Tag Archives: Collaboration

Upcoming festival talks in Feb and March

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This week is the inaugural Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Awareness Week in the UK, and I’ve been part of an active social media conversation at #ItsNotOk. I’ll also be chairing the opening panel at the One Billion Rising Festival on Sunday, Feb 7th.  We’ll discuss the importance of the One Billion Rising campaign and other activism movements against gender-based violence.  The talk is free (taking place right after The Vagina Monologues) and you can book tickets in advance here.  There’s also loads of other performances and workshops during the 7-day festival — be sure to check it out!

And in March, I’ll be speaking at the excellent Women of the World Festival at the Southbank Centre on Saturday the 12th.  The full programme isn’t up yet, but you can book a Saturday day pass — their lineup is never short of inspiring!

Other than that, I’m plugging along on my PhD work at the LSE and continuing to collaborate with other artists, thinkers, and activists on the issue.  Here’s a video of me speaking at last year’s Clear Lines Festival on media representations of sexual assault and what it’s like to have your own attack reported in the press:

Clear Lines was a success!

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So the festival I decided to launch in April ended up happening July 30 – Aug 2 — and I’d say it was a success!  The Clear Lines Festival had an estimated 500 people involved over the four days, including 60+ speakers and artists who wanted to help us start a new conversation about sexual assault and consent.  People cried at our Theatre Night and laughed at our comedians, including the brilliant Tiff Stevenson, Josie Long and Bridget Christie — and there were heated discussions at many of our panels.  A number of events were filled to capacity, and Channel 4 News even aired this nifty segment on us:

Overall, there was a lot of press generated about the festival.  We were covered by The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, Time Out London, The Huffington Post, among others.  And I had a live television interview on London Live and some live radio interviews on various local BBC stations.  Check out our press here and you can read our wrap-up blog post on Clear Lines here.

A special shout-out to my festival Co-Founder Dr. Nina Burrowes, to our sponsors On Road Media and McAllister Olivarius, a dedicated Planning Committee, a great team of volunteers, and our 138 Crowdfunders… without whom the festival could not have happened!

A few theatre projects

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I’m pleased to say the London performance of my short play “Everything’s Normal” was sold-out!  Thanks to everyone to came, and especially to a great cast and to Tessa Hart at Goblin Baby Theatre Company for making the whole thing possible.  Here’s a few photos from the night at the Bread and Roses Theatre:

Photographer: Kenneth Jay

My play was part of the UNHEARD 2015 Festival, exploring themes of sexual abuse and violence through performance.  Proceeds from ticket sales went to nia, a non-profit dedicated to ending violence against women and children.  More importantly, it was great to meet other artists committed to exploring the many angles and human aspects of this issue through storytelling.  The various plays were

Photographer: Kenneth Jay

diverse, funny, often heart-wrenching, and powerful — and I hope to see more theatre like it.  For my HuffPost article on the creative process behind the festival, click here.

Another short play of mine will be performed on Saturday, March 21 at The Space Arts Centre in London. This one’s just a silly exercise I knocked off during the 28 Plays Later Challenge, which kept me occupied in February.  Yes, me and a bunch of other ambitious/insane writers decided to a write new play every day in February (hence the 28 plays). A creative prompt was emailed out every night, and 36 hours later, we had to send in a new play responding to that.  Needless to say, my play on March 21 is a response to: ‘Write a play that rhymes.’ Actually, that one was pretty fun to write!

Anyway, enough with theatre for now (though I hope to do more with writing drama in the future).  I’m back to re-drafting my novel at the moment…

Two new collaborations: a play + an urban design project

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Happy Holidays, everyone!   Hope you’re all enjoying the festive season, wherever in the world you are.  Just wanted update you on two artistic collaborations which I’ve been involved in as a writer.  Exciting stuff.

In February, a short play of mine “Everything is Normal” will be performed on a scratch night in London, as part of Unheard 2015, a new writing festival exploring themes around sexual abuse and violence.  The Festival runs February 19-22 and will also feature three V-Day benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues.  My play will be at 7:30pm on Saturday, Feb 21 at The Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham, and you can buy tickets for a mere £7 online here.  A portion of proceeds will also go to a relevant charity (TBD).  Hats off to the curiously-named, activist theatre company Goblin Baby for promoting writing about this important topic!

In November, I contributed a short story to Sense of the City: London, an intriguing urban design project that encourages a multi-sensory exploration of the Clerkenwell/Smithfield area of London.  What?  Basically, members of the public were invited to wander around that neighborhood, capturing their experience of the sights, smells, sounds they encountered.  As writers, we then had to take those reactions and create an artistic response in the form of a short story.  Then, actors recorded our writing, and the audio files of those performances can be heard online here.  Or you can download the PDF of a newsletter which featured our stories and was distributed throughout the neighborhood.  My short story is called “West Smithfield.” If you’re familiar with the area, Smithfield Market, St. Bart’s hospital, Fabric nightclub, and the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great all feature in the story.  Hope you enjoy it!

 

Details for My Spoken Word Performance at L A Noble Gallery

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On Wed, July 2, I’ll be doing a spoken word performance of my new short story “Felsenbaum” at L A Noble Gallery in Dalston.  The work was inspired by Johanna Ward’s photography in the gallery’s current exhibition, Capturing the Narrative: A Visual Exploration of Fact & Fiction. Starts 6:30pm, and to book a place, please email hello@lauraannnoble.com – More details are below:

At the start of the evening, there’ll be an Artist Talk from Johanna Ward herself, and you’ll also get to hear from my fellow Goldsmiths writers, Charlotte Barrow and Nick Burbidge. 5 pound entry and I believe there will be wine…. Hope to see you there!