Sheffield Zine Fest: Sat 16 March

This Saturday I will be tabling and holding a workshop at Sheffield Zine Fest! It’s from 12-5 at the Electric Works, S1 2BJ. There will be around 30 different stalls, and loads of free workshops, on topics including working with distros (Lizzy from Marching Stars distro), zine-making for beginners (Emma Jane Falconer, ‘Fanzine Ynfytyn’), and body positivity (Rebecca, ‘Opinionated Nobody’). My workshop will be titled “Feminist Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism”:

This workshop will take place in 2 halves – first, a brief talk on the history of feminist zines, why they are important tools for feminist activists, and how they are a way of “doing feminism”. The second half will be an informal tutorial on how to make your own feminist minizine. All materials, including pens, paper, cuttings, etc – will be provided. Throughout the session, there will also be lots of different feminist zines being passed around for people to read!

On my stall, I’ll be selling issues of my perzine Here. In My Head., the SFN zine Pandora Press, and giving out lots of flyers and minizines for free. Do come along and say hello!

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So I’ve had a very busy few weeks, and have lots to blog about as soon as I find the time. Things I’ve done recently:

1. Attended a pro-choice training day in Bristol, organised by Education for Choice. It was great to get an update on the current attack on reproductive rights in the UK, including the rise of pregnancy crisis centres giving out false information about abortion, increased funding to anti-choice religious groups including SPUC and Life, and government attempts to chip away women’s reproductive rights.

2. I was on the telly! SFN were invited to be “key speakers” on the topic of sexual harassment on live current affairs show ‘Free Speech’, broadcast on BBC3 a month ago. Here’s a screenshot; I do look moody as fuck though:

I was going to blog about this properly, but I never got round to it what with everything else that was going on. Basically, we were invited by the show’s producer to be “key speakers”, and she asked us to prepare some statements on the topic of sexual harassment. We were sat in the audience, and it was explained that the host Rick Edwards would come over to us, introduce us, and ask us what we thought. We were very excited at the prospect of getting SFN some publicity, and airing some sensible views on victim blaming and everyday sexism! What actually happened was this: when the topic was broached, one of the panellists said that women invite harassment when they dress like sluts, and there were a shitload of young Tories in the audience who applauded this. Edwards came up to different audience members to get their views, most of whom agreed with the panellist (usually words to the effect of “these girls have it all hanging out“), and NEVER came over to us, despite being “key speakers”, having the most worthwhile thing to say on the topic out of everyone there, AND waving our arms in the air madly trying to get our chance to speak! Nope, he decided to talk to male Tories instead of feminists about sexual assault, UGH. The producer apologised to us afterwards for Edwards’ mistake; she claimed that he was told to speak to us but must’ve forgotten or whatever. OH WELL.

3. Held a workshop and performed live at SFN’s International Women’s Day event! Blog to follow.

4. Provisionally booked 3 solo piano gigs so far for 2013 – all dates TBC, more details to come soon.

5. Pandora Press #5: The Media Issue is out now! Blog to follow.