We’re meeting this Sunday, 23rd June, between 1-3pm, at a venue close to Kings Cross. We’re lucky enough to have Tumu Johnson speaking about Pride and disability, so be sure to join us this LGBT+ Pride month.
Let us know via email that you’re coming so we can send you the exact address: sisofrida@gmail.com
Please also tell us your access and dietary requirements. See you there!
This event is funded by Greater London Authority (GLA).
Event We Are Sisters of Frida Saturday 25th September 12 noon – Join us!
It’s been sometime since we have had meetings – since the lockdown but as disabled people, we are still not confident about having face to face meetings and travelling on public transport.
At Sisters of Frida we decided to have a zoom meeting on Saturday 25th September at noon. It will be an event with a stimulating roundtable discussion with our international disabled sisters from around the world and then breakout sessions among you to discuss where you think SOF should be heading.
Virginia Ossana is disability and gender justice advocate. She is originally from Argentina and is currently based in Warwickshire, UK.
She works as a Communications and Programs Advisor at Women Enabled International, where she participates on a variety of projects to advance the rights of women and marginalized genders with disabilities around the world.
Carmen Yau won Spirit of Hong Kong in 2013 and few more awards afterwards as a recognition of her work for disabled people and the community. Carmen devotes herself to enhance social and workplace inclusion for disabled people by providing seminars and corporate training on disability confidence.
As a registered social worker, Carmenâs work varied from workplace inclusion to sexuality and LGBTQ disabled community. Besides lobbying more job opportunities for disabled people, Carmen is dedicated to enhancing professional development and leadership of disabled people. Carmen is the current Chairperson of Association of Women with Disabilities in Hong Kong.
Mali Hermans is a young Wiradjuri writer, organiser and community worker living on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land in Canberra, Australia. As a disabled woman, Mali is deeply invested in disability justice work, committed to challenging ableism and its intersections with colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy and class. She has organising experience within grassroots community groups, feminist spaces and the union movement. Mali is a current Policy and Projects Officer at Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA), having previously worked in gender-based violence prevention.
From the Sisters of Frida team
Rachel OâBrien is the Independent Living Campaigns Officer at Inclusion London after working at the National Union of Students as the Disabled Studentsâ Officer where she did work on movement building and political education, and campaigns around stopping the privatisation of the NHS and stopping and scrapping Universal Credit.
She is a director and a member of the SOF Steering Group.
Eleanor Lisney is a campaigner, founder member, public speaker. She is a director and a member of the SOF Steering Group.
She is an access advisor, an aspiring creative practitioner and co founder of Culture Access CIC, which is about supporting access, bringing an inclusive edge intersectionally.
Agenda for the event
12:00 (noon) Start with introduction to Sisters of Frida and speakers
12:05 Roundtable with guest speakers
12:25 Discussion and questions for panel
12:35 Questions from participants
12:40 Conclusions and thank you to guest speakers
12:45 Break (15 minutes)
13:00 Breakout rooms
Questions
What struck you about the roundtable discussion?
How does this connect with your involvement (current or future) with Sisters of Frida?
13:45 Comfort break (15 minutes)
14:00 Feedback and what next?
14:30 End
BSL interpreters from Signalise and live captioning will be available.
Music in the interval from Miss Jacqui with thanks for permission.
Thank you to Campaign Bootcamp who generously provided funding that allowed us to make this event accessible.
Useful information
Sisters of Frida wants you to get involved! SoF has been working to build our capacity by working to make our processes more transparent and to help streamlined so build up disabled womenâs voices in all our magnificence. In order to do this we need to expand our steering group. Would you like to help steer the direction of Sisters of Frida? You will meet new people, learn and share new skill. If so, please send an email to sisofrida@gmail.com and we will send you more information.
The steering group is not the only way you can get involved. You can now join working groups and work on specific projects. If you are interested please get in touch at sisofrida@gmail.com
First photos and some videos from the celebratory event on 4th May
Our celebratory event was a great success – thank you very much for those who did make it and thank you too for those who sent messages / videos because they couldn’t make it.
Sisters of Frida celebatory event 4th May 2018 Greenwich Yacht Club. Filmed by Lucy Fyson and edited by Leonore Schick. Music from TRG Banks – Milton Milton.
photos taken by Wasi Daniju at the event are at the SOF flickr account but to give you an idea….
