Helen Chadwick: Works From The Estate

To mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of British artist Helen Chadwick (born 18 May 1953, died 1996), Richard Saltoun Gallery proudly presents her first solo exhibition in London for 10 years.

Helen Chadwick photographed by Kippa Matthews with some of her
Piss Flowers pieces

Helen Chadwick was one of the most important British artists to emerge in the 1980s and in 1987, one of the first woman artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick's innovative and provocative use of a rich variety of materials, such as flesh, flowers, chocolate and fur, was hugely influential on a younger generation of British artists. Her strongly associative and visceral images were intended to question gender representation and the nature of desire.

Her influence on the YBAs, as much through her attitude as by her works, was cemented through her teaching posts at the Royal College of Art, Chelsea School of Art and the London Institute.  Her sudden death in 1996 from heart failure stunned the art world and put an end to a prolific artist at the apex of her career. Read an informative obituary, from The Independent, by clicking here.

This exhibition presents a selection of photographs and sculptures from 1982-1994, with over 20 works on display. Throughout the two gallery spaces there will be key works such as Meat Abstracts 1989, Wreaths to Pleasure, 1992-3, Ego Geometria Sum, 1982-4, and Piss Flowers, 1991-92, among others. Piss Flowers (1991-92), is one of her most recognisable works where she cast the interior spaces left by her partner David Notarius and her, pissing in the snow. The work is both repulsive and beautiful, and it is this combination that typifies Chadwick's work: aesthetic beauty created out of an alliance of unconventional, often vile, materials.

• Exhibition Dates: 20 May 2013 -  28 June 2013
• Gallery Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm or by appointment
• Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus
• Gallery web site here

Laugh ‘til you cry, cry ‘til you laugh: The Small Hours by Susie Boyt

No good deed goes unpunished. That is the dark conclusion of Boyt’s brilliant tragicomedy of charitable intentions and damaged histories. Heroine Harriet Mansfield is a blousy woman of big emotions and large scale, strong in intention, rich in feeling, emphatic in speech, full-bodied both literally and spiritually. She wants to open a nursery in a poncy part of town and conjure up a perfect girlsworld of harvest baskets, under-fives woodworking sessions and dress-up games, far from the twinge of WiFi and the smell of crisps. Her desire is to be Dream Proxy Mommy to a cohort of privileged little girls who’ll remember the institution for the rest of their (consequently) happy lives. It does not take the godfather of psychoanalysis to work out that this is because she herself had an unhappy childhood, but the forensic way in which Boyt explores Harriet’s karmically restitutional urge is sheer genius.

Using money from an inheritance and wordlessly encouraged by her enigmatic shrink – Boyt is brilliant on the agonies of successful psychotherapy in the early pages of the novel – Harriet opens the nursery. It’s a success: to break even you only need half a dozen pupils if they’re all rich. Then stuff happens.

Though providing much delight, in both sincerely heart-warming and satirically keen ways, the nursery is not the locus of the meaningful action. That occurs on the periphery and concerns Harriet’s parents and brother. The crucial, toxic events of Harriet’s life actually happened in the past and it’s an indication of Boyt’s excellence that the reader, so caught up in the jolly romp of Harriet-the-schoolmistress, does not notice the foreboding elements encroaching from the outskirts until it’s too late. 

The Small Hours, as the title indicates, is about what happens in the gaps between our survival strategies, the long nights when the nursery is not full of children, the weekends when Harriet’s professional acumen is unneeded, the intervals between lessons and the moments before and after grand endeavours. It explores the generational after-effects of abuse, the never-ending fractal of consequences, the way adults betray children – and, of course, the positive way in which damaged adults vow to nurture future generations.

And at the same time it’s really funny.

The psychological precision of this novel is breathtaking. Boyt’s greatest accomplishment is her creation of Harriet, an eccentric, humorous and perceptive adult who is humiliated by the cruelty of others yet whose own sincerity remains undiminished. Harriet understands her own pathology and sees herself as a wounded healer, a pained Pied Piper leading Holland Park’s children out of the darkness and into the light. Her striving nature, friendliness, energy, sensuality, emotional sensitivity and crushed yet accurate intelligence make her a heroine amongst children. Somehow, they can tell that she is benign. Yet her desire to give love overwhelms her more circumspect adult peers. She is not afraid of embarrassing herself and yet, funnily, this largeness of soul embarrasses others. And so it goes on in a never-ending loop of delicious comic irony.

Apart from the nice staff members at the nursery many of the adults in the Small Hours are spiritually ugly, emotionally mean and morally poor, particularly those who’ve benefited from the greatest financial privilege and exhibit the most outward stylishness. Being two-faced themselves, they mistrust Harriet’s transparency. She in turn is acutely aware of the way her grand candour makes the timid feel awkward and the asinine feel superior. And their perverted and agonising misinterpretation of her successfully makes her self-conscious and therefore ungainly.

Part of the clever pain of The Small Hours is watching Harriet ask plainly honest questions, offer love and seek answers only to have her wholesomeness met with irritation, contempt and aversion by those who are just as damaged yet far more defensive than she is. As I read the novel I kept thinking, Harriet thinks of herself as huge and desperate and clumsy. I bet, if I were to meet her, she would be the opposite. Harriet’s brother, an uptight tightwad, has projected his own trauma onto her; everything she does riles him, because he is riled by his own past, of which she is a reminder. Because he never shows his emotions, when she shows a tiny bit of hers they seem elephantine by comparison. 

And I haven’t even started on the mother. Or the dad.

Finally, every sentence of this novel is at once a bitingly witty summation and a deadpan indictment of the brutality of life. If I quoted the sharpest bits I’d wind up reproducing the whole thing. I haven’t, deliberately. Go and buy it.

The Small Hours by Susie Boyt is published by Virago but why don't you go straight to Amazon instead?

Don't Wake Me: the powerful new play by Rahila Gupta

Last week in Liverpool I was privileged to chair a panel about the international women’s movement called 50 Billion Shades of Feminism. One of my guests was the novelist, playwright, Southall Black Sisters activist and Guardian commentator Rahila Gupta. Gupta was a stranger, although obviously a political ally, so I have no vested interest in the splurge of praise and promotion that follows.

First, some background: Rahila Gupta’s book Enslaved: The New British Slavery is one of the most shocking and important works of topical investigation and testimony I’ve read. It uncovers the reality of modern-day slavery and (strongly gendered) abuse, violation and exploitation happening within the UK, tragically unnoticed and unlooked-for by the majority of people. As the publishers state powerfully,

They live amongst us, invisible, stripped of their passports and money, locked in cramped rooms, physically and psychologically abused. Britain is once again home to thousands of slaves - they reach our shores via unimaginably perilous crossings, are confined to horrendous working lives, and forgotten. Very few ever have a chance of talking about their appalling experiences. Rahila Gupta seeks out five slaves and persuades them to tell us their disturbing stories in this compelling and revealing book.

