Volunteer opportunities in the Feminist Archive South

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The Feminist Archive South holds 160 metres (plus) of inspirational materials. Unfortunately we have not yet had a chance to transfer all of our paper catalogues and lists on to our online archive catalogue.

We need some kind volunteers to help with typing up word lists, access databases, and other random listings, which can converted into one catalogue, so people both in Bristol and elsewhere, can easily evaluate what is in the archive, and order up resources to use. At the moment, a significant amount of our lists are on paper alone.

Ensuring the archive is catalogued really helps researchers, and members of feminist communities, discover the Feminist Archive South’s contents. It also helps to preserve material in the long run (because of less handling and we are able to access materials from store in a more precise way).

Bear in mind everything won’t be catalogued at the end of this project, but if you would like to get involved it would really help us.

We envisage people will be taking printed or photocopied lists and typing them up and converting them into another format. It can be done in Special Collections, or we can supply copies of lists for you to work on at home. We will provide a template for you to fill, which should be easy to use and follow.

You don’t have to have any prior experience of archive work, just be keen to learn about feminist histories and have a good eye for detail.

Do get in touch and we are happy to discuss this further.

There is no deadline, as we envisage this kind of support will be ongoing for the immediate future.

News from the archive

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University of Bristol Special Collections archivist, Feminist Archive South trustee and all round goodie Hannah Lowery offers this communication:

‘Although the blog has been quiet recently and there are less researchers using FAS at the moment, today we hosted a workshop with Maud Perrier and 16 of her University of Bristol postgraduates.

Although the Special Collections Reading Room was rather chilly, there was a real buzz with discussions of Greenham Common, Carole Harwood, Wages for Housework, and other topics.

Maud and I commented on how cold it must have been living at Greenham Common, and on how dedicated the women must have been.

Although the majority of the Feminist Archive South is held off site in the University of Bristol Library Research Reserve, it is available for use.

Use the catalogue to get an idea of the holdings and get in touch to see if we can help with your research.’

What are you waiting for? Our amazing collection awaits you….

Born in Flames at Watershed Sunday 12 October @ 6pm!

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Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see Born in Flames on Sunday 12 October at Watershed. It is part of the Afrofuturism season curated by Edson Burton taking place throughout October.

Independent filmmaker, artist and critic Lizzie Borden (yes, her real name!) made her feature debut with this bold and brilliant fusion of sci fi and feminist politics, a comic fantasy of female rebellion that we welcome to Bristol for this extremely rare screening. It’s 10 years after a socialist revolution in the United States, and the leader of the Woman’s Army is mysteriously killed, setting off a seemingly impossible coalition of women – crossing all lines of race, class, and sexual preference – to take down The System. Born_in_flames_poster

Whistle blowing female bicyclists swoop down on would-be rapists, male construction workers protest that their female colleagues are monopolising the best jobs, and there are funny and thrilling encounters between groups of women ranging from militant black lesbians to white punks.

Screening with Pumzi, Kenya’s first science fiction film, a poetic and imaginative vision of a dystopian future 35 years after water wars have torn the world apart. It tells the story of Asha, a young botanist who risks everything as she escapes to the outside world to nurture a precious plant.
With an introduction and Q&A from Chardine Taylor-Stone, writer, DJ, and founder of black speculative fiction book club Mothership Connections.

GULABI GANG – film screening 8 November @ Silai Centre

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This new documentary about the Gulabi Gang, a group of women activists in Northern India is being screened in Bristol in November.

GULABI GANG
Saturday 8th November, Silai Centre, Easton Road, Doors open from 6pm, film starts at 7pm

Suggested donation £3

Nishtha Jain, a film maker from India will be visiting Bristol on 8th November for a very special screening of her latest film, Gulabi Gang, a documentary about an inspirational group of women working in Northern India to challenge gender violence and state corruption.

Please join us for this exciting screening and unique opportunity to learn about the activism against gender violence happening in India at the moment.

*GULABI GANG*

Norway/India/Denmark/2012/Hindi with English Subtitles

A film by Nishtha Jain(India), produced by Oscar and Emmy nominated
Torstein Grude(Norway) and Signe Sorenson(Denmark)

*Synopsis*

Enter the badlands of Bundelkhand in central India and you have entered a
place of desolation, dust and despair. This film follows the Gulabi Gang,
an unusual group of rural women led by the energetic and charismatic Sampat
Pal. They travel long distances to fight for the rights of women and
Dalits. Often they encounter resistance, apathy and corruption, even
ridicule. Sometimes whole villages connive against them to protect the
perpetrators of violence. While we see Gulabi Gang members struggling
against gender violence and state corruption, we also see the flip side –
members getting sucked by the trappings of their new found power. Breaking
away from the deep-rooted patriarchal structure is a challenge even for the
most fearless amongst them. The film pulls us into the centre of these
blazing conflicts and uncovers a complex story about the nature of power
itself.

*AWARDS AND HONORS*

Best Documentary, Dubai International Film Festival, 2012

Best Documentary, Kortfilmfestivalen, Norway 2012

Amnesty International Award for Human Rights, Planete-doc Review, Warsaw

First Amnesty International Human Rights Award, Tri-Continental IFF, South
Africa 2013

Best Documentary, International Association of Women in Radio &
Television(IAWRT) 2013

Best Director, Mumbai International Film Festival, Mumbai, 2014

Best Documentary(Social Issues), National Awards, India, 2014

Best Non-feature Editing, National Awards, India, 2014

Best Protagonist, ImagineIndia, Madrid 2014 & many more!