Networking
Michelle Daley’s magical smile
Laki Kaur being interviewed
Zara Todd chairing the speeches
Vivienne Hayes from WRC
Tara Flood from ROFA/ALLFIE
in wrapt attention
Sorena Frances on her project
Magda speaking about the Polish situation
Michelle Baharier
J first time meeting SoF
Dennis Queen
At Greenwich Yacht Club photo by Ruth Gardiner, Chocolate Films
Come join us in making a banner for #Processions
Artichoke will hold a series of banner making workshops led by Delaine Le Bas, a cross disciplinary artist who creates installations, performance, photography and film, at Blackfriars Settlement, 1 Rushworth Street, London SE1 ORB, on
Saturday 21st April, 14:00 â 16:30
Saturday 5th May, 14:00 â 16:30
Saturday 19th May, 14:00 â 16:30
The nearest accessible tube stop to Blackfriars Settlement is Southwark. Find more information on getting to the venue here.
For this workshop series, Artichoke invite members of Sisters of Frida, led by Delaine Le Bas, to make a unique centenary banner that will express the ideas, concerns and hopes of women in the 21st century. It is an opportunity to learn new skills from an experienced artist, make a unique, expressive banner to last and join thousands of women to celebrate 100 years of women having the vote at PROCESSIONS.
Please note: Participants attending these workshops should commit to attend all three workshops and are also invited to the PROCESSIONS London event on 10 June 2018.
PROCESSIONS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in a mass participation artwork to celebrate one hundred years of votes for women. Artichoke invites women, those who identify as women and non-binary individuals across the UK to come together on the streets of Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and London on Sunday 10th June 2018 to mark this historic moment in a living, moving portrait of women in the 21st century. PROCESSIONS is produced by Artichoke, the UKâs largest producer of art in the public realm, as part of 14-18 NOW, the UKâs official arts programme for the First World War centenary.
Delaine Le Bas is a cross disciplinary artist creating installations, performance, photography and film. She was one of the sixteen artists who were part of Paradise Lost The First Roma Pavilion Venice Biennale 2007. She worked with her late husband the artist Damian Le Bas on their installations Safe European Home? and projects Gypsy Revolution and Gypsy DaDa. Delaine created Romani Embassy in 2015. Delaine has created performance text works with her son the writer Damian James Le Bas. Her works have been included in Prague Biennale 2005 & 2007, Venice Biennale 2007 & 2017, Gwangju Biennale 2012, Zacheta National Gallery Of Art 2013, MWW Wroclaw Contemporary Art Museum 2014, The Third Edition Of The Project Biennial Of Contemporary Art D-0 Ark Underground Bosnia & Herzegovina 2015, Off Biennale Budapest 2015, Goteborg International Biennale For Contemporary Art Extended 2015, Critical Contemplations Tate Modern 2017.
Delaine is one of the curators for The First Roma Biennale 2018 and is an Associate Curator at 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning London U.K.
These workshops are one of Artichokeâs 10 banner commissions, as part of PROCESSIONSâ 100 Years 100 Banners programme. 100 women artists have been commissioned to make banners with community groups up and down the country in the lead-up to PROCESSIONS. The final banner made during these workshops will form part of PROCESSIONS, a mass participation artwork, and will go on to be publicly exhibited across the UK following the events.
Please contact Sisters of Frida, hello@sisofrida.org, by Friday 20th April to register your place in the workshops.
Participants are required to be available for all the workshops and are invited to travel to London to carry the banner at PROCESSIONS London 2018.
Refreshments will be provided.
Spaces are limited, and allocated on a first come first serve basis.
Invite to Sisters of Frida’s celebration May 4th 5.30pm Greenwich Yacht Club
I N V I T A T I O N
Please come to our celebrations
4th May 2018 from 5.30 pm
Greenwich Yacht Club
1 Peartree Way, Greenwich, London SE10 0BW
(nearest tube station North Greenwich, Jubilee Line, accessible venue. Please let us know other access needs)
WOW Festival Sisters of Frida Panel: Power & Protest: Art, Activism and Disability Sunday 11th March, 11.30am â 12.30pm
Power & Protest: Art, Activism and Disability
Blue Bar, Level 4, Royal Festival Hall Sunday 11th March 11.30am â 12.30pm
From leadership on human rights to artwork informed by the politics of disability, disabled women are at the forefront of global grassroots activism. Come hear why any campaign for gender equality must include disabled womenâs voices.
Key note speaker – Nidhi Goyal – Comedian and activist working on diability and gender rights. Nidhi is the founder and director of âRising Flameâ a Mumbai based NGO working for disabled women and youth and is also the Sexuality and Disability Program Director at Mumbai-based non-profit Point of View. Appointed to the prestigious civil society advisory group of UN womenâs Executive Director, she sits on the advisory board of âVoiceâ and on the board of AWID (Assoc. for Womenâs Rights in Development).
Michelle Baharier is chairing this panel .
Alumni/Fellow of the Slade School of Fine Art and winner of the Julian Sullivan award, graduate of the School of Social Entrepreneurs and the University of the Arts.
She is a practicing visual/ performance Artist working with communities to make collective art works, exhibitions, public pieces and performance.
