“Inspirational Women” Book Club with Simone Yasmin

“Inspirational Women” themed book club with Black writer and spoken word poet and ‘artivist’ Simone Yasmin: Bring along your favourite poem, lyric, book, children’s book, or story to share the theme of powerful, inspirational women!

About the artist:

Simone Yasmin (she/her) is a Black writer and spoken word artist born and based in Leeds. Both her written and vocal work raises awareness for issues many choose to ignore in order to sit in comfort. Simone brings that discomfort into the centre of the room, pulling no wool over eyes with her blunt and realistic words.

Simone is an artivist and the intersection of race and feminism is often central to Simone’s work. Her own experiences navigating the world – a white, male world – as a Black woman, largely act as a catalyst for this. Her interlocking identities cannot be separated or extracted. Simone connects dots many are scared to, creating parallel lines to highlight injustice and amplify marginalised voices.

With every piece she produces, Simone hopes to make people feel. This quote from Anne Lamott chimes strongly in Simone’s ears as she imagines every piece. “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

In 2020, Simone launched ‘Storytellers’, a monthly event inviting creatives to an inclusive and safe space, to gain feedback, confidence and trial new ideas. Through the Covid-19 pandemic, Simone hosted ‘Storytellers’ online, rebranding the event ‘Lockdown Stories’. She is a former co-facilitator of ‘Gassing with the Galdem’, an online discussion space for Black women, women of colour and marginalised genders.

Read about Simone Yasmin here: https://etherealtruth.com/

Audio curation on Audacity with Shi Blank - Learn how to create a mixtape for yourself or inspirational women in your life on Audacity (accessible online)!
A link to the programme participants will be using with Shi – https://www.audacityteam.org/
Read more about Shi blank here: http://wetgenes.com/welcome

A sneak preview of the Hologram tech and ideas behind 'Salt Eaters'
Note this is a drop in activity, we will be showing clips and snippets of the work we have been developing.
Salt Eaters is a site-specific interactive multi-sensory experience created by dance artist Mez Galaria with support from Theatre in the Mill and the Amal Foundation. Salt Eaters is created specifically for small groups of women, an experience that transports them into the world of smells and sounds of Umda, a Muslim dancer drawn out of the history books of the Sambhar salt lake of Rajasthan.

It is based on historical records detailing the relationship between the moral ideology of salt as a communal resource and a source of recompense for artists. This convention was actively disrupted by the involvement of the East India Co across India and the subcontinent.

As part of the research for this project, we will test recorded videos from India to the UK and present this in hologram form. We will present the technical research for Salt Eaters during the festival. Both Theatres are currently supporting the project in the Mill and the Amal Foundation.’

'An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times...' Nina Simone

'My Body is a Protest for Change'

This piece is a live art installation [Photographic narratives] that combines a creative practice/through a gathering of women. The work addresses the important role of female artists from the broader African, Caribbean, and Asian communities. Through observation of their personal practice and activism to witness (cultures in transits)

The workshop is a 3-hour protest workshop, which uses the tools of organising a protest as a methodology to centre experiences of racism and discrimination - and collaboratively protest them.

The workshop is a trans-inclusive and non-binary inclusive space for Global Majority women. Part of the workshop will be inside and outside; the point is to explore the relationship between self and public space. The workshop will result in the creation of a photographic archive of portraits of the women attending.

Workshop session agenda:

How do we narrate marginalised women (female futurism) as a metaphor between time and space in the context of bodies and buildings - artist and architecture

Address/redress

How do we move towards inner well-being [confronting the truth]
How do we access spaces and inhabit our own being of belonging in a landscape which silences women/where women are [often] Invisible
What is the reality/ how do we see self and others/or do we imagine /reimagine time /the future of black/brown bodies in buildings of creativity?
How can the Artist, alongside the city’s architecture, invoke the spirit of the past and present?
What does the future look like/are we part of the change, or are we the change?
Through an exploration and being present to think and rethink beyond gender identity/and conjure feminine art /and inhibit one's self as joy in the making...

Create a protest placard which tells your story.

About Khadijah Ibrahiim:

Khadijah Ibrahiim was born in Leeds of Jamaican parentage. Educated at the University of Leeds, she is a literary activist, theatre maker and published writer who combines interdisciplinary art forms to re-imagine poetry as performance theatre.

Hailed as one of Yorkshire’s most prolific poets by the BBC. Her work appears in university journals, poetry anthologies, and BBC Radio 4 and 3.

Peepal Tree Press published her collection ‘Another Crossing’ in 2014. She’s performed and directed art programs in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

In 2010 she was a writer in residence for El Gouna writes, Egypt, and South Africa with the British council Verbalized sustained theatre program, and in 2021 Leeds Art Gallery picture lending library.

