Feminist Archive North

This year marks 50 years since the first national conference of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Feminist Archive North’s exhibition this year is centred around the seven demands of the WLM, looking at how much we have achieved and how far we still have to go. The display includes feminist journals, posters, badges, banners and t-shirts. We will also be showing a short film of the first conference in 1970 and the first WLM march in 1971.

Friday 6 March, 11am-4pm in the Sheppard Room, in the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Feminist Library has moved to Peckham following a successful crowdfunding campaign, and is reopening in February. The Library, which has one of the most important collections of feminist materials in the UK, has moved to the Sojourner Truth Community Centre, 161 Sumner Rd, Peckham, London SE15 6JL. There are two opening parties, one on Friday 31 January, the other on Saturday 2 November, with performers. music, food and drink. More information and tickets here.

Originally known as the Women’s Research and Resources Centre, the Feminist Library was set up in 1975, at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement, a time of intense political campaigning and collective organising. Since the Library’s beginnings, it has provided a place where women could network and educate themselves, and has become a contact point for women locally, nationally and internationally.
feministlibrary.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Feminist Archive North recently worked with a group of students from Leeds University on a project looking at women’s peace camps. The students, from the School of Fine Art, History of Art, and Cultural Studies, explored our collections to create an exhibition on the topic. It can be seen in the foyer of Special Collections at the university until 22 January.

Two sets of oral history interviews held by FAN have been digitised and are available to hear via our online catalogue. There are 20 interviews from a 1995 project on women in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Leeds and Bradford,  and 12 interviews done by by Lee Comer and Lou Lavender in 2007 with 1970s and 1980s feminist activists in West Yorkshire.

To listen to the recordings, click on the following links, and then click on the blue ‘digital media’ button you will see at the top of each page.

• Women in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Leeds and Bradford (1995)
• 1970s and 1980s Feminist Activists in West Yorkshire (2007)

You may also be interested in a series of oral histories recently carried out by the Remembering Resistance project with women political activists in the North.

Leeds is the venue for the next public meeting of Woman’s Place UK, a feminist organisation that campaigns for women’s sex-based rights. The speakers at the meeting will be:

• Fiona Broadfoot: a survivor of the sex trade and an activist against it.
• Dr Louise Moody: Philosopher and LGB Campaigner.
• Thomasin Pick: Detransitioned Lesbian.
• Karen Ingala Smith: CEO of nia, an organisation providing services to end violence against women and children.

The meeting will take place on Friday 22 November at 7pm. For security reasons the details of the venue will not be announced until shortly before the meeting. Tickets cost £5.98 (including booking fee) and booking is essential. More information and booking.