Mission and thanks

Herstory is a celebration of women’s lives and experiences, bringing together different backgrounds, voices and experiences to support women’s rights and the historic progress made. The festival programme has incorporated contributions and voices of over 400 women, and has featured the work of 17 poets, 8 musicians, 8 speakers and 30 artists.

Poet in the City, the British Library, Newcastle Libraries and Libraries Unlimited, together with the event partners, are excited at the opportunities sharing this content online will bring, and it is hugely important that we celebrate the culmination of the work involved at this; the final phase of the project. Our ambition is that this project will provide a platform for further conversations, at a local and national level, for women to share their lived experiences and for all to share their views on how we can continue the fight for equality.

Poet in the City is a progressive organisation working across a range of communities, working to break down barriers where they occur and give voice to marginalised members of society. The Herstory Festival programme reflected on this, among many other narratives through poetry, performance and discussion. The Herstory Festival was part of Collections in Verse, a three-year collaboration between Poet in the City and the British Library, funded by Arts Council England and working in partnership with public libraries across the country, including with Newcastle libraries.

Our commissioned poetry created by Degna Stone, Sky Hawkins, Ellen Moran, Fiona Benson, Liv Torc & Shagufta K Iqbal was developed in collaboration with members of Tyneside Women’s Health, Riverside project, Sure Start, The Children’s Society, Newcastle Treatment & Recovery Breakfast Club, Fenham Walking Group, ACORN, Mothers who Make. In addition to the visitors to Fenham, Byker, West End & Benwell Libraries in Newcastle and Pinhoe, Central & St Thomas Library in Exeter.

Artists and collaborators (not listed in the Herstory online films):
Laura Alston, Bridget Hamilton, Rachel Horton (Culture Vulture), Gillian Taylor, Jenny Stewart, Mwenza Blell, Georgia Bates, Sophie Crocker, Maddy Costa, Kirsty Henderson, Quinn Clark, Jay Conlon, Georgie Barnett, Jessica Henderson, Grace Branch, Jasmine Inaiyah, Daniel Sved, Michela Riccardi, Abby Crawford, Zoe Man, Jaz Weyer-Brown, Daniel Hill, Jithya Wijesinghe, Fly Girl Films, Magpies & Hellcats, What’s That Dance, Excelsior Academy & Dreadnought South West.

Films created by Unique Media in partnership with the British Library.