The testimonies include those of a pregnant very young girl from Sierra Leone who is used in a London house as an imprisoned domestic worker, a trafficked Russian teenager forced into prostitution, a religiously devout Somalian woman forced to become a prostitute to survive and a young Punjabi woman in an abusive forced marriage. They are in a country they don’t know, whose language they might not know, unaware of their human rights or how to formally claim and defend those rights. They have been stripped of all rights by their abusers and live in fear of returning to the extreme poverty, sexual violence, war or persecution they experienced in their home countries, knowing that the gangs or individuals who trafficked and exploit them here will target (or threaten to target) them and their families there.

Rahila Gupta’s work in all fields has been about the importance of telling the truth exactly where people are too discomfited by reality to look or listen – and she does so in a way which is beautifully written, powerful, riveting and unforgettable. She co-scripted the film Provoked, which starred Aishwarya Rai and Miranda Richardson, and dealt with the case of an abused Asian woman who set her violent husband alight

When I heard that Gupta’s new play Don’t Wake Me: The Ballad of Nihal Armstrong was debuting in London and then moving on to Edinburgh I couldn’t let it pass without writing something.

Flyer for Don't Wake Me, which will be coming to The Cockpit in Central London
after selected dates at the Chickenshed in North London

Written by Gupta, directed by Guy Slater and starring Jaye Griffiths (who’s starred in Silent Witness, Coronation Street, Criminal Justice), Don’t Wake Me is based on real events. It’s about the power of a mother’s love and determination and of a baby boy’s incredible joy, wit and will, in the face of life’s obstacles and others’ cynicism. This is their story:

After a difficult conception Nihal’s arrival into the world is a terrifying ordeal for his mother. During a traumatic delivery, attended by ‘cold-eyed’ midwives, Nihal has to be pulled back from the brink of death. Three months on, the doctor tells her that her baby has cerebral palsy and will never learn how to walk, talk, read or write. 

However, as Nihal grows, his mother recognises that inside his seemingly helpless body is a bright, sensitive, spirited boy. She is forced to wage battle with the system, a system unable to accept that flowers can bloom in a desert – triumphantly demonstrated when Nihal learns to communicate fluently in his own unique style 

This is the intensely dramatic, moving story of a mother’s tireless battles against prejudice and ignorance and her inspiring victories in her struggle for her son’s rights. A story of loss, grief, and joy, leavened by Nihal's sense of humour and the heroic human spirit.

EVENT DETAILS:

• Don’t Wake Me will be previewing at the Chickenshed Theatre in North London from 22nd May 2013 - 25 May 2013. For details click here.
• It will then be on at the Cockpit Theatre in Central London from 3^rd June until 22^nd June 2013. For details click here.
• The official press night for Don’t Wake Me will be at the Cockpit on Monday 3^rd June at 7pm. For press please contact Sue Amaradivakara on 1001sca@gmail.com
• It will then be on at the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh during the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival from Monday 5 August - Sunday 25 August. For details click here.

Jaye Griffiths, who stars in Don't Wake Me. Behind her is an image
of Nihal Armstrong

The Nihal Armstrong Trust, set up in memory of Nihal, provides grants to families of children with cerebral palsy to enable them to purchase cutting edge equipment and services not funded by local authorities. 

The power of simplicity: reducing maternal mortality in districts in Sierra Leone and Burundi

Following my piece about maternal health in India, and in advance of the UCL symposium on community-based global maternal care next week, I wanted to focus on two smaller-scale success stories and examine what makes them work. Medecins Sans Frontieres has been working on two projects aimed at reducing women’s risk of death in childbirth in the Kabezi district in Burundi and the Bo district in Sierra Leone.

MSF has produced an analysis of the challenges and gains of its work in a report called Safe Delivery (link takes you to a short précis) which looks at their work in Kabezi since the 2006 start of the project, and in Bo since the MSF began running a hospital there in 2003.

Image taken for MSF by Sarah Elliott, showing a successful emergency
birth in Burundi - I love the woman's smile.

Both Sierra Leone and Burundi are at a disadvantage when it comes to maternal care as their health infrastructures – along with much else – have broken down during and in the aftermath of civil war. The long effect of such breakage is a deficit of human, educational and practical resources: so medical facilities are needed, as are qualified healthcare workers, as are the systems to employ them in a sustainable way and the educational infrastructures required to train them. This is before we tackle the important issue of patients’ own access to healthcare and the importance of antenatal and postpartum care. All this requires investment, establishment, organisation and management. According to MSF Burundi has a national average of 800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, and Sierra Leone has a national average of 890 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Sierra Leone has the third-highest rate of maternal death, after Chad and Somalia. The main causes of maternal death are haemorrhage (25%), sepsis (15%), unsafe abortion (13% - and the report states clearly that “abortions need to be performed by skilled medical workers in a safe and hygienic environment”), hypertensive disorders like eclampsia and pre-eclampsia; and obstructed labour.

As the report – which can be read in full here - states,

Every year, some 287,000 women die [globally] from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Most are young, active and healthy. And for every woman who dies, another 20 women suffer from chronic ill health or disability due to conditions such as obstetric fistula.* 

Across the world, in every country and every  population group, approximately 15 percent of  pregnant women develop complications that are potentially life-threatening. But the fate of a  pregnant woman is very much dictated by where  she gives birth in the world. In fact, 99% of  maternal deaths occur in poor countries, where – for many people – medical services are out of reach or simply unaffordable

Yet the local district projects  (serving a population of nearly 600,000 in Bo and just under 200,000 in Kabezi) have shown that when addressing this issue the implementation of basic – or rather, obvious – measures has steeply reduced rates of maternal death. The report stresses that the problem is not a lack of “state of the art facilities” and shows how the establishment of an ambulance system and the availability of emergency in-hospital emergency obstetric care, with trained staff and appropriate medical supplies, twenty-four hours a day, for free, have brought the Kabezi figures down to 74% less than the national level for Burundi and the Bo figures down to 61% less than the national level for Sierra Leone. In both cases the cost of providing such measures to the population for free is less than 2 Euros per head in Bo and a tiny bit over 3 Euros in Kabezi.

One of the UN Millennium Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality (in comparison with figures from 1990) by 75% by 2015. Judging by the success of the projects I’ve described above, extreme change is possible through the implementation of simple but profoundly important measures. As the report states,

A common assumption is  that improving access to emergency obstetric care is too costly, but MSF’s experience shows that this need not be the case.

