made – especially when it deals with explicitly feminist or lesbian themes.

Why did you decide to create Girls To The Front – an exhibition of women in music? Was it a deliberate decision or did it evolve organically?

I decided to have the exhibition when I started screenprinting from photos I’d been taking at gigs and realised that some of them were alright! Also I wanted to be able to publicise some of the more indie bands featured like Houdini Said No, The Farting Suffragettes, and Fistymuffs.

What unique situations are there for women in music?

I think we’re responsible for making a scene, from picking up a bass guitar to being interested in an event on social media, it all helps. We just need to spread the word about acts we like (and be vigilant for the creeps trying to keep women down.)

Motherhood Matters

admin — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 19:08:21 +0000

It often feels (to me at least) that motherhood is one of the last social taboos. Can you have it all? Are full time mothers wasting their potential? Are those who choose not to have children wasting denying their sex? Is it the best thing ever? Can you find it wonderful and woeful all at the same time? Does it change you? Does becoming a mother affect your sense of self? Does this change in life change who you are? How are the physical, social or political aspects of your identity altered by motherhood?

The Motherhood & Identity Project explore all of this and more. Ahead of their recording, zine, workshop and showcase as part of International Women’s Day, I have a chat with one of the founders of the project Katy Lockey.

Why do you do what you do?

There is no short or witty answer to this. This is one of a few projects I have running and they all boil down to one thing really, which is bringing people together in community, encouraging and facilitating groups and spaces where people can make authentic connections and share their own experiences. A few years ago Catherine (Sangster) and I attended a Think In as part of International Women’s Day, where they were asking ‘how can we engage more local women with this programme and these issues?’ We noticed that there was no provision for mothers caring for young children , often a barrier to attending cultural events . We proposed a workshop that parents could attend with their young children present, in 2015 on Raising Children and Resisting Sexism , then in 2016 we focused on Motherhood and Identity in particular.

Do we still need feminism? h yes.

Oh yes.

Do you think that creative events can be useful, or is just masking over the structural and political issues?

I think that consciousness raising is never wasted. Forums for the discussions of ideas and ideologies are essential . Art is a powerful tool for comment and provocation .

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘be bold for change’ – how is your work bold and how does it encourage others to be bold?

I had not considered before what is bold about our work. There is a certain boldness in claiming public space for women with babies on their hips and noisy messy small children to be welcomed in and to have their ideas heard. So much potential is lost when we treat women in this stage of life as only care givers, or only value their contributions when they leave their family elsewhere.

The women who opened up and shared their very honest reflections and responses to the project have been extraordinarily bold. We have been so privileged to have been entrusted with these very personal and intimate stories.

I hope that it does encourage others to be bold. I hope that women reading our work and coming to the Brewery Tap to hear the sound pieces and to interact with the project will feel emboldened by the stories of our participants. And I also hope that the project itself will encourage others to get involved, and make art, respond creatively to what they care about. Catherine and I are both mothers and the whole project has been done in the margins of our work and family responsibilities. It’s easy for women to be swallowed up by these demands. I was so encouraged when a woman who had contributed to the 2016 project wrote to me to tell me how inspiring she found it, and how those reflections have led her to start to find her new, post baby, creative voice and practice. She has an exciting project in the works right now. That is a kind of boldness I am happy to claim for our project!

Being bold for change – Kent creativity

admin — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 13:11:59 +0000

March 8th is the annual International Women’s Day, celebrated globally. Since its beginnings in the 1900s IWD grown in its mission to celebrate the unity of women, females and girls around the world, whilst at the same time advocating gender parity. Some ask whether we still need such a day, but when you consider that illiteracy, employment, violence and poverty all limit women harder than men, it’s startlingly clear that we do. But IWD isn’t just about raising awareness about the bad – it’s all about celebrating the good. Artists, politicians, scientists, mothers, friends, activists – women have played all of these roles, and continue to do so.

Folkestone’s creative hub will be marking the event with a whole host of events that demonstrate harmony, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action – through the creative angle. This year’s theme is ‘#BeBoldForChange’ and the Quarterhouse programme embraces this. February and March are packed with films, talks, workshops and events that inspire and demonstrate the power and potential of women.

On February 11^th Hollie McNish, poet, writer and performer spoke about and read from her latest book, Nobody Told Me, stories and poetry about motherhood. She is completely convinced that we still need feminism, and sees creativity as playing a bit part in this. ‘I think creativity really is one of the best parts of humanity…and often brings out the structural and political issues I think and makes them easy to engage with in so many different ways. Hearing midwives say they’ve snuck my poems into hospital wards is probably the current highlight!’

