Review: International Women’s Day 2013

Thursday 7th March saw SFN hold our second International Women’s Day event, co-hosted by the Swansea Women’s Centre and Swansea University Students’ Union.

Local women’s organisations had information available on stalls at the event, including City of Sanctuary, Swansea Women’s Centre, Abortion Rights UK, and Healing the Wounds.

The stalls fully set up at the beginning of the day, ready to begin!

Labour councillor Erika Kirchner came down to open the event, with a speech on empowering young women and girls.  After a relaxed morning chatting with the guests over refreshments, we had some acoustic music sets during lunch, and then an afternoon of workshops.  Highlights included the workshop on girl zines and feminism, where we all made our own feminist minizines, and a knitting workshop, which was open to women of all ability levels.

Although a little quieter than we had hoped, all guests had a lovely time, and we got some great feedback on our event!  We hope that future IWD events will be even bigger and better.

That evening we held a screening of ‘Grrrl Love Revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC‘, a short documentary on the riot grrrl movement in New York City in the early 1990s.  We had an excellent turnout for the film screening, and had some lively discussion afterwards on the themes raised in the film.

Finally, on Saturday we marched through London on the Million Women Rise protest march.  It was an exciting and lively event, with lots of singing, cheering, and chanting!  Check out the photos we took on our Facebook page.  Here’s one of our banner:

photo by Nat Wlock

by Cath Elms, SFN Media Officer

News Update: Feb/March ’13

Hello comrades!

SFN have lots of exciting new events up on our ‘events’ page – take a look and come along to whatever you fancy!  Newcomers are always welcome.  Just wanted to draw your attention to the next month’s offerings:

1)      For those of you with great ideas but busy lives, the Pandora Press deadline has been extended to 28^th February!  The theme is ‘media’; more info and writing prompts can be found at the Pandora Press page.  We will be printing this issue in time for International Women’s Day on Thursday March 7th (more details on our IWD event to be emailed out soon).

2)      BBC3 are filming a live discussion show called ‘Free Speech’ at Brangwyn Hall on Wednesday 13^th February (this Wednesday!).  This episode will focus on casual sexism, unemployment, and online safety.  Let us know by tomorrow morning if you would like to come to the live show to sit in the audience with SFN.  It’s free to attend – arrival time 6pm, and then filming will happen between 8 and 9pm.  The more people who want to join us, the better – it would be great to have a strong feminist presence in the audience!

3)      We hold regular Feminist Fridays on the last Friday of every month (3.30pm, Costa Coffee at Swansea bus station).  This month’s Feminist Friday takes place on 22 February – come along for some fun feminist mayhem!  Materials will be provided, although you are of course welcome to bring any of your own!

4)      Sexual health charity Brook are putting on a free pro-choice training day on Saturday 2^nd March in Bristol University.  SFN members will be travelling up on the train – email us if you’d like to join us on the train, or at the event. Email organiser Laura Hurley @ laura.hurleyATbrook.co.uk to register your place on the training day – be sure to register before 22 February!

5)      Reminder that seats for the coach trip to Million Women Rise in London are selling fast!  The march takes place on Saturday 9 March at 12pm onwards in Oxford Street, London. Contact millionwomenrisecymru2010AThotmail.co.uk if you are interested in paying for a seat on the coach.  More info about Million Women Rise can be found here.

6)      We have moved our monthly members meetings to the first Thursday of every month at 7.30pm!  We will not be able to hold one for the month of March due to International Women’s Day, so the next members meeting will be Thursday 4^th April at 7.30pm in the Swansea Women’s Centre.  Each meeting will have a discussion topic which will be emailed out beforehand – more info about April’s discussion will be emailed out closer to the date.

In sisterhood,

Cath (SFN media officer)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Pandora Press #5, the Media Issue!

We’re now accepting submissions for the spring 2013 issue of Pandora Press,  the Swansea Feminist Network zine. The theme of this issue is MEDIA. We’re mainly interested articles and opinion pieces, but are also interested in the following (many of these, such as the reviews, will not need to fit into the theme):

Poetry
Short Fiction
Cartoons
Artwork/illustrations
Reviews:
- Films
- Music
- Blogs
- Zines
Interviews
Swansea Women’s News/Events

The theme MEDIA is a vague one, open to broad interpretation, but with some sort of focus on gender/sexuality/feminism. Here are some ideas where you could go with this:

- Advertising
- Print media: magazines, glossies, newspapers
- Online media: websites, blogs, social networking, memes, “trolling”
- Music
- Film
- Theatre
- Independent publishing (i.e. zines/pamphlets)
- Books
- Art/photography/fine art
- Television: soaps, documentaries, current affairs, reality TV, etc

Don’t feel limited by these ideas though; even if you want to write/design something that you feel doesn’t quite fit into this theme, submit it anyway and it will probably be featured (if not in this issue then certainly in a subsequent issue)!

Contributors must be from South Wales, preferably the Swansea area, and must self-identify as women. Just email your ideas, questions, or submissions to the editor Cath at PANDORAPRESSZINEatGMAIL.COM.

***Deadline: 31 January 2013***

NB: we are unable to pay writers for their contributions at this time, but you should consider this writing opportunity as a great chance to share your thoughts and creativity with others, and an encouraging and supportive environment in which you can develop your portfolio/CV!