The recipient of the Leeds Black Award 2011 for outstanding contribution to arts, she was shortlisted for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2017 and 2019 and the Sue Rider Yorkshire Woman of the Year for her contribution to the arts 2018. She received a Leeds 2021 Legacy Award for her ‘International Impact on the Arts and culture’.

Spoken word poet & BBC RADIO Sheffield DJ Sile Sibanda DJ SET and open mic: in association with Nabeelah Ahmed’s online poetry participants.

About Sile Sabanda:

Sile Sibanda is a Spoken Word Performer, BBC Radio Presenter, Events Host, Creative Producer/Facilitator and DJ. She has been involved in creative and community projects for over 13 years, starting with a Glee Club at the age of 12 and speaking at the House of Lords. Recently, she hosted a conversation with former Sheffield Lord Mayor Magid Magid for the Off the Shelf Festival and Munroe Bergdorf for Shefest.

Sile created a short film on the theme of “belonging” as part of the Migration Matters Festival. She became a creative producer for Story-trails, creating an emotional, immersive storytelling experience about the untold stories of people living in Sheffield. She had a debut DJ set at tramlines fringe 2022 and facilitates creative writing workshops for primary school and community groups.

She has been an active part of the Writing Collective Hive and hosted open mics and events for Hive over the last few years. In 2019 she won the BBC Radio Sheffield This is Me competition and subsequently became the host of the evening show on BBC Radio Sheffield.

'Wondrous' by Jane Steele

Wondrous is a celebration of a life refracted through the sometimes-hair-raising story of a mixed-race, working-class Yorkshire woman.

Intertwining comedy and tragedy, spoken word and song to portray answered questions and (un)belonging, turning poison into medicine, and finding jewels in life’s darkest, most unlikely corners.

18+ only.
Content warning: contains very strong language, offensive racial terminology, references to domestic violence, and references to child abuse.

Celebratory dinner in association with Bradford visual art chef Sonia Sandhu, hosted by Hirsty's Daily Dose JoJo Kelly on The Capital Breakfast Show; join us for a bespoke meal that honours Women of Colour. Each course will celebrate a woman of colour with a northern connection. Let's hold this space for women who give us a sense of hope! Our dinner will be served alongside poetic entertainment tailored to go with each course of the meal.

Performances by: Musician Stella Litras, Rommi Smith, Shabina Aslam, Nabeela Ahmed, Shareena Lee Satti, Samar Shahdad, Simone Yasmin and Warda Yasin

About JoJo Kelly:

JoJo Kelly, best known as “JoJo”, is a broadcaster and presenter celebrated for her work on radio stations such as Kiss 105, Galaxy 105 and Capital Yorkshire. Famed for her sense of humour and nuclear laughter, for the past 22 years, she has woken up the county via her work on breakfast radio. JoJo now broadcasts on Drive-time on Capital Yorkshire from 4 pm to 7 pm with her radio broadcasting partner Adam O’Neill.

From Leeds, JoJo went to Intake High School, a comprehensive renowned for its Theatre Arts course. She thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the performance, including contemporary dance and drama. So enthralled by this life, she auditioned and was awarded membership of the National Youth Theatre, followed by a Classical Acting Diploma at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

‘Mesmerising devotional songs’ (The Guardian)

Sufi-soul singer Sarah Yaseen is a Manchester-based singer-songwriter of Kashmiri/Pakistani family heritage.

As a solo artist she performs as Sarah the Sufi, singing in English and Urdu whilst accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, the 1-string Ektara or with Arabic derbuka

Sarah is also a frontline singer with the world music ensemble Rafiki Jazz and guest singer with Denmark’s all-women global ensemble Radiant Arcadia.

Storytelling with Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford – The theme of influential and inspirational females, the story of the first black head-teacher ‘Gertude Maretta Paul’ in Yorkshire, alongside creating a plaque dedicated to an inspirational woman of colour in their lives.

About Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford:

Hailing from a lineage of storytellers, healers, and griots, including medicine women, it stands to reason that Ms Nana-Essi Casely-Hayford became a storyteller herself, as well as a writer and Creative Expression for Wellbeing Practitioner.

With several years of experience in her field of work, she uses a gamut of creative modalities to aid personal growth.

Being of Ghanaian heritage, Nana-Essi is also inspired by the lived experience narratives she had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing during visits to her grandmother’s village and cocoa farm, which she declares was a breathtaking arboretum of mystical wonder.

Nana-Essi has first-hand experience through her workshops, and her own life on the restorative/therapeutic effects stories can have on a person. Her careful regard, passion, grace, charm, and sense of humour shine through in her interaction with participants during her facilitation of creative sessions.