Nabihah Islam is a published poet and has worked alongside various theatres. Her short play, ‘Home is where the heart is‘ was performed at Theatre Deli and she recently brought the British Council’s Hijabi Monologues to the Bush Theatre. She is a British Council Fellow and worked alongside the Council of Europe as a human rights activist addressing gender violence in South Asian communities and advocating for gender rights. She co-founded two development organisations, both are recognised by the British Council as emerging organisations. Nabihah is completing her Masters in Creative Writing at Brasenose College, Oxford.
Lucy Sheenis an actor, published writer, transracial adoptee and advocate for British East Asian artists and adoptee rights. Her play Under A Blood Red Moon was recently one of eight plays written by British East Asian playwrights to have been published by Oberon Books and the first anthology ever to be published in the UK of British East Asian Playwrights.
In 2015 she was one for four BAME writer|performers who presented work created under the RePlay bursary who performed an extract of about 20mins as part of Poetry International 2015.
Jess Thom is a writer, performer and activist who co-founded Touretteshero in 2010 as a creative response to her experiences of life with Tourettes Syndrome. She has performed nationally and internationally, written a book, Welcome to Biscuit Land, and worked with museums, galleries and theatres to host large scale events for disabled and non-disabled children and young people
The Government has to tell the United Nations about womenâs rights in the UK.
We are collecting experiences from women across England to give to the United Nations. They will use these when they question the UK Government.
We want to be sure that disabled women are included. This report will reinforced what DDPOs wrote to the UNCPRD committee in last yearâs examination in Geneva. But we will focus more on disabled women and girlsâ issues.
Please tell us:
What the problems are, in your own words â we are interested in your personal experiences
Links to any evidence (research reports if you have them)
what the government has/has not done since the last time it reported in 2013, and
your recommendations for what needs to be done.
NB we are reporting on the period from 2013 to date.
We can only give a very short report to the United Nations – only 6,600 words!
We are interested in any information you can give us. Some of the areas that the UN will look at include:
Trafficking and Prostitution           Â
Healthcare â how the NHS supports accessibility of healthcare for disabled women
Political and Public Life â whether disabled women are properly represented
Economic and Social Benefits  – social security payments, universal credit, PIP etc
Rural Women â the special needs of women outside towns and cities including public transport, slow wifi speeds and access to disability services
Nationality  – special needs of disabled migrant women
Equality Before the Law â are disabled women equal?
Education â access to schools, colleges and university for disabled women and girls
Marriage and Family Life â disabled womenâs rights to a family life
Employment â access to good quality work, and support to work (Access to Work)
Violence Against Women and Girls – particular problems for disabled women, for example, domestic violence, or such violence against disabled women
Your evidence will be published unless you tell us otherwise.
Let us know if you want:
â EITHER your evidence to be completely confidential, OR
â to be shared with the Equality and Human Rights Commission only.
Timescale
The deadline for evidence and information is 28 February 2018. Send your evidence to: cedaw@wrc.org.uk
Some Sisters of Frida went to ENIL 2017 Freedom Drive, which brought together 300 Independent Living activists from 19 countries in Brussels.
Zara Todd, Lani Parker, Michelle Daley and Eleanor Lisney, and Rachel O’Brien (photo by Mladen Spremo)
It brought an an end to a week of promoting independent living, peer support, protest and celebration of disability rights. The Freedom Drive has brought together around 300 independent living activists from 19 countries, from as far East as Albania, to Norway in the North.
Among the main Freedom Drive demands were the end to institutionalisation of disabled people across Europe, access to personal assistance in all countries, full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the end to cuts to support services and benefits for disabled people.
Lani Parker and Michelle Daley said:
We also met some MEPs, Anthea McIntyre MEP, Keith Taylor MEP, Molly Scott-Cato MEP, Wajid Khan MEP, and Daniel Dalton MEP, among others to ask them questions on independent living, accessibility, inclusive education, disability rights after Brexit, freedom of labour as part of the EU among other issues.
with Wajid Khan MEP (Labour), Rebecca Farren, Lani Parker, Tara Flood and Michelle Daley (photo by Katai)
Tweet from Molly Scott Cato MEP with Michelle Daley, (Green Party) Keith Taylor MEP, Molly Scott Cato MEP, Tara Flood and Lani Parker
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The night before the march we met up with other British attendees for dinner, including Sarah Rennie (Sisters of Frida, Steering Group member) , who had to leave before the march.
dinner with other British attendees of Freedom Drive (photo by Debbie)
dinner with other British attendees of Freedom Drive (2nd table) (photo by Debbie)
We were outside the European Parliament the next day to join the other ENIL Freedom marchers on the streets of Brussels.
Michelle Daley leading some of the way. (photo by Katai)
Thank you all for all who came with us. Thank you for ENIL to organising this and we wish Zara Todd, as incoming director, the best for the future.