SFN Celebrates International Women’s Day 2012

Thursday 8 March 2012 marked the 101st year of International Women’s Day,  a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.  SFN celebrated it in style with a free day of workshops, stalls, and feminist art, co-hosted by the Swansea Women’s Centre.

An art gallery was set up in the main room, with a wide variety of feminist-themed artwork on display, including photography, collage, drawings, pottery, paintings, handmade crafts, poetry, cartoon strips, and mixed-media art.

Swansea Women’s Centre, SFN, and BAWSO had information stalls set up all day where people could come and find out more about the organisations.  SFN also had lots of goodies for sale – alongside our usual zines and pin badges, we were selling handmade cards and knitted wombs and vaginas that our committee members had made by hand!

Wombs and handmade cards for sale

The newly-released Pandora Press #3, alongside back issues of Pandora Press, committee minizines, and pin badges.

We had a number of excellent and informative workshops on throughout the day, including Human Trafficking, Lap Dancing, Domestic Violence, and The Sexualisation of Women and Girls.  A vegetarian buffet was laid on for lunch, during which time a poetry reading workshop ran.

Ali Morris hosting a workshop on the topic of Lap Dancing

The day went very well – the workshops were lively and filled with passionate discussions, and gave the attendees a chance to meet many like-minded feminists, view some inspiring artwork, and learn more about the women’s organisations working within Swansea.  We hope that International Women’s Day 2013 is even bigger and better than 2012 was!

 

Wanted: Feminist Art!

The Swansea Women’s Centre are holding a workshop day for International Women’s Day. One of the rooms at the centre will be turned into a feminist art gallery for the day, and we’re looking for all kinds of artwork to feature in our gallery! The focus is on women’s experience – artwork can include painting, collage, zine pages, poetry, crafts, sculptures, mixed-media art, drawings – anything that you have created yourself!  We can’t pay for items, but we are happy to return them to you if you provide us with a SAE. 

The deadline for submitting items is mid-February.  The gallery will be open to people of all ages, so we ask that artwork submitted is not sexually graphic/explicit.
For more details, email us at swanseafeministnetworkATgmail.com.

 

Event: SFN New Year Swap Shop!

Happy Christmas feminists!  Did you get a load of unwanted gifts this year?  Are you thinking about clearing out your wardrobe to make way for the January Sales bargains?  Why not bring your unwanted stuff to the Swansea Feminist Network New Year Swap Shop, and trade it in for something you’ll love!

14th January 2012
Swansea Women’s Centre (women-only venue)
2pm – 5pm

 

HOW IT WORKS

Sort through your stuff for any unwanted, good-quality clothes, gift sets, shoes, hats, bags, craft supplies, CDs, DVDs, musical instruments, or accessories. All items must be in good condition; clothing must be washed and ironed.

Pay a £2 entry fee and receive 2 tokens. Each item can be bought for 1 token. Each item you bring is worth 1 token. Tokens can be bought seperately for £1 each. Bring as much as you want – the more you bring, the more you can take!

Drinks, cakes and zines will also be sold on the day.

Please invite other people who you think might be interested and help spread the word!  You can RSVP on Facebook here.

SFN Music Fundraiser Review: Nov ’11

(this review was originally published as a guest post on Swansea Uni blog, The Siren)

The Swansea Feminist Network Fundraiser is held as a showcase for women musicians and singers and promotes the huge talent that these women have. Women performers are often under-valued and under- represented, especially in the rock and alternative genre. We want to give these women an opportunity to show off their skills and to give the audience a chance to see how women can perform.

The Adelines performing on the night

The event was held to raise funds for SFN to enable the group to carry on its work in raising awareness and campaigning on issues that affect women and hinder gender equality. We are a feminist activist group that organises campaigns and events. Previous campaigns have included organising the Pro- Choice demonstration outside Parliament in July this year to protest against the proposed Nadine Dorries Bill that would have set back  abortion policy in the UK by decades. We also hold ‘Feminist Fridays’ which campaign against the ‘Lad’s Mag’ and ‘Sex Object’ culture in a fun way and to spread grassroots feminist activism. Different members of the SFN have specialist areas of interest including domestic abuse, the sex industry, Female Genital Mutilation, pro-choice movement, feminist zines and violence against women for example.

The funds will also go towards paying for the use of space and a desk in Swansea Women’s Centre. SFN believes in the importance of women only space because it is in women-only space that a woman’s voice can be heard on her own terms, where she is free from male opinions, free of the spectre of patriarchal judgement, that in mixed space denounce, silence, talk over, appropriate, or ridicule her voice. Women-only space remains relevant because women need space free of male influence and control in order to forge our own politics on our own terms. Otherwise those dominant male voices and values will continue to devalue us, leaving us where we started.

The funds will also go to help sustain the cost of producing the SFN Zine ‘Pandora Press’. Pandora Press exists to give women a space to express opinions that are so often overlooked in the mainstream media. It is a voice for women to air their feminist thought in a safe space. Any women who wants to contribute to the Zine can do with articles, poems, drawings etc.

Singer/song-writer/pianist Catherine Elms gave an outstanding performance

Future events will include another Music Fundraiser, a Feminist Workshop Day, Feminist Fridays, International Women’s Day Event, Trips to Feminist Conferences, theatre & cinema. We will also continue with our successful Radical Feminist Book Reading Group, pub meetings and Art & Craft Sessions.

Enjoying the show: over £200 was raised from the event

Written by Ali Morris. All images by Rebecca Gwynn photography.