*Despite the triumphs of the two projects I’ve described, in February of this year MSF released a press alert announcing that Burundi’s only free provider of treatment for obstetric fistula, which is caused by complications during childbirth, is under threat of close due to a lack of trained medical staff. The Urumuri Center, in the city of Gitega, is run jointly by Burundi’s Ministry of Health and MSF and treatment is provided by foreign volunteer surgeons on short-time assignments. 

Persephone Speaks: The forgotten women of Bosnia

I am urging everyone to back a major new documentary by the brilliant film-maker Ivana Ivkovic Kelley, whose project Persephone Speaks focuses on the use of rape as a war strategy. The film follows a survivor's quest to shed light on the international community's failure to acknowledge the effects this crime has on women's lives, long after the war has ended. There are only 10 days left before the fundraising campaign is over.



The project is more timely than ever, given that global awareness of this issue is rising. It's also amazing to witness the power of film-making on global politics, with William Hague stating that his consciousness was raised by Angelina Jolie's hard-hitting 2012 film In The Land of Blood and Honey, which focuses on the issue. That feature was a sombre and extremely admirable fictionalisation of real events, strongly influenced by actual witness and testimony. 

For readers who want to know more about the global issue of rape in war (although, I should add, rape and all forms of gendered sexual violence and gendered abuse are absolutely endemic in peacetime societies too, everywhere in the world, regardless of colour, class, religion, culture, language and hemisphere) then I strong recommend the Women Under Siege Project, which provide extremely gritty and exhaustive documentation, testimony and research. A trigger warning strongly applies. 

Persephone Speaks shows a survivor tracing and confronting perpetrators, testifying to the reality and aftermath of rape and seeking formal justice in the international community and courts system. As Kelley says, she wishes to

...acknowledge the effects this crime has on women's lives, long after the war has ended. Females are nonstop targets during wartime, as demonstrated by the mass rapes implemented as a policy of genocide during the Bosnian war. Because this atrocity is grossly ignored by the international community and international tribunals, this film revisits one survivor, Bakira, who continues to fight for justice on behalf of others all over the world.   

From her tiny smoke-filled office on the shrapnel-damaged outskirts of Sarajevo, to her monthly sojourns to the Hague, her goal is for perpetrators to be brought to justice. To this day, war rape survivors continue to join her group, finally sharing their stories with this woman who will ensure their testimonies are heard in the courts in Sarajevo or the Hague.  

 In many cases, the perpetrators are either awaiting trial or have been rewarded by the Serbian government for successfully running a "camp", often in the form of a promotion within the local police force. We have witnessed incidents of this same "reward" behavior in similar conflicts around the world. In situations such as these, many survivors have expressed anger, fear, and shock, especially when they see their attacker, years later, in high level positions or vacationing beside them on the Adriatic coast.  

Bakira... sets out to find where the perpetrators, named in numerous testimonies, now live, subsequently providing this evidence to the Hague and other courts.

Kelley and her team have initiated a Kickstarter campaign to raise $12,000 which will enable the completion of Persephone Speaks by autumn so that it can hit the international film festival circuit when it debuts. More than $8,000 has already been pledged (disclosure: I pledged some after reading the Women's Views on News feature - Kelley is a stranger to me) but according to Kickstarter custom the full target must be reached, or nothing.

Please help. In the words of the director,

It is through projects such as these that light is shed on human rights issues. The continued treatment of women around the world, especially during times of conflict, needs to be heard through as many channels as possible. Unfortunately, war rape survivors are often seen as a problem, a by-product of war that needs to be swept under the rug. Our work will be done when the world comes together to ensure female victims of war are not forgotten and the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Be a part of making Persephone Speaks happen by becoming a backer here and showing your support on the documentary's Facebook page here.

You might also be interested in finding out about Women for Women International's March of Peace from 5th-12th July 2013, which follows a 120 km route through Bosnia and Herzegovina to Srebrenica - the exact route taken by refugees of the war.

Tracing the inkline of beauty and history: Delhi Old And New by Kavita Iyengar

First of all, please Bloomsbury can we have a UK edition of this book so British-based art lovers and readers needn't order from India and wait for shipping? Because I've just discovered a new, absolutely beautiful artist's tribute to Delhi, one of India's most historic, complex, vibrant and inspiring cities. Kavita Iyengar's Delhi: Old and New is a stunning edition of original, fiercely observed and intricately traced images of the city, at once delicate and utterly fresh. Iyengar's images give the reader a strong visual tour of Delhi, yet are themselves so crisp and classy that the book feels timeless, lifted out of the daily bustle of cosmopolitan life. It does so by focusing on representing multiple Delhis through the centuries, via those architectural and cityscaped parts that still remain, from ancient temples to mosques, forts, palaces, colonial buildings (thanks, chaps) and the "New New Delhi" of post-Independence India. In Delhi, Old and New the vast weight of history is here made both accessible and inexpressibly gorgeous.

Full cover spread - click to enlarge

This is a book for everyone who loves art, or loves India, or both. And for those who want more of the exquisite works, here's a privileged look:

All images by Kavita Iyengar

"Putting the Soul Back into Business: Small Steps – Big Impact." Big brains. Pretty major privilege too actually.

The alumni of Harvard and Oxford Universities are delighted to invite you to a panel and networking event about big business and corporate social responsibility on Thursday 23rd May.

This event will offer the opportunity to hear how individuals are adding the human element back into corporate social responsibility and to exchange ideas about the differences we can make. We will explore the small steps which individuals within organisations are taking to initiate change at grass roots level and to positively impact the lives of people in the developing world - and on our doorstep.

• Date: Thursday 23rd May
• Time: 6.30pm for 7pm start. Panel discussion and Q&A from 7-8pm,
• Following by drinks and networking.
• Venue: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, 65 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1HS.
• Ticket Price: £10 (£8 for Harvard Alumni Club and ‘Oxford 10’ members). As space is limited, places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. 
• Register online at www.hcuk.org. Harvard alumni can log in with their post Harvard details. All others can register online as non-alumni and proceed to events from there.

