Music & Liberation: Women’s Liberation Music Making in the UK, 1970-1989 shows how feminists

used music as an activist tool to entertain and empower women during the 1970s and 1980s.

Featuring the work of Jam Today, the Northern Women’s Liberation Rock Band, Feminist Improvising

Group, Ova, the Fabulous Dirt Sisters, Abandon Your Tutu, the Mistakes and many more, the exhibition brings together a diverse collection of women’s cultural heritage.Music & Liberation will inspire and inform contemporary audiences about the politics of music making.

The exhibition will showcase rare ephemera and artefacts such as posters, songbooks, t-shirts,

instruments and fliers. Visitors will be able to watch films, interact with installations, look at photos

and, of course, listen to music. This is a unique opportunity to listen to unreleased recordings of

practices, live performances and studio tracks from women musicians yet to be discovered by

contemporary audiences.

Ten oral histories, which have been collected especially for the project, will also be available to

listen to and watch. Music & Liberation: A Compilation of Music from the Women’s Liberation Movement

will be sold at the exhibition.

The exhibition is touring throughout the UK and its second stop is Manchester from 1-14 October. Hosted by the well established Bureau Gallery at a special ‘off-site’ venue,Three Piccadilly Place, just minutes from Piccadilly Train Station, it will be open from 12pm-6pm daily. The venue is wheelchair accessible and an RNIB Penfriend will be available to facilitate access for visually impaired visitors.

The exhibition site also features IMPRINT, a women’s arts festival that focuses on the work of experimental, feminist, cross platform artists. Co-hosted between Manchester and Newcastle, artists featured in the festival include Maggie Nicols, Tereza Buskova, Bunty, Caro Snatch, Brdiget Haydn, Aby Vuillamy, Hannabiell, Joanne Tatham, Bela Emerson and Music for One, and many other established musicians, film makers, photographers and visual artists. IMPRINT events take place from 4-7 October, please check the website for full scheduling.

The closing of the exhibition on Sunday 14 October will be marked by a day of discussions about women and alternative music. Featuring women who played in bands featured in the exhibition, such as the Northern Women’s Liberation Rock Band, authors from the recently published book Women Make Noise and cult zinester Karren Ablaze. The event is free today attend and takes place from 11.30-5pm. Full details of the programme are on the website.

Music & Liberation is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It is based on the Women’s Liberation

Music Archive an online archive launched in May 2011 by Frankie Green and Dr Deborah Withers.

For further information about the exhibition and accompanying events please contact

Project Coordinator, Dr Deborah Withers.

Music & Liberation
http://music-and-liberation.tumblr.com/

@music_liberate

Manchester
A Girl’s Guide to Running the World: Leadership Programme
Aquarius Community Centre, 21 Eden Close, Hulme M15 6AX
Tuesday’s 5.30-7.30 until 2nd October 2012
Women’s only space, providing DJ workshops, drumming, art activities,
debates, free food and trips out.
13-19 year olds
Siân Millward, sian@youthdiscoveryventures.co.uk 07506342945

Twitter has been ablaze with witty chat-back about the new ‘for her’ BIC pen range.

I kid you not. This new biro pen is ‘designed to fit comfortably in a woman’s hand’.  Which bizarrely implies that we have been using ‘manly’ pens all this time, Its a wonder we can write at all(!)

To see how some, (thankfully more right-minded) people have responded to this bizarre new product see the customer reviews at http://www.amazon.co.uk/BIC-For-Amber-Medium-Ballpoint/dp/B004FTGJUW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

and let Bic know your thoughts http://www.bicworld.com/us/pages/contact/

Thanks to, Nicola, the researcher from Manchester Met University, we now have a list of girls groups in the North West.

Check it out here to see if there is one near you

Imagine what it would be like if you weren’t able to make your own decisions?

Take a minute to step into the life of a young woman who doesn’t have the same power to make choices as we often do in the UK.

For millions of girls and women around the world the choices in this game are real.

With no access to contraception, sex education or legal rights these girls face the prospect of pregnancy before their bodies are ready.
This can have deadly consequences for them and their children. In fact pregnancy is the world’s biggest killer of teenage girls.

There’s a crucial Family Planning Summit in London in 11 July. Together we can convince world leaders to give girls the power to control their own lives through greater access to contraception, health workers and empowerment.

Already, thousands have joined us in asking world leaders to act.

Play our game and share it with your friends, colleagues and family. The more people who join our campaign the more chance we have of getting world leaders to act on this crucial issue.

Girl power saves lives.

See the full piece here http://union-news.co.uk/2012/04/women-are-strong-and-we-have-the-evidence-and-ducks-to-prove-it/

Do you struggle to help people empower themselves? Ever think that some youth work that claims to increase self-confidence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?

Then look at the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing Guide on building genuine self-confidence here