Celebrating Women’s History Month: Creative projects exploring the female experience
Posted by:
All of the following artists and projects are supported through Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants, thanks to funding from the National Lottery’s Lotto Good Causes.
Mobilise Arts, Badass Medusa #MeToo
Mobilise Arts are a female identifying collective from Worcester. Their play Badass Medusa #MeToo retells the story of Medusa and challenges history’s misogynistic myth. Coinciding with International Women’s Day earlier this month, the work confronts and intersects gender issues and injustices faced by women and girls. The play is told through live and virtual performance using spoken word, composition, song, film, and immersive technology. Mobilise Arts, created the project in partnership with Worcester Theatres and Severn Arts. Worcester Theatres and Mobilise are donating £1 of every ticket bought for Badass Medusa #MeToo to West Mercia’s Women’s Aid.
Hannah Kumari, ENG-ER-LAND
Following a sell-out 2021 tour, Somerset-based artist Hannah Kumari returns with her one woman show, ENG-ER-LAND. Set in 1997, the play follows 13-year-old Lizzie experiencing her first in-person football game: Coventry vs. Manchester City. Hannah’s writing is informed by her experiences as a female football supporter and growing up of mixed heritage. The play explores the dialogue around diversity and challenges stereotypes around the female South Asian experience. You can catch the tour until 2 April, with more shows planned at Rotherham Theatres 29 - 30 June, as part of the cultural programme for the Women’s Euros. The work is supported by The Football Supporters’ Association and their ‘Fans For Diversity’ Campaign, Kick it Out and The National Football Museum.
Sonia Boué, Neurophototherapy
Sonia Boué is a multiform autistic artist from the south east. Sonia’s work pioneers inclusive practices and neurodiversity in the arts. Neurophototherapy is her current research and development project. The research will go towards the creation of a self-recovery tool for late diagnosed neurodivergent people. Part of the creative output from the project is an online exhibition, titled Origin Story. In the exhibition, Sonia retells her life story and lifetime of identification as the wrong neurological type. The story uses a neurodivergent perspective and accessible formats of photo-collage, text, sound and audio description. The methodology of the project will be available as a guide later this year.
Heather Agyepong, The Body Remembers
Heather Agyepong is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. In her project, The Body Remembers, Heather delivers a powerful performance inspired by the therapeutic practise of Authentic Movement. The work explores how post-traumatic stress disorder manifests in the body and how to take ownership of our healing. Heather draws on her own journey and the experiences of Black British women in trauma recovery, and Black women across generations. The work is commissioned and produced by Fuel Theatre, with support from Wellcome Trust, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and the Jerwood New Work Fund.
Dear Damsels, So Long As You Write: Women on Writing
Dear Damsels is a publishing platform and writing community in London that shares the words and stories of women. Their new book, So Long As You Write: Women on Writing, is full of advice and encouragement for writers of all kinds. The book features fiction, non-fiction and poetry by a diverse group of women writers. Each piece explores writing and all that comes with it, from the struggle of the blank page to the joys of inspiration and the connections that writing brings. So Long As You Write: Women on Writing is co-edited by Dr Kerry Ryan. Profits from the book sale will fund another paid publication opportunity for a woman writer with Dear Damsels.