Upcoming talks to celebrate International Women's Day!

Really excited to be able to announce that I'm going to be joining what look like fantastic panels around this year's International Women's Day.

East London Federation of Suffragettes member, Annie Lake, speaking with strikers at Morton's factory, 1914.

On Tuesday 7th March, I'm going to be talking about the East London Federation of Suffragettes at the Cockney Cultures event 'Cockney Women Together'. I'll be joined by Kim Bennett, the Pearly Queen of Woolwich, Louise Raw, author of Striking a Light, the definitive account of the 1888 matchwomen's strike, Sam Johnson, great-granddaughter of Sarah Chapman, one of those striking matchwomen, and artist Sba Shaikh.

It's taking place from 12.30-13.30 at Four Communications Group 2 Whitechapel Road London E1 1FX and you can book a free place here. 

Then on Thursday I'm travelling up to Salford to the wonderful Working-Class Movement Library for the 'Radical Motherhood: Then and Now' conference where I'll be joining a roundtable discussion exploring the ways that mothers have engaged in and reshaped radical movements, from the suffragettes to ACT-UP and beyond.

I'll be talking about the schemes that Sylvia Pankhurst set up to support working-class mums during the First World War, and tracing their origins in industrial struggle. Very excited to hear from the other panelists. The Eventbrite page explains:

Dr J. Michelle Coghlan (UofM) will kick off our discussion by turning to nineteenth-century US women anarchist activists who challenged conventional forms of motherhood in ways that continue to resonate in our own moment.

Dr. Katherine Connelly (Arcadia) will then discuss the free nurseries that Sylvia Pankhurst established in East London, and offer some personal reflections on balancing motherhood and contemporary community organizing.

Dr. Nicholas Grant (UEA) will turn our attentions to South African anti-apartheid activist Dora Tamana and her travels to the World Congress of Mothers in Switzerland in 1955, showcasing how Tamana’s embodied activism was crucially rooted in her framing of herself as a mother.

And, finally, Dr. Monica Pearl will close our panel with a discussion of the politics of motherhood in AIDS activism, both in relation to women’s AIDS memoirs and Dr. Pearl’s own experiences as an ACT-UP activist in the 1980s, before we open the floor for further conversation with the audience.

This one's sold out now, but I believe that it might be recorded so I'll be sure to post details after the event. 

Whilst in the North-West I'm going to be doing some research for my new book, a project that developed out of A Suffragette in America. For more updates . . . watch this space!