Knitting feminism with Helen Sat 17 June Manchester

pic by Ruth Kerfoot

The Cut Cloth programme, curated by Sarah-Joy Ford, is going to be amazing. It’s an exhibition, publication and series of workshops that examine the role of textiles within contemporary feminist art practices. Events are taking place throughout June & July  https://www.cutcloth.co.uk/events

The Louise Da-Cocodia craftivist crochet mask is featured in the exhibition 🙂

It launches at Portico Library next Friday 9^th June at 6:30pm. There’s an artist talk at 4 by Tilleke Schwarz as well.

More info here: https://www.facebook.com/cutclothmcr/

There is wine and we might all need it depending on the result of the election. We might all also need some feminist textiles.

ALSO I’m doing a knitting workshop on 17^th June as part of it so put THAT in your diary and smoke it:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/feminist-collaborative-knitting-with-helen-davies-tickets-33619767630

Helen x

Last day of public vote to decide the ‘Our Emmeline’ statue design

30 March is the last chance to vote on the ‘Our Emmeline’ statue. The winning design will be announced by Andrew Simcock on 4 April 🙂  Visit the Womanchester Statue website to check out the designs & sculptors and cast your vote

So back in 2014 we yarnbombed the man busts in Manchester Town Hall to celebrate some local historical women.

We thought it was a stitch up that Manchester’s public statues only celebrated the achievements of blokes (apart from Queen Victoria through accident of birth) and thought it was about time they championed some inspiring women. 

We were super chuffed when Councillor Andrew Simcock announced that, partly inspired by our craftivism, he was going to set about raising funds for a permanent statue of a woman.  

To kick start the fundraising for the statue, Andrew Simcock did an epic Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride. Each day was dedicated to one of the 20 women on the statue long list. The public voted to immortalise Emmeline Pankhurst  in statue form, and then Andrew Simcock put a call out for sculptors and designs, visiting artists across the country.

Six miniatures were cast, and have been on show for the past month around Manchester. We went to check them out & vote at Manchester Art Gallery – it was a hard choice. Looking forward to finding out next week which design has been selected.

Follow @OurEmmeline on twitter for latest news, and check out the project website: www.womanchesterstatue.org/

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Voting for #Womanchester statue

Which woman of achievement  should be immortalised in statue form in Manchester? 

The Womanchester Statue is the brainchild of Councillor Andrew Simcock, who in turn was part inspired by our Stature town hall crochet yarnbombing 🙂

It’s ace that his project has got Manchester talking about the achievements of some amazing local women – earlier this month BBC North West tonight featured profiles of the final six women on the shortlist.

The poll closes tonight, so get your skates on if you want to cast your vote: http://www.womanchesterstatue.org/vote/

 

In June this year, to kick start the fundraising for the statue, Andrew Simcock did an epic Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle ride.

Each day was dedicated to one of the 20 women on the original statue long list, and we tweeted a mini biog of the woman of the day:

 

 

Sunny Lowry

 

Shena Simon

Margaret Downes

Lydia Becker

Marie Stopes

Emmeline Pankhurst

 

Kathleen Ollerenshaw

 

Esther Roper

 

Emily Williamson

 

Annie Horniman

 

Ellen Wilkinson

 

Christabel Pankhurst

Olive Shapley

Mary Quaile

 

Sylvia Pankhurst

 

Elizabeth Gaskell

 

Enriqueta Rylands

 

Louise DaCocodia

 

Elizabeth Raffald

 

Margaret Ashton

WoManchester statue project launch – Thursday 28 May Central Library

 

Last year councillor Andrew Simcock contacted us to say that partly inspired by our Stature Town Hall craftivism yarnbombing he was seeking permission from the council to commission a statue honouring a women of significance to Manchester

Plans are moving along, and this Thursday, 28 May, it’s the official launch of the WoManchester statue project. Pop down to Manchester Central Library Performance Space from 6pm.

17 of the women shortlisted to be immortalized in statue form were announced in March. They are a fabulously varied bunch including a lesbian defender of barmaids; an anti-racisim campaigner & a channel swimmer.