Panellists:

• Ayesha Mustafa: Founder and Director, Fashion Compassion 
• Daniel Vennard: Global Sustainability Director Brands, MARS INC.
• Peter Maxmin, UK Search Director, Microsoft
• Paul Lomas, Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
• Maggie de Pree, Co-Founder, The Human Agency & Imaginals

Symposium on Community-Based Maternal and Newborn Care at UCL

Date: Tuesday 21st May, 5.15pm

Venue: John Snow Lecture Theatre Keppel Street London WC1E
Booking: Book Online

Speakers:

• Prof Joy Lawn, Professor of Maternal Reproductive and Child Health Epidemiology, London School Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 
• Prof David Osrin, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science, UCL Institute for Global Health 

With 1000 days remaining to the Millennium Development Goal targets, there is an increased focus on reducing maternal and newborn deaths through equitable coverage of life-saving interventions. Community-based strategies to improve maternal and newborn health are receiving policy attention, but there are a number of ways of thinking about them. They may be perceived as individual interventions, as a platform for many activities, or even as a distraction from health system building. An increasing number of studies and trials have been published which examine a range of approaches, yet sometimes the evidence is grouped as if all community-based maternal newborn care strategies were the same. What does the latest evidence show and what is actually being scaled up?

• A related piece by me: Help the mother, help the child, secure the future: maternal health in India

Novelist Kishwar Desai's Sea of Innocence: women, India, safety, secrets and violence in paradise

I wanted to support The Sea of Innocence, the Costa-winning novelist Kishwar Desai's latest book, which will be published by Simon & Schuster on 30th May in hardback at £12.99. The text below is from the press release - but I love Desai's novels for their brilliant combination of urgent topicality, taut plotting, strong style and an unforgettably clever, funny and resourceful heroine.

Kishwar Desai sprang onto the literary scene in 2010 with Witness The Night, which introduced the characters of the tough, cool social-worker-cum-detective heroine Simran Singh, who was investigating a murder case and tackling the issue of female infanticide. This powerful debut went on to win a Costa and was also longlisted for The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, The Man Asian Literary Prize and The Impac Award.

Desai’s second novel, Origins of Love, saw Simran travel between Delhi and London in a story involving the exploitative, largely unregulated and hugely profitable international surrogacy industry. It
received rave reviews and helped spark a global debate - which I wrote about in this New Humanist piece.

In her third novel, The Sea of Innocence, Desai’s heroine Simran is holidaying in Goa with her daughter when she is sent a video of a blonde teenager alone with a group of Indian men. The teenager is missing and Simran knows she must act, and fast, in order to save her. Everyone seems to know what has happened to her, but no-one will talk. Soon Simran herself is targeted to force her into silence and her Goan paradise becomes a living nightmare.

Like all Desai’s novels, The Sea of Innocence is a gripping detective story, but it is also the exploration of a serious social problem. In 2011, 21 British Nationals died in Goa and the book reflects on the infamous case of Scarlett Keeling, who was raped and murdered there 5 years ago, and the recent gang rape in Delhi. Desai looks at the role of women in India. She explores how, in the age of globalization, such issues affect all of us.

Kishwar Desai is an author, broadcaster and journalist who splits her time between Delhi, Goa and London. She will be in the UK around publication and will be available for interviews and to write features.

NOTES:

• For further information contact Hannah Corbett; Hannah.corbett@simonandschuster.co.uk
• ...or Gina Rozner at Giant Rooster PR: Gina@giantroosterpr.co.uk

Extradited to a future of torture: the reality of solitary confinement and a screening of Valarie Kaur's film Worst of the Worst

UK premiere of film about the Connecticut Supermax prison that houses two extradited British nationals. With Amnesty International & Special Guests from the USA Solitary Watch.

• Date of event : 16th May 2013, 6pm - 9pm
• Location : Kings College, Room S-2.08, King’s Building, Strand, London WC2R 2LS
• Event web page here
• All are welcome. Tickets are free.
• Click here for eventbrite details

Flagging up an upcoming special event entitled “Extradited to a future of torture: the reality of Solitary Confinement in the USA”, hosted by the International State Crime Initiative at King’s College. The event will feature the UK premiere of Worst of the Worst (link takes you to the trailer), a new 30 minute film made by Valarie Kaur with the Yale Visual Law Project. Valarie Kaur, is an award-winning filmmaker, civil rights advocate, and interfaith leader based in Connecticut who wanted to make this film on Supermax prisons after visiting Guantanamo Bay. She is the founder of Yale Visual Law which was launched in 2010 with two primary goals in mind: to create a cutting-edge pedagogical space where law students could be trained in the art of visual advocacy and to produce well-researched, professional documentary films on legal and policy issues. See the trailer online by clicking here. The film tour the UK with dates TBC in Scotland, Wales, North England in Summer 2013.

Worst of the Worst exposes the physically and psychologically abusive conditions of confinement in the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, Connecticut, the prison that houses extradited British citizens Talha Ahsan and Babar Ahmad.

Talha Ahsan is an award-winning British muslim poet and translator. He was been detained over 6 years without trial, charge or prima facie evidence on the controversial 2003 US-UK Extradition treaty on allegations relating to association with an obsolete foreign jihad website from 1997-2002 covering Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan. He was extradited to the USA on 5th October with his co-defendent Babar Ahmad and is now in solitary confinement in Connecticut at the Northern Correctional Institution. The trial will be in October 2013. Full details on the case and family campaign: www.freetalha.org

Babar Ahmad is Talha’s co-defendant. Before he was extradited, he was detained without trial for over 8 years, the longest period of detention without trial faced by any prisoner in British history. An e-petition to have his trial in the UK gathered over 149,000 signatures. See the site Free Babar Ahmad for more information.

Special guests from the USA James Ridgeway and Jean Casella, directors of Solitary Watch, and Amnesty International’s Tessa Murphy will discuss the issues in a human rights framework. James Ridgeway and media editor Jean Casella co-founded Solitary Watch in 2009, in order to "bring the widespread practice of solitary confinement out of the shadows and into the light of the public square." Their work has helped to fuel a growing national movement opposing the use of solitary in U.S. prisons, jails, juvenile facilities, and immigrant detention centers. 

The Amnesty International report on Supermax prisons by speaker Tessa Murphy can be read here. In a 2012 statement of concern about Talha Ahsan & Babar Ahmad’s extradition, Amnesty International noted: 

There is ample evidence in the USA and elsewhere that prolonged confinement to a cell with social isolation can cause serious physical and psychological harm. Concerns about such impact are heightened with regard to individuals, like some of those extradited, who have pre-existing medical conditions or mental disabilities. (Full statement available here).

Talha Ahsan’s new creative writing from Supermax prison will be read by his brother Hamja Ahsan. Writings from other prisoners in solitary confinement will be read by poet and playwright Avaes Mohammad.

Special guest James Ridgeway said :

Supermax prisons and solitary confinement units are America's domestic black sites, these are places where genuine torture takes place. 

People in the UK should care about what happens in American supermax prisons, just as they care about what happens at Guantanamo... [because] British nationals are now being extradited to the U.S. to face decades of torture in solitary confinement.

