Amazing Women
In the run up to Resonate Festival’s three-day campus finale in April, throughout March we have an incredible programme focussing on Amazing Women.
A diverse range of free events and activities will be exploring everything from Women’s Suffrage to our belief in the supernatural, exhibitions on criminal justice, South Asian Women’s activism, dance, science, textiles and much more.
Through creative outlets, the festival events take a holistic view across the community and offer incisive, informative, and fun events and creative workshops for everyone – for free!
Lead curator for this programme, Professor Nickie Charles has this to say;
“This road show is about women's lives - today and in the past, in Coventry and around the world - and we hope there's something in it for everyone. Many of our events encourage participation and provide opportunities to engage with women's history, the different women who live in and around Coventry, and creative activities linked to women's skills and talents. The road show is curated by the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick.”
Look out for our FREE upcoming events:
Stars, Sieves and Women's Stories | Saturday 5th March, 10:00-14:00 | Coventry Central Library
A fun, interactive exhibition that explores methods of fortune telling in early modern Britain (c.1500-1800). Forming part of the Resonate Festival’s Amazing Women roadshow, the exhibition looks at fascinating stories of female magical practitioners, and investigates how accounts of astrologers, witches, cunning-folk and ‘gypsy’ fortune-tellers reflect past ideas about gender roles.
A Slice of Science | Sunday, 13 March 2022, 12:00 16:00 |The Oculus6 Lord Bhattacharyya Way
Bringing science to life through interactive workshops, taster sessions and inspiring talks - with of course the opportunity to drink lots of tea and eat cake! Join us for this exciting event for everyone – an inter-generational learning approach inspiring children of all ages with key scientific insights.
Women's Stories of Criminalisation...| Tuesday, 15 March 2022, 10:00 16:00 | Coventry Cathedral Crypt Exhibition Space
A rare chance to see artist Faye Claridge’s Prisoners on Prisoners exhibit in Coventry.
This audio-visual exhibit seeks to connect women’s experiences of criminalisation and imprisonment, past and present. Faye Claridge co-produced work with prisoners at HMP Askham Grange by taking archives in the prison and asking women prisoners to ‘adopt’ a woman from history.
Our Own Stories | Tuesday, 15 March 2022, 14:00 15:30 | Coventry Cathedral Crypt
In collaboration with the award winning, criminal justice arts organisation Safe Ground we’ll offer, for the first time in Coventry, an adaptation of one of their creative and therapeutic programmes titled, Our Own Stories.
The programme, originally designed for vulnerable women in prison and the community, will enable via small group work, conversation and creative writing exercises, young women from Coventry and the surrounding region to share their experiences and stories in a safe and therapeutic manner.
"And (M)other Stories" | Friday, 18 March 2022, 10:00 16:00 | Draper's Hall, Bayley Lane, Coventry
Join us to create a unique textile artwork, share stories, and record history.
This is a textile based workshop which will bring together women from all over the world to tell their stories (not normally heard in public spaces) about their mother, grandmother, aunt etc. who may have been part of activist movements for equality and social justice; either in their country of origin or in Britain.
We will represent these stories in material form, using fabrics, during the course of the workshop.
Coventry Women’s Suffrage Walk | Saturday, 19 March 2022 – 11am - 12 noon | Start - Coventry Transport Museum
A guided walk around central Coventry that highlights the story of the city, its people, and the fight for women to get the vote in the years before World War I. A fascinating insight into the local contributions and extraordinary encounters that focuses on the local women and key sites to reveal what happened in the election of December 1918 when women were able to first exercise their right to vote.
Walk is approximately 2 hours and suitable for all ages.
Alternative Trails: Mapping South Asian Women's Activism | Saturday, 19 March 2022, 12:00 14:00 | Drapers Hall Ballroom Bayley Lane, Coventry
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.
Ghosts, Fairies and a Wombful of Rabbits | Saturday, 19 March 2022, 16:30 17:30 | Canley Community Centre, CV4 8FT
A fascinating event that explores three extraordinary stories about women from the past.
Judith Philips lived in Hampshire in the late sixteenth century. She gained notoriety when she perpetrated an elaborate con that involved dressing up as the Fairy Queen, and riding a miser around his own yard.
Mary Toft, from Surrey, became famous in 1726 after she claimed to have given birth to a litter of rabbits.
Tibbie Mortimer was an eighteenth-century Aberdeenshire maidservant who devised a cunning plan to convince her master to marry her.
The event will include performances of the stories and expert historical commentary reflecting on women’s lives and beliefs about the supernatural world.
un:mute | Monday, 21 March 202217:00 Tuesday, 22 March 202219:00 | Criterion Theatre, Coventry CV5 6EF
Explore in-person the images, soundscapes and visual artefacts produced by the Women|Theatre|Justice project artist-in-residence Laura Dean.
This exhibition is a powerful and different way of telling the story of a research project.
In response to the project, multi-media artist Laura Dean has created a dazzling installation of images, soundscapes and visual artefacts that are witty, angry, sad and hopeful.
In 1979 serving prisoners founded a women-only theatre company. Today it is the internationally renowned theatre, education and advocacy organisation Clean Break which puts women’s experience of the criminal justice system centre stage.