The final 3 women on the shortlist will be revealed on Thursday, & Andrew Simcock will be giving details of his epic Lands End to John O’Groats statue fundraising cycle ride, and launching the project website.

See you Thursday!

Helen Davies – exhibition Chorlton Arts Festival – final weekend!

Remember our Stature Project where we yarnbombed man statues in Manchester Town Hall with crochet masks of amazing Mancunian women?

Well artist Helen Davies who made the epic women masks has an exhibition at The Make it Shop in Chorlton, part of Chorlton Arts Festival. This weekend is final few days of exhibition, so get your skates on to 488 Wilbraham Road, M21 9AS 🙂

On show is the crochet mask representing feisty Sylvia Pankhurst; the Venus of Custard which had a star role in Bob & Roberta Smith’s Art Party film; and some ace little monsters

Helen is an artist specialising in needlecrafts; she is interested in the social history of craft and women.

Helenmakes making

 

 

 

 

 

Venus of Custard

 

 

 

 

 

Sylvia Pankhurst

 

Bigging-up Esther & Eva with massive magnetic poetry

As part of the LGF’s Sugar & Spice women’s weekend, we ran a workshop bigging-up historical lesbian couple Eva Gore Booth & Esther Roper.

We wanted to test the water to see if people would be up for commissioning a permanent memorial to the dynamic duo.  The resounding answer was yes, and it was great to hear so many people passionate about these women’s lives.

Beth Knowles & I discussed Esther & Eva’s impact on Manchester: how they taught factory workers in the Roundhouse building in Ancoats; & their flamboyant Barmaid’s Defence League demo in Stevenson Square.

Eva Gore-Booth was an accomplished poet so Hilary Turley led a magnetic poetry session to get everyone chatting and celebrating Esther & Eva’s lives. OK Hilary had printed words out and we used blu-tak not magnetic words – but you get the idea :-).

Each group got their creative juices flowing, and in 15 mins came up with some ace wordy tributes.

One group was inspired by the Roundhouse, and came up with the idea of arranging their poem in a circle – see pic below – genius!

Eva & Esther working together,
campaigning for women
loving together, living together

The Roundhouse
remember one forever
in Stevenson Square

Eva Gore-Booth, Esther Roper
inspiring women together

The second group penned a fantastic tribute to the work of Esther & Eva:

Esther, Eva & Sappho together
the exquisite lesbians lived
inspiring women with their gift

Remembering barmaids & flower sellers
Shouting out –
“we are equal to all the fellas!”

Education is your right,
March on all you women,
Sisters be active,
Weave your story, and have this fight

Come now look to education
Think of all our sisters who
died in this unjust nation.
Unity is strength & poetry is love

One workshop participant also managed to pen her own personal tribute to Esther & Eva, amazing!:

Esther & Eva.

Under an azure Italian sky,
They smiled, eyes wide,
A connection of the heart and soul,
Unity of thought, about a woman’s role.

Their fiery passion fuelled the fight
For freedom, justice and equal rights,
Eva and Esther a force for good,
told not to love, when they knew they should.

Head of their household, Queen of each other,
Activists, nurturers, suffragette lovers,
Passion and energy transforming the rest,
Esther and Eva simply the best!

By Rosie Adamson-Clark

It was great to catch up with Ursula Harries who runs the Esther & Eva cycle tour around Manchester with Glynis Francis. They’re raising funds to get a plaque installed on Esther & Eva’s old home down Heald Place, Rusholme.

We want to set up an online fundraising campaign to support an Esther & Eva plaque & memorial, & will catch up next month to discuss. There will also be future workshops on Esther & Eva. So watch this space for updates 🙂

You can find out more about Esther & Eva in Sonja Tiernan’s ace book: Eva Gore-Booth, an image of such politics

Still We Rise – exhibition & performance, People’s History Museum

STILL WE RISE

Exhibition (9 – 22nd March) & performance (14 March, 12pm)

People’s History Museum, Manchester 

Last week a Channel 4 undercover investigation evidenced the state sanctioned abuse of women in Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre. These are issues that asylum seeking women have been speaking out about for years.

Over the past year SHUT DOWN YARL’S WOOD demonstrations led by Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) and Manchester Migrant Solidarity (MISOL) with Safety4Sisters have taken over some of the main squares in Manchester, as women fight to get their voices heard.

Come and hear directly from women who have experienced the horrors of Yarl’s Wood, and their ongoing fight for justice and sanctuary.

        

Reserve your place for the performance on 14 March using Eventbrite

Exhibition curated by Jenny White of Warp & Weft.
Part of the Wonder Women Radical Manchester programme

 

Celebrate the lives of Eva Gore-Booth & Esther Roper, LGF Sunday 8th March

**Pop down to our workshop at LGF Sunday 8th March, 1 – 1.45pm**

Learn about amazing lives of formidable couple Esther Roper & Eva Gore Booth, and a new project to commission a city centre memorial in their honour.

Last year we yarnbombed the marble man statues in Manchester Town Hall to create a temporary celebration of some local inspiring women.

This year we want to highlight the lives of formidable couple Esther Roper & Eva Gore Booth in a more permanent manner in Stevenson Square. But instead of a traditional bronze statue, we’d love to see something more in fitting with the Northern Quarter’s street art edgy vibe.

Join Jenny White, Hilary Turley & Beth Knowles to learn more about Esther & Eva, their impact on Manchester and why they set up the Barmaid’s defence League.

Reserve a place via the LGF eventbrite page.

Sorry chaps, the event is part of  LGF’s Sugar & Spice weekend in honour of international women’s day so it’s ladies only … but we’ll be running other workshops soon and you can go check out our display on Esther & Eva at the People’s History Museum until 8 March.

Part of the Wonder Women Radical Manchester programme

Esther Roper & Eva Gore-Booth display at People’s History Museum

This LGBT history month, we’re paying tribute to the amazing Esther Roper & Eva Gore-Booth: suffragists, pacifists and defender of barmaids. We’ve put together a display on the dynamic duo, on till the end of February at the People’s History Museum.

This formidable lesbian couple lived together in Rusholme from the 1890s and dedicated their lives to defending working class women’s rights including those of mill workers, barmaids and flower sellers. They established Urania, a pioneering covert journal on gender and sexuality. Eva Gore-Booth was an accomplished writer and poet

The display includes Helen Davies’ craftivist crochet mask of Esther Roper which was used to yarnbomb a man statue in Manchester Town Hall in 2014.

The Working Class Movement Library has kindly lent us two items: Eva Gore-Booth: Women’s right to work a strongly-worded 8-page pamphlet, circa 1909; and Esther Roper: The industrial position of women and women’s suffrage –  pamphlet of around 1904 on behalf of the Lancashire and Cheshire Women’s Suffrage Society.

Many thanks to Dr Sonja Tiernan of Liverpool Hope University for the suggestions and advice for the display.

The display is in the foyer area beneath OlyBliss’s stunning Equality Quilt.

On Sunday 15 Feb the People’s History Museum plays host to the first National Festival of LGBT History. Pop down to hear about the lives of some fantastically inspirational women.

Dr Sonja Tiernan will be discussing the amazing lives of Esther & Eva – 2pm in the Coal Store on the first floor of the museum.

BIG-UP FEMALE BOFFINS – banner completed

A couple of weeks back it was the closing celebration of A.T Boyle’s brilliant Colours, Community and Chemistry exhibition at People’s History Museum.

We set up a craft table and visitors made the last few tributes to hang on our community craftivist Big-Up Female Boffins banner.

Colour meanings

We discussed the significance of colours and protest, & how votes-for-women movements used colour to brand and market their cause. Millicent Fawcett’s suffragist organisation adopted red, white and green; while the Pankhurst suffragettes adopted purple, white and green.

We highlighted the achievements of fabulous female boffins, and explored issues around the under-representation of women in science.

Here are some pics from the afternoon:

Bird’s-eye crafting action

It’s a snip

Tribute to Rosalind Franklin, DNA pioneer

Completed craftivist banner 🙂

Thank you to everyone who made a tassel, pompom or boffin tribute for the banner 🙂