Aseem Mehta, co-director of Worst of the Worst, said :

In making the film, we listened to all of the actors whose lives were touched by supermax - the inmates in solitary, the guards who report for duty each day, the policymakers and officials who oversee the facility, the architect whose legacy has become the prison, the family members and friends whose loved ones are inside, the lawyers and advocates who navigate the law that governs the prison's logic. We came away with the conclusion that the institution harms everyone who it touches, that everyone who enters Northern ultimately leaves damaged.

The event host is Dr. Ian Patel of International State Crime Intitiative.  Dr. Patel is in the law department at King's College London. He specialises in criminal justice, criminal law, and international human rights. He is a fellow at the International State Crime Initiative. His recent article on Talha Ahsan case and prolonged solitary confinement was published in the New Statesman here.

Further resources:

• 25 minute Extradition Film now online about Talha Ahsan & Babar Ahmad
• The Free Talha Ahsan Campaign www.freetalha.org and Facebook page and YouTube channel

The Wilding Festival: 13th - 16th June 2013

A multi-arts festival inspired by the remarkable story of suffragette Emily Wilding Davison comes to Bloomsbury.

Dates: Thursday 13th June - Sunday 16th June 2013

Pre-festival talks and debates from Friday 7th June 2013

Site: The Wilding Festival

Venue: St. George’s, Bloomsbury, WC1A 2HR (Front entrance, Bloomsbury Way)

On the 14th June 1913, 6000 women dressed in white marched through the streets of London to pay their respects to Emily Wilding Davison at St George’s Church, Bloomsbury. This young woman lost her life in a dramatic act of protest when she placed herself in the path of the King’s horse to highlight the cause of women’s suffrage.

On the 100th anniversary of her memorial service the doors of St George’s will once again be opened in her name, for an eclectic and provocative programme of new art works and performances. We invite our audience to experience, consider and challenge the resonance of Davison’s legacy in our modern lives.

Curated by London based arts collective Soundcastle in partnership with the Museum of London and St George’s Bloomsbury, the festival will present dynamic and discursive new music, theatre, dance, visual art, collaboration, discussion and intergenerational community engagement in this spectacular and immersive setting.

Performing and exhibiting artists include: Soundcastle, Consortium5, Troupe, London Gay Men’s Chorus, Akhila Krishnan, LightBox, Over 55s Sage Dance Company, Voice, Folie a Deux Femme, Kirstin Smith, Jasper Cho and many more.

Speakers will include Marina Warner (historian and mythographer), Diane Atkinson (women’s historian and author) Benjamin Alsop (Coin gallery curator, British Museum), Hilary McCollum (author and feminist activist). Suffragette expert, Elizabeth Crawford will be an ‘information point’ throughout the festival in order to answer any questions from members of the public....

And now a link to some amazing quotes from another Suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst, including:

"I would rather be a rebel than a slave."

And now back to the Wilding Festival press release...

St. George's, Bloomsbury is a stunning example of Baroque architecture, the last of Nicholas Hawksmoor's London churches (completed in 1731) and recently magnificently restored with support from the Paul Mellon Foundation and a Heritage Lottery Grant. Father David Peebles, Rector at St. George’s says: "One hundred years ago St George's controversially opened its doors to host the memorial service of Emily Davidson. We are delighted to open them again for all who would like to use this occasion to celebrate, explore and discuss the changing status and role of women in society and indeed the Church. And we shall do so in song, discussion and performance, with our hearts and with our minds."

Museum of London Inclusion Programme Manager, Kirsty Marsh says: “The Wilding Festival will enable us to look now one hundred years on from Davison’s death and ask the question, how far has equality come?”

The Wilding Festival opens on Thursday 13th June and runs until the evening of Sunday 16th June 2013. Pre-festival talks commence on Friday 7th June 2013. Tickets from £4-£10 will go on sale on Tuesday 7th May 2013 via TicketWeb and the Wilding Festival website.

• Press Reception: Monday 13th May 2013, 11am at St. George’s Bloomsbury.
• For a full programme of festival events, go to www.thewildingfestival.co.uk
• For further information, images or interviews please contact press@thewildingfestival.co.uk

Help the mother, help the child, secure the future: maternal and child health in India

Photo (c) Children In Need India

Like many people ‘of colour’, I am occasionally subject to a random dousing of imprecise and pejorative cultural clichés by ignorant people with a superiority complex, just like a delicate lotus blossom caught in a balmy, allegorical, toxic monsoon shower.

Woman in publishing, at literary festival: “What do you do?”
Me: “At the moment I’m working with the Gates Foundation and Johns Hopkins University, reporting on international development? No, before you ask, I haven’t met the Gates’s. The next thing I’m doing is on maternal health, I think. It’s really interesting.”
Woman in publishing: “Oh! That’s so interesting because the other day I was thinking to myself, I had trouble with my two pregnancies and if I’d been having my babies in the developing world, I wouldn’t have survived. Do you know [random British Asian woman in publishing PR]? Because you look like her and you remind me of her.”
Me: ???

I have no doubt that I in no way resemble the one other Asian person Publishing Woman has met in her working life. Poor PW, we met for 10 minutes out of nowhere and she couldn’t stop talking about race, refugees, poverty and the pathetic ills of the ‘developing world’ – it’s like she had racial Tourettes. And had I been able to recover from the speechlessness that afflicted me at the crucial moment, despite the fact that I talk for a living, I would have asked her which country exactly in ‘the developing world’ (which bigots usually take to mean everywhere or possibly anywhere from Senegal, across Libya, Somalia, Congo, down to Mozambique, then up through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, definitely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and then possibly through to rural China perhaps… and maybe Burma, or rural Indonesia…and maybe also acrossways to some countries in South and Latin America, oh and the Caribbean islands maybe too, and gosh even some parts of Greece?) she meant, and then which region in which country.

The whole thing – or rather, her gloating and ignorance – made me think of an article I wrote a long while back, about Children in Need India. I described ‘two Indias’: that of the extremely numerous privileged middle class, who have the finest education, prospects, family support, influence, connections and healthcare; and that of the poorest, who despite the general dynamism, ambition and industry of today’s India still suffer due to lack of access to healthcare, education, influence, rights and justice. So often, it is only the second India that the wider world sees. It pains me, as a British Indian, that the rest of the world is blind to the incredible humour, energy, intelligence, broadness and enlightenment I see everywhere in India. In many ways, as a woman I find Indian culture much more sisterly and infinitely less misogynistic, judgemental, brittle, sleazy, objectifying, ageist-sexist and dollybirdish than British culture – but that’s a subject for another article.

Still, when it comes to society’s least advantaged, there are certain issues which cannot be ignored. India has a population of around 1 billion people and poverty, hunger, illness, gender and class injustice, lack of access, lack of rights, abuse, exploitation and geographical isolation from sources of both power and assistance (such as healthcare) are disproportionately weighted against those with the least. In short, despite India’s great achievements and many distinguished citizens, there are still an awful lot of poor, disempowered, ill and hungry people.

Looking back through Children in Need India’s work since I wrote that first 'two Indias' article, it is clear that solving the most fundamental problems must start from birth. I was intrigued by CINI because it started up with just two clinics for deprived children in Kolkata, where my mother’s family are from, and has since grown into a much larger organisation operating in West Bengal.

They present some sobering statistics, from Unicef studies:

• Infant mortality is highest in India than anywhere else in the world. According to Unicef’s 2010 figures, the majority of the 6,000 children who die in India every day, the majority are from preventable causes.
• Almost a half of all children under the age of five in India are clinically malnourished (Unicef study, January 2012)
• According to Unicef’s 2005 figures women in India are 80 times more likely to die during childbirth than in the UK due to lack of access to basic healthcare and monitoring during pregnancy for poorer women, as well as malnutrition and anaemia, which are linked.

There are further statistics – all, sadly, predictable – relating to rates of child labour, the possible consequence of exploitation and abuse of children who labour, the young age of girls’ marriage in rural areas, relatively low rates of child education (education in India is now free for all but uniforms and books can be expensive) and the knock-on effect in terms of adult literacy and, of course, gender equality.

This month the Wilson Centre in America held an extremely wide-ranging conference on Maternal Health in India: Emerging Priorities. There is a brilliant sum-up and full footage of the conference here. Taking place across New Delhi, Boston and Washington, the speakers argued strongly for the issue of maternal health to be seen in the context of multiple underlying social, health and economic factors, pointing out the importance of the following:

• More attention must be paid to women's health after giving birth - focusing on morbidity, not just mortality - and ensuring that all of a woman's health needs, from family planning to sexual health, are met in the same (geographical) place by the same people or organisation. 
• The importance of family planning: fewer pregnancies, with longer gaps in between, are better for women's physical and mental health and the health of their babies. 
• The importance of post-partum health care.
• The effects of gender inequality on women's health: early marriages leading to early and numerous births; violence against women; the underprivileging of female family members when it comes to feeding/serving, leaving women with the worst and least food (leading to malnutrition and anaemia) and the most and hardest labour.
• Disenfranchisement due to caste or other low class status.

When it comes to healthcare, the best work is done through direct outreach, local engagement and the creation of long term relationships and structures: in this film, CINI describes visiting people door to door, inviting local people to meetings, the setting up of ‘panchayat’ council meeting where citizens speak up about what they need and are also educated and informed of their rights. In this way, the fundamentals – health, education, nutrition – are slowly strengthened. One intriguing project, which kills two birds with one stone (so to speak… actually it gives life to two birds with one stone…) is the ‘Nutrimix’ nutritional project: this is a nutritional food supplement which benefits Under-5s, which is sold by women to their local communities at a low price, but with a  small profit. It incentivises the women to sell and benefits them financially, while also aiding child health.

Other solutions are more traditional, like drop-in clinics giving advice on prenatal care, nutrition, vaccinations (one doctor in CINI’s film talks positively about the success of the polio vaccination project at her clinic – once mothers see how simple it is, they are bringing as many local children as they can), reproductive health and more. Still, the strong theme of gender inequality, sexual exploitation and hypocrisy cuts through all of these issues. The clinic deals with STI’s, among other things, and it is left tactfully open as to where the STIs come from (hint: it’s not the women). Many of the women having babies are under-nourished because, even in a generally poor family, the men and boys will be privileged and the mother will eat last. In the film, one doctor at a baby clinic gestures to a patient and points out that the woman (and by consequence her baby) is under-nourished and in frail health because, due to a lack of contraception and consideration from her husband, she has too many children, who she can’t feed and is visibly too exhausted to look after.

Still, it is these same women who are finding a voice. We see them taking a stand not only in their local area – one example is of women going door-to-door and educating their neighbours about the importance of environmental health and sanitary local conditions, which help to prevent the spread of germs – but also speaking out against the marrying-off of girls at a young age and insisting on the right for all children, whether they are boys or girls, to be educated. They are also empowered to demand safe and adequate healthcare. As one woman says: “We also want all mothers to be able to give birth in a hospital, without the risks of a home birth.”

PS. There is also, by the way, a really shocking report into children in India growing up surrounded by the sex exploitation industry. Honestly, Johns of the world, when will you get it? It’s immoral to buy a woman to use as a piece of meat to satisfy you, to give you 5 seconds of pleasure and a feeling of control. We are human beings. 

Derby Shorts: short stories as cool, tough and fast as the sport.

For Books' Sake and London Rollergirls present a ground-breaking anthology: Derby Shorts

Presented by For Books’ Sake in collaboration with the London Rollergirls, Derby Shorts is a collection of short stories about roller derby. You can pre-order it here. But hang on

....What’s roller derby?

"One of Britain's fastest-growing grassroots sports… the perfect pastime for feminists with attitude." The Guardian

 "Rapidly becoming the next big thing." The Independent

"The most exciting sport on wheels." Time Out

With over a thousand roller derby leagues across the globe, roller derby is exploding out of the underground and into the mainstream. In 2009, Whip It! saw cinema audiences worldwide swooning over Juliette Lewis, Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore on rollerskates. The first ever Roller Derby World Cup took place in 2011, and last year the National Museum of Roller Derby was established. There's even been talk of the sport being included in the 2020 Olympics.

The first, largest and longest-running roller derby league in the UK, the London Rollergirls came hot on the wheels of the sport's American resurgence, making them the perfect partner for this ground-breaking collaboration with For Books' Sake, the intelligent but irreverent webzine dedicated to promoting and celebrating writing by women.

Featuring short stories from roller derby players, referees and fanatics from all over the world, compiled following an open call for submissions from For Books' Sake, Derby Shorts is the first collection of its kind. 

Within its pages, you’ll find bold and brilliant tales from the track, from inter-team love, lust, rivalry and rebellion to rollerblading assassins in punk-apocalyptic London, brats and ballerinas turned derby superstars and much more.

Featuring emerging and established authors from across the UK, Europe, America and beyond, the stories in Derby Shorts range from the bittersweet and beautiful to the brutal and bizarre, but keep one thing in common; their obsession with a sport and subculture far too fierce, fearless and exciting to stay underground.

Paperback (164 pages), featuring fourteen short stories, published by For Books' Sake, Derby Shorts is out on Monday 20th May 2013. Pre-order it here.

