EVENT: March for Choice in Ireland, Saturday 29th Sept. Dublin

March for the International Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion! Gather at the Spire and march to Merrion Square.

This is a celebration of being pro-choice! A day of being pro-choice and proud, speaking up and speaking out, making our voices heard. Come and celebrate with us!

Confirmed speakers thus far:

Ivana Bacik
Colette Browne
Clare Daly
Mara Clarke (Director of the Abortion Support Network)

Use the wall at www.facebook.com/notalwaysabetteroption to talk about the march and plans!

[Read more: March for Choice in Ireland]

EVENT: Reclaim the Night 2012, 24th November, London

Women’s march against rape and all forms of violence against women. Take back the capital and put your feet on the streets for women on Reclaim the Night 2012. Join with thousands of women to shout a loud NO to rape and male violence against women and demand justice for survivors. Be there – for your friends, your sisters, your daughters, your colleagues, yourself; be there for all the women that can’t. See you at RTN 12. www.reclaimthenight.org

[Read more: Reclaim the Night 2012]

NEXT HFC EVENT: SOMETHING OF SIGNIFICANCE, Monday the 30th April 2012, from 7pm

The next event will be at the Sportspersons Pub, Huddersfield, on Monday 30 April, 2012, from 7pm.

It’s been far too long since we held an event so to get things going, we’re inviting everyone to a Something of Significance Social.

The Sportsman pub have kindly offered us a room for our exclusive use. The idea is that people bring along an object (can be anything at all, as long as it’s portable – and not too big) that they can talk about in terms of its significance to them from a feminist viewpoint. Just a couple of minutes for each person, not a presentation, depending on how many people want to do this on the night. It’s a way of getting to know each other a bit better by sharing things that matter to us.

Hope you can come!

NEXT HFC EVENT: READ MY LIPS, Monday, the 30th January 2012

tyrannosaurWell, we decided we wanted a book group. And a film society. Oh, and a song club too. That would also discuss zines, blogs, art, TV shows and other types of media and look at them from a feminist perspective. And so Read my Lips was born!

Next get-together:

Monday 30th January 2012

Tyrannosaur (18) Paddy Consadine

Join us to watch the film Tyrannosaur at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, then stop for a discussion of the film in the upper bar afterwards.

Click here for more info about the film and how to find the LBT.

Film starts at 7.30, tickets £6. Look out for us in the foyer from 7.15 or let us know you’re coming so we can look out for you!

* * *

Everyone’s welcome. Items for discussion can be anything – the only things we ask are that they are short enough for busy people to read/watch/otherwise digest, and that they are relatively available so people can get hold of them in advance of our get-togethers. They do not need to be ‘feminist’ in themselves, the idea is that we discuss things from a feminist point of view.

We hope to meet around monthly at appropriate venues in and around Huddersfield.

To make suggestions or to find out about our next get-together, drop an email to us at info@feministcollective.org.uk and we’ll let you know the venue and what we’re going to be talking about next.

EVENT: Incredible Edible Harvest Festival! (Sunday 25th September 2011)

THIS SUNDAY (Sunday 25th September)

Come along and celebrate local food at the third annual Incredible Edible Todmorden, Harvest Festival, 12 til 4pm, at the Unitarian Church (just off Longfield Road – click here for a map)

Come dine with us

Eight chefs offering demonstrations and tastings using local food.

Local producers
Stands and stalls selling delicious food – taste the difference.

Children’s games
Veggie creatures, potato printing, storytelling and more.

PLUS music, talks, Bee-spoke and The Green Route

Do you grow your own?

Bring your produce for judging from 10 – 11.30

Contact pauline@incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk for more information.

Website: www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk

NEXT HFC EVENT: READ MY LIPS – reading (and more) group starts next week! (Tuesday 20th September 2011)

Microsoft Word - Book group.docWe’re starting a reading/film/art/culture discussion group! Like a reading group, there will be one managable ‘text’ each month, and we’ll get together informally in different locations to discuss it.

First up:

Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber (click here to read on Google books)
A book of short stories – please read the title tale, and any others are a bonus!
Tuesday 20th September, 7.30pm, Upstairs bar at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield.

If you arrive before 7.30 one of us will be hanging about in the foyer to show you where to go! The venue is wheelchair accessible and refreshments both hard and soft will be available in the bar 🙂 This is a free event. Bring your ideas, plus any suggestions for future texts.

All welcome – hope to see you there!

NEXT HFC EVENT: SUNDAY SOCIAL, Sunday 21st August 2011, from 1pm

Microsoft Word - 5HFCSSposterAug11.docYou are very warmly invited to drop in and join us at our fifth SUNDAY SOCIAL
21st August, 1 – 4, downstairs at Coffee Evolution, 9 Church St, Huddersfield (click here for a map)

  • ‘Oh yeah!’ help us write a zine – bring your thoughts on sexism in our community
  • What’s happening to the UK abortion law?
  • Knit a blanket for the Poppy Project
  • Zine library for your perusal
  • PLUS our favourite books, and general hanging out

All welcome!