Hafsa Jawed Khan - Women's Weekender Animator in Residence

Hafsa Jawed Khan is the Women's Weekender Animator-in-Residence. Throughout the weekend, Hafsa will be zooming in to events from Pakistan and turning what she sees, hears and experiences into a series of short animations. Hafsa's animations will form part of the archive for the Women's Weekender.

Hafsa was born in Karachi, Pakistan, where she has lived all her life. She has a Masters’ degree and began developing her work as an artist during the COVID-19 Pandemic, when she started to learn animation through different platforms. After a while, she decided to take it to the next level. Hafsa ventured into the freelance world where she met a small Social Enterprise in Halifax: ENT Foundation. Hafsa is part of the ENT creative team, where she contributes to a very rich and diverse space of storytelling. Hafsa is the Women’s Weekender animator in residence. She will be creating brand-new animation as an archive of the weekend.

Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.

Theatre in the Mill is partnering with Radicle Comedy for our WEEKENDER.

The Women’s Comedy Workshops are back; we are championing and centring Women and Non-Binary participants from the Global Majority.

This performance is a culmination of comedy workshops (sharing of our participants’ material) as part of the Women's WEEKENDER on 11th March.

We are excited that the spectacular Natalia Gul will lead our upcoming Women’s Comedy Workshops from ‘The Jungle’ Karachi. This is our third collaboration with Natalia on the comedy workshops, and we’re thrilled to have her over in person.

On 18th February, we started four weeks of Saturday afternoon workshops – covering stage presence, creating material, stand-up technique, and collaborative writing, all in a brilliantly supportive, safe space. Theatre in the Mill will manage the Women’s Comedy Workshop in the Mill in collaboration with Radicle Comedy (which is led by the hilarious duo of Carolyn Eden & Lucy Quin).
Note the performance is 16+

Zine-making workshops with Bradford radical zine-maker Munaza Kulsoom & Hong Kong cartoonist Kaitlin Chan – Learn how to create a pocket zine with the theme of “The Black and Global Majority person who inspired you on the ‘radical path.” alongside participants from Hong Kong (through Zoom)

Who inspired you to take a radical path?

This hands-on online workshop led by Kaitlin Chan will guide participants through making a mini ‘zine’ exploring someone who changed their perspective on what kind of life is possible. The person can be anyone: a writer, an aunt, an activist, a teacher, a friend, someone seen on TV…

The workshop will use collage and drawing as the guided approach to making a zine. You can print and prepare photos and other materials which inspire you to create!

The event will include a brief introduction, group discussion, creative/zine-making time, and participant sharing.

Natalia is a multi-talented artist who has seamlessly transitioned from making people laugh as a comedian to entertaining them with her musical prowess as a DJ. Her unique style of music combines the soulful sounds of Sufi and folk genres, capturing the essence of her cultural heritage and bringing it to life with a fresh, contemporary beat. With her musical diversity and passion for preserving her cultural roots, Natalia is quickly becoming a sought-after DJ who always leaves her audience mesmerised.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dj-natalia-ali?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

SONG-GEET Bradford's First South Asian Women's Choir led by maestro Shabnam Khan.

Song-geet performs in a wide field of musical phenomena in South Asia, ranging from classical and Qawwali to Carnatic and Punjabi folk music. Song-geet represent this diversity in their choral singing group, a community of South Asian women aged 25 to 55 with no previous experience in singing!

Saturday 11th March between 10.30 a.m. arrival for an 11.00 a.m. start and 4.30 p.m. finish
Sandra Whyles is a Visual Artist and Maker. She has a diverse portfolio which involves ceramic art, community art facilitation and arts organisation. She uses ceramics, photos and printing, as well as textiles and wood. She was a quarter finalist in the BBC series, The Great Pottery Throw Down. Sandra’s aim is to make the visual arts open and accessible to everyone.

Sandra’s Women’s Weekender Workshop will involve using collage to find fun ways of telling a stories about the inspirational women we admire.

In this large-scale installation, artist and scholar Shabina Aslam combines her PhD research with her creative practice to tell the story of this important piece of lost history. The story is told through binaural audio production, accompanied by immersive animation.

Live Christian Congolese Choir – The event will include a short film screening from Bradford Cathedral’s Ecumenical Canon Furaha Mussanzi – following her recent trip back to her hometown Bunia (Eastern DRC), for the first time in 20 years. The event will highlight themes such as belonging, identity and trauma healing through prayer and community.
Mussanzi Family Choir is a Congolese family choir based in Bradford that predominately sings acapella hymns in Swahili, Lingala and French, which mix both storytelling and activism, giving a glimpse into their life as refugees living in modern-day Britain, finding their voice and using the power of music to heal past traumas and thrive. When the pandemic hit, they started recording their song, sharing them on YouTube, and performing live at various events.