How do we create safe spaces for women and girls? How do we empower women to take up space, and be heard?
This is a global issue, one that cuts across race, class and geographical boundaries, relevant to city and countryside. Whether it be small acts such as cat calling or at the other extreme, femicide, women face acts of violence all over the world, on a daily basis. In parallel, in many places women's voices in the political and social sphere are also being marginalised. So, how do we make safe spaces for women?
Recent high-profile cases in the UK have of course brought the question sharply intro focus here; the killing of Sarah Everard, Sisters Biba Henry and Nicole Smallman, and Sabina Nessa have highlighted the issue of women’s safety in our public spaces, particularly in our cities. Around the globe; in events such as those in Afghanistan, broader questions about women’s rights intersect with those of safety and access to, the right to be in public spaces and take part in public discourse. How can we respond to this issue as artists? How can designers of space respond to these questions?
With a focus on public spaces, we want to start a conversation about what it means to feel safe in the built environment and what it means for women to take up space in our world?
We’d like to bring together different disciplines performers, writers and makers of space in a series of sessions to share thoughts and work around these themes. Are you a writer, performer or a maker of space? Is this something you’ve been thinking about?…Want to get involved in a discussion around this topic? Share some work?
We'd like to invite you to participate wherever you are.
We're inviting expressions of intertest. Get in touch here: info@appropri8theatre.london.