Hope to see you there… it’s kind of our first birthday!

EVENT: Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp (8th – 11th July, 2011)

*Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp * invite you to *Long Weekend Camp

When: Starting at noon on Friday 8th July and ending at noon on Monday 11 July.

Where: “Dingly Dell”, outside AWE Aldermaston, (opposite Young’s Industrial
Estate) near Tadley, Berkshire.

How to get there: see http://www.aldermaston.net/camp/visit

Welcoming, relaxed and inclusive skills sharing and discussion that will nurture and inform us in our daily resistance to violence in all its forms; weapons, cuts to services, violence against women, destruction of the earth’s resources.

An extended weekend of women only non-violent discussion and activity,
including:

-A large banner that we make over the weekend which maps our thoughts and
discussions and that all women can contribute to

Discussions
-Why women only?
-Women’s Non-violence
-Inclusive action – looking at the common hierarchies of arrest
and not arrest and the criminalisation of resistance and how we can find
ways to address these issues.

Practical workshops
– tripod -everyone climbs
– dancing (with extreme ironing)
– blockading

Both Saturday and Sunday will include practical workshops and discussions
Please contact us if your group would like to contribute to the weekend
programme, or to any particular workshop.

Please bring vegetarian/vegan food to share and cook.
If you don’t want to camp, please let us know, and we can provide
information about local accommodation.

This is a women only event.
Further information will be sent out after 12 June or contact
info@aldermaston.net

EVENT: Pro-choice demo (9th July 2011)

Pro-choice Demo – 9th July 2011 from 13:00 to 15:30 – Trafalgar Square, London

Given the government’s recent appointment of Life to their sexual health forum at the expense of the British pregnancy Advisory Service, I’m organising a protest to show that we don’t think this is right. An organisation that is anti-abortion, advises abstinence, and doesn’t provide a full range of contraceptive services doesn’t have any place in influencing government policy decision. Whilst Life may offer a service to those wh…o do not see abortion as an option, we still live in a society in which women have a legal right to an abortion if that’s what they want and any step away from that endangers a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body. It has been argued that the appointment of one anti-abortion group will not make a difference to policy – I argue that this is a symbol of a further attack on women’s rights by a government that has shown itself to be retrogressive and misogynistic. We need to stand up and tell them to keep their hands off our bodies, to protest for the right to carry on deciding what happens to our bodies.

The police have not yet confirmed that this protest can go ahead in Trafalgar Square, but it isn’t inside a ‘designated area’ near Westminster so permission should be less difficult to get. Police support is desirable though, because some organisations have shown interest in speaking at a rally. I’ll post more information on this as soon as I’ve spoken with the Met.

So, if you believe that abortion rights are fundamental to women’s places as full citizens in our society, and that those rights are under threat, please join us on 9th July and publicise this page.

You can also check out #prochoicedemo2011 on Twitter.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=175470995844914

EVENT: Wild – three women writers perform (Sunday 3rd July 2011)

Wild: women/write/speak, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival Fringe, White Lion, Bridge Gate, Hebden Bridge

Sun 3 July – 8pm – £3/£4 on the door

Three vibrant women writers and performers, stretching from Manchester in the west, to Bradford in the east, picking up at Todmorden in the middle, all come together at the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival Fringe. Emma Decent of Todmorden presents her raw, funny and vibrantly performed words – a mix of provocative poetry and performance prose. Emma has had guest poet slots all over the north west including Manchester, Huddersfield
and Preston. She was chuffed to have her first ever poetry slam win when travelling further afield last year at the famous Chicago Uptown Poetry Slam. “Thought-provoking, lasting, understated but pivotal.” Belinda O’Hooley.

Jane Steele is a Bradford-based poet whose first collection, ‘Natural Light’ was published by Currock Press in November 2010. She has been doing stand-up performance poetry in and around Yorkshire for 5 and a half years, and in 2007 was a prizewinner at the Ilkley Literature Festival for a monologue bringing Medusa to Wakefield. Her poetry makes people cry with both laughter and sadness. Well, three of her mates have cried. They told her so.

Angela Smith is well known to anyone who enjoys the Manchester live poetry scene. Impish and wry, Angela’s poetry looks at love, relationships and life with only a little help from faeries and butterflies. Her book ‘This is the Me I Would Be if I Dared’ is published by Puppywolf in June 2011, so ‘Wild’ will be one of the first opportunities to taste it.

There may even be time for a little open mic so bring something if you fancy!