About For Books' Sake: 

Founded in 2010, For Books’ Sake is the UK webzine dedicated to promoting and celebrating writing by women, providing a dedicated platform for readers and writers alike. With daily news, reviews, essays, features and interviews, For Books' Sake shines spotlights on classic and contemporary writing by both iconic and upcoming women authors, alongside a national live events programme involving arts and literature festivals across the UK, panel discussions, workshops and much more. Their first publishing project was Short Stack, a collection of the best new pulp fiction written by women, published by and in collaboration with Pulp Press earlier this year.

About the London Rollergirls:

The London Rollergirls formed in April 2006 to bring roller derby to the UK. We're made up of four league teams (Suffra Jets, Ultraviolent Femmes, Steam Rollers and Harbour Grudges), and an all-star travel team (London Brawling) and an all-star reserves team (Brawl Saints) that play teams from other cities around the world. In September 2011, London Brawling made history as the first team outside North America to take part in the WFTDA East Region Playoffs held in Baltimore, USA.

Text (c) For Books' Sake and London Rollergirls

Want some racism with your self-help? Let's make it a rule

• The time: April 2013
• The place: a national rail station on a Monday morning, not rush hour
• The psychological state: wanting a junk book that goes down easy and makes no demands
• The book: The Rules of Life by Richard Templar (Pearson, 2006)
• Price: £8.99
• The blurb: "The Rules of Life are the guiding principles that will help you get more out of life, shrug off adversity more easily and generally be a happier, calmer, more fulfilled person. You'll feel the benefits and so will everyone around you."
• Page: 12
• Chapter title: 'KNOW WHAT COUNTS AND WHAT DOESN'T'
• Rule: 'THERE ARE SOME THINGS IN THIS LIFE THAT ARE IMPORTANT AND A WHOLE OF THINGS THAT AREN'T'

The slap in the face:

'Doing something useful with your life counts... This does not mean chucking it all up and going off to some fly-infested swamp to work with the locals and catch malaria'

Scan from my copy of the book

Deadline April 26th: Apply for a trip to report on global health in Zambia

Personal preamble first, then the stuff you need to know and the links to get you there.

Photo (c) Jon Rawlinson for the IRP

This year I am working with the International Reporting Project to report on global health and development issues. When I first heard about the IRP assignment, I shied away from the opportunity because I didn't think health was an area of expertise for me. When I got the opportunity, I still shied away from the responsibility and floundered. Then I got a wake-up call, made a plan, opened my eyes, began reading up and dived in. Through learning, reading and writing about global health, I've connected with countless other topics, inequalities, injustices, histories, perspectives. It's a way of looking at the whole of people's lives, communities' well-being and countries' development, in a humble and humane way. When talking about world solutions and people's welfare you can't separate one element from another or analyse issues (or people) in isolation. You have to understand things holistically. The issues of the world are interconnected - gender, location, economy, culture, religion, politics, history - and if we want to change one element, all the others must and will change. It's been a learning curve and an eye-opener.

To my enormous chagrin and jealousy the IRP have also been running various international reporting trips. Earlier in the year they took a group of writers to India (my racial homeland, man, and still I got nothing) and produced an incredibly valuable and diverse set of reports, features and columns covering everything from TB to safe drinking water to maternal health.

Now the IRP is combing the world for dynamic, experienced, passionate reporters for a ten day trip to Zambia. The trip will run from July 14th 2013 until July 24th but the deadline is soon - 26th April. The application process is simple: there's an application form to be filled in, and you must provide a detailed essay describing the types of stories they might pursue during the Zambia trip.

The trip is designed to concentrate attention on certain key points. Reporters' work, based on their observations and analysis, will be highly influential given that the international community is currently examining and discussing the latest contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The issues to focus on, according to the IRP, will include

• HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
• Mother-to-child transmission of HIV
• High rates of HIV/TB co-infection
• The challenges of drug delivery in rural areas - which I have covered here
• Drug resistance issues
• Use of bed nets and other low-cost solutions to malaria
• Malaria during pregnancy
• The use of technology in healthcare
• Other factors - like sexual violence – that exacerbate the spread of these diseases.

This trip will open your eyes; your role is to open others' eyes, raise consciousness and get your information, images and words out there, posting frequently before, during and after the trip. Words are good, multimedia is best: images, video clips, audio amidst the text. Flights, accommodation, food and local transportation are paid for and the IRP adds that "participants would have to obtain their own visas to Zambia, but the IRP will reimburse them for the visa costs."

So, go. I can promise, working for them, that it'll be worth it (and no, nobody made me write this piece). I'm only in month 4 of working for the IRP but my thoughts are already buzzing, although I haven't yet interfaced with the Gates's themselves.... but one day, I will. It's brilliant to be part of a community of internationally-engaged, politically enlightened, socially progressive, lively and outward-looking people who are busy reflecting the changes and triumphs of all of the world with openness, optimism and diversity.

Take it from me: read the site, read the articles and apply for the trip if it intrigues you - it'll crack open your brain, and your world. Here:

Read the frequently asked questions and apply for the IRP Zambia trip by April 26th 2013

May to September, from the Mallorcan Midwife Toad to the Bleeding Heart Dove: writers' talks at London Zoo

THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON

presents

Writers’ Talks at ZSL London Zoo

ZSL conservation scientists and keepers team up with leading writers to talk about wild animals in different venues at London Zoo. In the animal’s presence, the writer responds to it imaginatively and the scientist talks about its ecology and conservation. The audience will be able to ask questions of author, scientist and keeper, and have books signed over a glass of wine. Click here for full event details. 

• Tues 14th May: Jo Shapcott, Slender Loris in Rainforest Life

• Tues 11th June: Helen Dunmore, Sumatran Tiger in Tiger Territory

• Thurs June 20th: Glyn Maxwell, Mallorcan Midwife Toad in the Reptile House

• Tue July 16th: Ruth Padel, Hummingbird, Bleeding Heart Dove and Amethyst Starling in Blackburn Pavilion Tropical Bird House – Chaired by Martin Rowson

• Tue 27th Aug: Mark Haddon, Galapagos Tortoises in Giants of the Galapagos

• Tue 17th Sept: Andrew O'Hagan, Malaysian Tapir in the Tapirs Exhibit

7pm - 9pm (doors 6.30pm) - Tickets: £12

The Talks will be chaired by Ruth Padel. Ticket includes access to ZSL London Zoo and animal house, Writers Talk and a glass of wine or soft drink.

Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats.

For bookings and more information please click here.

