An Annie Taylor embroidery of my ‘Older Women Rock!’ poem –
crowdfunder going well…
After five days of crowdfunding ‘Older Women Rock!’ is a quarter of the way to the stretch target of £4000. I can now cover the cost of the production of the final five pieces of poetry clothing so I’m off to Ramsgate to search out trimmings – an exciting prospect!
Older Women Rock! flier….
The ‘Older Women Rock!’ flier beautifully designed by John Howard….
thank you
Thank you to everyone who has donated in the first two days of the Crowdfunder. I’m loving the messages I’m receiving alongside the financial support. In fact the connections I’m having with each of you is so much part of growing ‘Older Women Rock!’.
I was on the computer for most of yesterday trying to fathom the intricacies of linking ‘socials’ and getting my head round the Crowdfunder and what kept me going was the show of interest in the project and the relationships that are forming already. I received an offer from singer/songwriter Jude Adams http://www.judeadamssings.net/ to perform at the Poetry & Music gig on 3rd March. And last night, when I was typed-out, I heard from Harriet Walters about her book ‘Facing It: Reflections on Images of Older Women’, which reminded me what the work is all about.
And then there’s the actual making of the artwork. A group of us are getting ready to work on a wedding dress, embroidering and printing on it words from one of my poem –
Nowadays we’re sold sexploitation
and feminisms of choice
in the guise of liberation.
Nowadays, liberation is distorted
into fifty shades of grey
and what was once hard-core porn
is now matter-of-fact everyday
World of Women Film Fair Middle East
Starting 2017 with the great news that ‘shhh!’, the latest poetryfilm Clare Unsworth and I made together, has just been selected for screening at the World of Women Film Fair Middle East over International Women’s Day. ‘shhh!’ is about the systematic silencing of women and about resistance to that silencing and has already been screened in feminist film festivals in the UK and USA.
The growing recognition of our poetryfilms bodes well for the distribution of the ‘Older Women Rock!’ documentary and poetryfilms we will make…
Crowdfunder!
I am an old age, all age woman,
no way past my use-by date.
Walking in ancestral women’s footsteps
I am an archive on legs
The ‘Older Women Rock!’ Crowdfunder goes live on 2 January 2017.
The project is growing really fast in terms of ambition and scope and I am looking to raise an additional £3,000 to 1] ensure the success of the pilot, so that ‘OIder Women Rock!’ will be able to tour nationally and 2] make a film documenting the process from making to exhibiting.
Donations will –
enable the making of a 30-minute documentary film of the project, that will provide an alternative and positive representation of older women. The film will feature women diverse in terms of race and class, including the Ealing Deaf Women’s Group and women in prison. It will be shown through social media and international women’s film festivals and allow ‘Older Women Rock!’ ideas and conversations to be shared widely
cover the cost of making five more pieces of poetry clothing
cover the cost of an interpreter to involve local older Nepalese women in the pilot project
I am a time traveller, alive to life
I embody time, provide testimony,
me, I’m a radical, lyrical, womanist legacy,
women’s blood memory speaks in me
Leah’s found poem from ‘Out of Time’ by Lynne Segal and ‘How to Age’ by Anne Karpf
Older Women Rock! 