Manchester Poetry Library unveils 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University has unveiled a 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence programme.

Forming the lead event of the institution’s Autumn/Winter season, the schedule will feature a series of poetry readings, panels and workshops led by academics and experts in the field.

The programme will highlight how poetry can be used to create transformational social change in partnership with the public and policymakers.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence has been organised in response to the international campaign hosted by UN Women. Launching on Mon 25 Nov, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the campaign will run until Tue 10 Dec, Human Rights Day.

Highlights include an evening of poetry and engaging discussion with Forward-prize-winning poet Dr Kim Moore and feminist writer and activist Laura Bates, an erasure workshop in which participants are invited to create new poems by erasing words from existing pieces of text and a reading by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa who will be sharing pieces from her live literature show Cane Corn & Gully.

Dr Derek Bousfield and Professor Helen Mort will delve into their research on how poetry can examine the language of gaslighting and Professor Khatidja Chantler will share groundbreaking and transformative research into domestic homicide followed by a performance of ‘i-poems’ – drawn from the voices of survivors of domestic abuse and family members of victims of domestic homicide.

Anjum Malik, poet, scriptwriter and Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University joins Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, who is a PhD candidate at Manchester Metropolitan University and Forward Prize-nominated poet, for a special reading and discussion.

Elsewhere, writers and researchers Char Heather (University of York), Charlotte Shevchenko Knight (Manchester Metropolitan University), and Naomi Morris (University of East Anglia) host a panel exploring the intersections of their creative critical work in a discussion on feminist approaches to illness narratives, and Anjum Malik, Manchester’s City Poet Laureate leads a workshop exploring the iconic 1980s contemporary Urdu feminist poetry collection, We Sinful Women.

The festival is wheelchair accessible and will take place in-person at the Manchester Poetry Library and Lowry Building at Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as online.

For the full programme, and to book tickets, click the button below.