Shhhh.... just Gaze

Julie Burchill, Giles Fraser, Bonnie Greer, VG Lee, Tim Teeman, Suzanne Moore, Maryam Namazie, Iman Qureshi, Gail Dines, Alex Hopkins, Andrew Pierce, Suzi Feay, Sophie Ward and many others have come together to create a stunning, vital and beautifully designed new publication, an arts and culture magazine called Gaze. Don't talk just look and read.

Women! Know your stage rights! Suffrage theatre strides forth again.

Text (c) my friends the Scary Little Girls

Did you know that the West End was alive with theatrical suffrage activity in the Edwardian era? Actresses weren't just in the theatres, but out on on the streets protesting, marching and smashing windows. In 1911 over 40,000 women marched from Embankment to the Albert Hall - a five mile long procession that captivated London. Covent Garden was teeming with possibilities - you could learn jujitsu on Shaftesbury Avenue, buy Suffrage tea on Charing Cross Road, attend a meeting run by famous West End actresses and then hear Suffragettes being tried at Bow Street Magistrates Court.  During the 1911 Census boycott, over a thousand Suffragettes stayed out all night roller skating at the Aldwych Rinkeries. 

Scary Little Girls and Naomi Paxton bring The Actresses’ Franchise League and its highly influential suffrage theatre to the modern day in an entertaining interactive walk.

Suffrage theatre emerged in the early twentieth century as a means of protesting for women’s rights. Now, 100 years later, a special interactive performance walk will be held in Covent Garden to celebrate the publication of The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays. The walks will happen on 20th and 27th April.

(c) Scary Little Girls

Interactive literary walk veterans Scary Little Girls (image for their Full Bronte event, left) will be joined by the book’s editor and fellow actress, Naomi Paxton, in an entertaining and enlightening event exploring the suffragette movement’s theatrical revolution. Scary Little Girls Productions is an innovative production company based in London and Cornwall but tour nationwide. Its first show was produced in collaboration with the Bristol Old Vic and recent partnerships include art, drama and film projects with the South London Gallery, Glastonbury Festival and the Curzon Cinema Group. SLGP has attracted national attention for its sell-out shows, which include The Kisses, Maria Stuart and, more recently, Ladies Cage.  By popular demand, they recently performed at the Brighton Fringe Festival for a second year.   

Guests will set off from the historic Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in groups of ten to fifteen, along a specially prepared route around the back lanes of Covent Garden. At intervals along the way actors begin their performances as the groups draw near, engaging audience members in comic and moving moments from the struggle for Votes for Women – with pieces both inspired by and directly from the plays and experiences of the Actresses’ Franchise League.

Scary Little Girls have built up an enviable reputation for their immersive, enlightening, and highly entertaining Living Literature Walks. Covering such subjects as the Mitford family, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Daphne du Maurier, their walks entertain and inform in equal measure.

Creative producer and performer, Rebecca Mordan, said,

Interactive performances are always great fun for performers and audience members alike. There is a particular poignancy to this one, however. Suffrage Theatre not only made waves in the stage world, but also contributed to a massive reform in gender rights.

Of course, just because the subject matter is serious, it doesn’t mean to say we will be! This walk will feature a rich vein of humour and originality for which we are renowned. Guests can expect to learn a lot about the forgotten world of Suffragette theatre, but also have a brilliant time along the way!

• Stage Rights will take place on Saturday the 20th and 27th of April 2013. 
• Walks will depart from The Theatre Royal Drury Lane Foyer every 20 minutes between 2pm and 3.20pm. Walks last roughly 90 minutes. 
• To book tickets visit www.ticketsource.co.uk/stagerights 

Barbara Brownskirt is very other

I have received a carefully written post-it note from Barbara Brownskirt, above, who will be appearing on Battersea Barge on Thursday 9th May alongside some "very other funny women," as she tells me. She adds,

Please do come for big laughs. You don't have to be a woman or a man to come to this but please wear clothes.

Barbara is appearing as part of South London stand up Rosie Wilby’s female performance showcase Femmes by the Thames. Femmes has been running every few months for the past two years at Royal Vauxhall Tavern to rave reviews - "A great night out" says Diva magazine - and rapt audiences, with guest acts including Pippa Evans, Lady Carol, Sarah Louise Young, Zoe Lyons and Shazia Mirza gracing the stage. However, the story started back in 2007 with a short monthly run on Battersea Barge. Following last year’s fabulous return to their original home as part of Wandsworth Arts Festival in May, they’re doing it again this year. Featuring …..

• Diane Morgan. Award winning stand up as seen on Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe, Mock The Week, Phoenix Nights. One half of sketch duo Two Episodes of Mash (BBC3 / Radio 4)
• Karen McLeod (as Barbara Brownskirt). Character comedy-poetry of the wrongest sort from the prize-winning author of In Search of the Missing Eyelash. 'Sensitive, ferocious and very funny' New Statesman
• Liz Bentley. South London’s quirkiest and most wondrous musical comedy poet. Back by popular demand after performing with us in 2012: ‘Truly the most indefinable act I’ve ever seen. I wouldn't want to have missed it’ Three Weeks
• Naomi Paxton (as Ada Campe). Monstrously drunken comedy magic and fortune telling from the ever fabulously attired Ada
• Iszi Lawrence. Rapidly rising stand up. ‘energetic, endearing, thoughtful and highly recommended’ Broadway Baby
• Plus host Rosie Wilby.

BOOKING DETAILS:

• Femmes by the Thames, 9th May, Battersea Barge, Nine Elms Lane, London SW8 5BP
• 8pm, doors 7.30pm, tickets £6, phone 020 7498 0004 to reserve or pre book on We Got Tickets.
• Part of Wandsworth Arts Festival

And if you want to see a little more of Barbara Brownskirt, here she is with a friend from the film industry....

51 countries think that breaking, brutalising, using and then throwing away child soldiers is fine

This just in from Human Rights Watch and (c) them:

A call for concerned individuals to join in putting pressure on world leaders to Ratify the Treaty Banning Child Soldiers. HRW writes:

Today, in at least 14 countries around the world, children are used in armed conflict, exploited for their labor, and subjected to violence and mistreatment. The United Nations adopted a treaty banning the use of children in hostilities. However, 51 countries have not yet ratified the treaty. Help us achieve universal ratification of the ban on child soldiers by writing the UN ambassadors for key countries. 

Take action.

• To learn more about activism in this area, and to get involved if you're a student or teacher, check out the Red Hand Campaign against the use of child soldiers.
• And to read an account of the military's use of child soldiers, from a military user perspective, read Romeo Dallaire's They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children. There's also a documentary by the same name to go along with it.
• To look at many effects of war on children check out the charity War Child.

Cover of UK edition of Dallaire's book