Motherhood clearly changes things for women, and through their sessions the Motherhood & Identity Project are seeking personal testimonies and autobiographical exploration of what this might look and feel like through physical, social, or political aspects through workshops and an exhibition at The Brewery. It seems that even in an age where choice is apparently celebrated, that choice only counts when it is career orientated.

As Catherine from the project says ‘There is a certain boldness in claiming public space for women with babies on their hips and noisy messy small children to be welcomed in and to have their ideas heard. So much potential is lost when we treat women in this stage of life as only caregivers, or only value their contributions when they leave their family elsewhere.’

Ethnicity and nationality are also in the spotlight. In The Diary of a Hounslow Girl on Mar 29^th, by Ambreen Razia with Black Theatre Live shows the experiences and challenges of growing up amongst the city temptations as a 16 year old Muslim girl. Comedian Bridget Christie’s acclaimed show Because You Asked For It (Mar 31^st) challenges us to think about what leaving the EU means – all through humour and a bold female voice.

It’s not just gender that plays a role – age, ethnicity and social class all impact and diversify the lives of women. Boss(y) Girls is for and by young women aged 13 to 25 who are passionate about empowerment and speaking out. Their workshops offer the opportunity to talk, design, create, meet like-minded people and have fun. Inspired by Beyoncé’s words, ‘I’m not Bossy, I’m the Boss’ boldness infiltrates every part of the project. As founder Emma says ‘this project is all about teaching young women to be bold, and that you don’t just have to accept things the way they are – you can change them.’ ‘Guerilla girl action’ is on the agenda, where the team will be sharing the outputs from their collaborative sessions.

At the other end of the age spectrum, but not necessarily issues, Older Women Rock! is an innovative project run and devised by Leah Thorne, whose work explores identity and liberation. They’ll be combining visual arts, poetry and vintage clothing to raise awareness and explore issues that face women in their mid-50s to early 70s. As well as a pop-up shop and exhibition at the Space Gallery, a panel discussion on Mar 11^th, a debate with the founders of the iconic magazine Spare Rib, the Women Over 50 Film Festival (Mar 1^st), screenings of Carrie Greenham’s Home (Feb 22^nd) and Stories from the She-Punks (Mar 8^th) they host the brilliant Profanity Embroidery Group on Mar 5^th for an embroidery session to stich not frills and flowers, but controversial but necessary phrases on and in their clothes.

Subverting stereotypes through a ‘feminine’ activity sounds like a brilliant twist, and Professor Julia Twigg, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the University of Kent and a huge advocate of the work says that such activities are ‘vital’ to women. ‘I certainly want to endorse the responses of women to dress that are bold, whether through the wildness of their dress, or through their refusal to be bothered by it. I think we need each other to be bold.’

Entrenched attitudes are not easy to shift. But creativity can help us think about and challenge these patterns, and give everyone the confidence to do so as part of such a collective event. From boldness great change can come. It certainly will be coming out of Folkestone this spring.

Why reading won't die

admin — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:29:33 +0000

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the art of the written word, or at least the art of consuming that written word is over. But it seems that some people in some places are determined to ensure that books continue to be explored.
Until now only used by shady-looking characters exchanging presents, or the kind of elderly for whom technology post 1985 never really happened, phone boxes are considered by many to be redundant.
But one such red box in Horsley in Surrey is now the home of The Phone Boox Exchange, courtesy of James Econs. Armed with a free Saturday afternoon, a plank of wood, and a few quid to spend on books at the local charity shop, he set about transforming the phone box at the end of his road into an informal book exchange.
James calls it ‘Socially Beneficial Creative Vandalism,’ the idea having popped into his head and from there it was ‘manifestation to deployment in one lazy Saturday afternoon.’
Perhaps part of the problem is that authors aren’t writing what people want to read. It’s all very well going through the cathartic process, but that’s what writing is for…reading, and the other end of the chain requires a customer.
Three book lovers from the UK have set up Unbound, a take on crowd funding that lets authors (who have to have an agent or have previously published) pitch their idea on the site, and the number of supporters and finance needed to make it a reality.
Depending upon their level of investment, readers who pledge get rewarding by a credit in the book, all the way up to launch parties. There’s nothing like handing over your hard earned cash to get you reading.
Manchester is a lucky city, with For Book’s Sake having launched their very own library at Nexus Art Cafe, so punters can peruse a new story or two over their coffee and cake.
In Glasgow a pop-up library was set up for International Women’s Day, and earlier this summer the Covent Garden piazza was converted into a haven for bibliophiles.
Set up to celebrate the fiftieth birthday of Penguin, and to highlight the importance of literacy and libraries in the face of governmental penny-pinching, the Covent Garden Lawn Library proved a success in the city.
So whilst a search for ‘is reading dead’ on Google reveals 750 million results, and thus would seem affirmative, a search in the community reveals otherwise…
Originally published on For Book’s Sake