*Nishtha Jain* is an award winning filmmaker based in Mumbai. She has directed several films including the critically acclaimed

*City of Photos(2005)* and *Lakshmi and Me(2008). *She’s a graduate of
FTII, Pune and Jamia Mass communication Research Centre.
http://www.raintreefilms.net
http://www.lakshmiandme.com

Two excellent teaching resources….

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Posters from the See Red Women’s Workshop are available under a Creative Commons license.

Explore the imagery and communication strategies of the Women’s Liberation Movement…

Using Archives to Teach Gender is an excellent resource that includes scans of images from the Feminist Archive North and the Marks & Spencer Company Archive which are both based at Special Collections, Leeds University. Also includes a handy links page to further resources.

As ever, the Sisterhood & After oral history project is a must and first stop shop for research into the WLM.

Women’s Liberation Music Archive – catalogued and available for use

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The Women’s Liberation Music Archive is now available for consultation in the University of Bristol Special Collections, and is stored with the Feminist Archive South.

It has the reference DM2598 and contents can be viewed on our online catalogue.

It consists of 7 boxes of materials relating to Music and the Women’s Movement in the 1970s and 1980s.

Gems include audio and audiovisual recordings of bands such as Clapperclaw, Jam Today, Ova, the Fabulous Dirt Sisters, Feminist Improvising Group, Frankie Armstrong, The Mistakes, Guest Stars, and Contradictions, as well as a range of fascinating ephemera including fliers, diaries, budget books, manifestos, songbooks, posters, oral histories and much more.

Listening and viewing facilities are available within the archive for this material.

Big thanks to Sarah Cuthill who catalogued the material for us.

Student visits to the archive

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The Feminist Archive South is continuing to get increased use from students (undergraduate and postgraduate) from the University of Bristol and further afield (UWE, Bath, Exeter, Bath Spa and beyond).

In March 2014 we held four workshops when we hosted all of the first year University of the West of England design students (around 80 in total).

They were inspired by the collection to create their own pieces of work, and a fascinating time was had by all involved, students and staff alike. Discussions took place on Greenham Common, Miss World (and alternatives to Miss World), Sistershow, relationships, art work, 1950s central Europe, and everything else!

Protect women only homelessness services in Bristol

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Please sign and share this petition to help protect women only homelessness services in Bristol.

Women only accommodation is currently under threat as part of Bristol City Council’s commissioning plan for medium level homelessness services.

The option currently favoured by Bristol City Council is to reduce the number of women only accommodation from 34 units to 10 units.

The evidence is that more women are accessing and needing services and that they continue to be in need of safe and secure women only accommodation.

Please sign this petition to pledge your support for women only accommodation and urge Bristol City Council to reconsider their proposal to reduce this vital and specialist service in Bristol.

For more information visit the Missing Link website.

Women’s Radio Workshop – Women and Music

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We are slowly migrating our audio cassette-based collections to digital files and we thought we’d share some of the fruits of our labour here.

The Women’s Radio Workshop programme ‘Women and Music’ provides a rare and unique insight into women’s liberation music making.

women and music back

The programme features ‘seven women who play and write music’ including Rosemary Schonfeld, Jana Runnalls (Ova), Andrea Webb, Janie Webb, Judya Manthis (sp?), Lawrie Strike, Louise Marsden, Rosie Fisher and Sarah Gillam.

For more background on music making and the WLM visit the online Women’s Liberation Music Archive, in particular read the introduction to the Sisters in Song book. The physical WLMA has been deposited in the FAS and is in the process of being catalogued – check back soon for updates on this!

For now, enjoy!

Cfp – Situating Women’s Liberation; Historicizing a Movement Symposium

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Situating Women’s Liberation; Historicizing a Movement Symposium

The University of Portsmouth: Friday 4 July 2014

The women’s liberation movement (WLM) erupted into late 1960s Western society as a powerful force for social change, challenging rigidly defined and oppressive sex role stereotypes, promoting a set of formal demands for women’s equality and introducing terms such as ‘sexism’ and ‘male chauvinist’ into everyday language. There is little doubt that the women’s liberation movement had a profound impact, yet popular images of the original ‘women’s libbers’ portray second wave feminists as men hating, bra burning, dungaree clad harridans. There is currently renewed interest in feminism, and an upsurge of feminist activity. This has been accompanied by a desire amongst feminist historians to develop the historiography of the WLM. The aim of this one day conference is to historicize the women’s liberation movement within western society between c1968-1990.

Papers are invited in any area of women’s liberation c1968-90 in Britain, Continental Europe and North America. We are particularly interested in the following themes:

‘The personal is political’: consciousness raising, personal narratives, oral testimony – remembering the WLM;
Sexuality and contraception, including lesbian, bisexual and transgender feminists, sexual violence and ‘reclaim the night’;
Struggles at work: women’s strikes, equal pay, against sex role stereo typing – equal opportunities;
The WLM and media: campaigns against sexist advertising;
feminist publications;
Black feminism;
Women from ethnic minorities/ women of colour in the WLM;
Cultural dimensions of the WLM: feminist art, theatre, writing;
Transnational dimensions

This conference is aimed primarily at historians but will also be of interest to scholars in other disciplines, notably Literature, Cultural Studies, Sociology and Media Studies.

Please send abstracts up to 300 words to Sue Bruley ([email protected]) by 4^th April 2014.

Website and Booking: http://www.port.ac.uk/centre-for-european-and-international-studies-research/events/situating-womens-liberation/

Local Information: http://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/