Skip to main content

International Women's Day Celebrations in Swindon


Swindon Central Library celebrated International Women's Day with poetry, dancing and art in a day packed full of activities.

In the morning Bea Menier shared her colourful journals and showed us how to make every day count in her Creative Journaling workshop while Juliet Platt introduced us to reflective journaling in her afternoon workshop.

Other contributors included Hilda Sheehan, writer, performer and arts events organiser, who read from her newly published book The Night My Sister Went to Hollywood and encouraged members of the audience to read some of their favourite poems.

Dance teacher and director of Bollywood Dreamers Dorothy Clarke talked about her work in Swindon's twin town of Ocotal and gave a demonstration of a dance she taught on a visit to the Nicaraguan capital.

The International Women's Day extravaganza was the inspiration of historian, writer and campaigner for women's education and empowerment Rosa Matheson. In 2011 Rosa published 'A Day in the Life of 100 British Women' the proceeds of which go towards helping women in Nepal to develop their skills and become more independent. Friday's event saw the launch of another exciting project entitled 100 Women's Portraits in which Rosa is working in collaboration with artists at Swindon's Artsite.

The whole day was captured on film by Swindon photographer Sabine Coe. Here is a snapshot of the day's events and read more about Rosa's work on my post Rosa and Ian Matheson.







Bea Menier in conversation with Swindon Mayoress Ruth Bray


The Day My Hat Blew Off - from Bea's journal




5th October 2006 

Hilda Sheehan




Rose


Kaye Franklin MBE reads from Jenny Joseph's poem 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple'







Dorothy Clarke and the International Women's Day dancers


Sabine Coe in action


You might also like to read

 Rosa and Ian Matheson 
Labels:

Comments

  1. SusanMarch 10, 2013 at 9:31 AM

    Looks like fun and the pictures are great! Thanks for sharing.
    Susan Ozmore

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My neck of the woods

Did you know that our neck of the woods was once just that - part of a wood, a very big wood? And not just any old wood but a Royal forest no less - Braydon Forest. The origins of Braydon Forest date back to the 9th century and a belt of woodland stretching from the Thame Valley to the Vale of Blackmore and known to the Saxons as Sealwudu. The Saxon lords were pretty easy going, it would appear, and then along came the Normans with their system of forest law, courts and officialdom. Braydon became a royal forest by 1135 and in the 13th century it contained an area of some 46 square miles. The forest bounds included not only woodland but fields of arable, meadow and pasture and even villages such as those of Lydiard Tregoze, Lydiard Millicent and Purton. In 1256, during the reign of Henry III the king gave Robert Tregoze 3 bucks and 8 does from Braydon to restock his park at Lydiard Tregoze and in 1270 John Tregoze obtained a royal licence to 'inclose and impark' his woo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again … Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Actually, it was the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute Trust once based at No 1, Milton Road, Swindon, where Mark Sutton, Graham Carter and I first produced the blue print for the Swindon Heritage magazine in 2011. In my dream I was attending a shambolic meeting that roamed across the spacious office accommodation. There I met some of the key characters of this story, although not all of them. Paul Gregory, or was it Noel Beauchamp, it could have been either, Julie Carter and a hot dog vendor (so vivid was the illusion that when I awoke, I had the taste of onions in my mouth). Then there was an on-going, ambulatory talk about saving the Mechanics’ Institute reminiscent of the famous ‘Save the Clock Tower’ scene in the 80s film Back to the Future. This account is rather rambling, isn’t it, but isn’t that the nature of a dream – making perfect sense when you are in it and none at all when you wake up? ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Edith New - Swindon Suffragette

In 1906 the suffragette campaign entered its most violent phase. Over 500 women had been imprisoned by 1909 and right up there among the militant activists was a Swindon schoolteacher. Edith Bessie New was born 17th March, 1877 at 24 North Street, Swindon, the fourth of Frederic and Isabelle New's five children. Frederic worked as a railway clerk at the GWR Works and Isabelle was a music teacher. An assistant mistress at Queenstown Infant School from 1899-1901, Edith subsequently left her Swindon home to teach in the deprived areas of Deptford and Lewisham. It was after hearing the charismatic Emmeline Pankhurst speak at a meeting in Trafalgar Square that Edith joined the Women's Social and Political Union. In February 1907 a deputation of suffragettes marched on the House of Commons in protest at the omission of votes for women from the King's speech. What had begun as a peaceful demonstration ended in a violent confrontation with police. Edith was among those arr...
2 comments
Read more