Illustration by Peter O’Toole for the TOWNSOUNDS project, courtesy Let’s Go Yorkshire.

What are the ways in which we can map women’s activism?

Resonate Festival returns to the project and event that lifted the rafters at the Assembly Gardens Festival in the summer of 2021.

In the beautiful surroundings of the newly-restored Drapers Hall, this glorious event is full of song and dance - enjoy a live performance of Giddha (an all-female Punjabi dance) and listen to the stories of activism placed on a map and converted into new boliyan (folk music genre of music, song and sound).

Despite a trailblazing history of South Asian women’s activism in Coventry, these stories are rarely featured in the city’s heritage imagery - this performance perfectly encapsulates them all into boliyan and giddha.

A perfect opportunity to participate in listening, re-telling, singing, dancing and challenging the political plotting of cities. Listen to songs while learning of how South Asian women in Coventry pioneered activism in the city in the 1990s through the generation of safe refuge, home working mobilisations, training and health initiatives, as well as interventions in local, national and European structures.

This event is free to attend but places are limited - booking essential

This is a collaboration between academics Prof. Ravi Thiara (Warwick University) and Dr Nirmal Puwar (Goldsmiths University), with activist and creative practitioner Preet Grewal and Vera Hyare, Inderjit Sahota, Jitey Samra and Mouli Banerjee. 

Discover more about Boliyan in the ‘Coventry Creates’ project: