Langdon Olgar II Launch / Hollaback is 3 years old! Birthday Gig Event Extravaganza!
Come to an evening of music and eating on Wednesday May 8th at GALLERY CAFE, BETHNAL GREEN a not-for-profit vegan/vegetarian volunteer-run cafe, to celebrate the launch of Langdon Olgar II, the Hollaback London publication, and to celebrate Three Years of challenging street harassment.
Playing live will be:
SISTERS [LISTEN HERE]
Spine-tingling gospel
SHOPPING [LISTEN HERE]
Jaw-rattling post punk
FEATURE [LISTEN HERE]
Soul-shaking future jams
[This is also their EP launch!]
£5 entry gets you a copy of LOII on entry. There will be readings from the zine also.
Langdon Olgar is a publication about the body and public space. It sits somewhere between zine, journal and artist’s book in form, and includes work from interested parties across the gender spectrum including Tavi Gevinson, Jen Calleja, Barbara Hammer, Jes Skolnik, Judy Berman, R.M Phoenix and many others, as well as art and writing from the editors themselves, and design and layout by Jamie Reid. It is staple-bound, full colour, and was professionally risograph printed by our friends at Ditto Press.
The gig is also a fundraiser for a poster campaign we are gearing up for that specifically targets pubs and club management to engage with the task of making their businesses less creepy (see our work with Fabric: http://www.fabriclondon.com/harassment) We now want to roll this out across lots of pubs and clubs across the city, so any profit after costs will go towards the printing costs for that. WOO!
Happy International Women’s Day 2013 from Hollaback London!
Just a quick email to fill you in on what we’ve been up to, what we’ve got planned and how you can get involved with the international movement to end street harassment! Find out about Langdon Olgar issue two, our journal/zine with work from Tavi Gevinson and Barbara Hammer. Check out our event with Labour Women’s Group especially for IWD, where we’ll be speaking alongside Amnesty UK and the Chair of Police & Crime Committee. We’ve got a lot of really exciting stuff up our sleeve that we need all hands on deck with….
Cambridge Reclaim the Night
January 31st saw 300 men and women take to the streets of Cambridge in the global annual anti-rape march Reclaim The Night. Hollaback London’s Julia Gray went up to give a talk at the vigil held at the end of the march. You can read a write-up of the event in the Cambridge University paper here
Langdon Olgar II
Last month we brought out the long-awaited second issue of our side project mini-magazine Langdon Olgar. Taking gender, sexism and the body in public space as a jumping off point, the print publication seeks to challenge the accepted format of the feminist zine and tackle the issues surrounding street harassment while pushing the aesthetic boundaries of a political publication. Read the introduction here, check it out here, and buy a copy here! We accept submissions on an ongoing basis, so please do send in any contributions to London@ihollaback.org. We plan to hold a launch event soon. If you are interested in helping with this launch or have ideas, please get in touch!
Enfield Labour Women’s Forum
Next week we’ll be speaking at Enfield Labour Women’s Forum (flyer link), with many others including Joanne McCartney (overseeing the Mayor’s Violence Against Women & Girls Strategy, Kate Talbot (Lambeth Women’s Safety Charter) and Karla McLaren from Amnesty UK. While we’re not party political we can’t wait to share our stories and learn from these women, and hope you can joint us. This one’s a women only event – all Labour women members, supporters and friends from Enfield & beyond are welcome.
Call out ! Getting involved
Currently, all Hollaback London activity is undertaken by two people.
Want to lend a hand? We need help with everything from press work (of which we do a lot) to speaking events to workshops to the everyday work of running the Website, Facebook and Twitter feed. You don’t need previous experience, all gender identities welcome, you just need some time, a lot of energy and a commitment to seeing the end of street harassment. Please get in touch if this sounds like you! London@ihollaback.org
BBC Documentary team want to hear from you
We’ve been speaking with a documentary team at the BBC who are doing some research and would like to hear from you:
Hello, I am writing from the BBC Documentary Department in the UK. I’m doing some research into what it is like to be a young woman living in India today. I am looking to speak to young British Indian women who have views on the current situation in India – particularly in relation to the recent rape and sexual harassment cases. I would be really interested to hear from anyone who might be able to help me with my research – you might have personal stories to tell or you might just be passionate about the subject.
Please email laura.martin-robinson@bbc.co.uk - all conversations will be confidential and there is no obligation to appear in the programme.
Sexual harassment of women is impervious to ethnicity, culture, class and religion, and is a global issue. For this project in particular we hope we have made clear in our post that, as well as hearing the opinions of young British Indian women, we are keen to hear from all women who are passionate about the problem of female sexual harassment.
Bystanders – What you gonna do about it?
Extract from Langdon Olgar II
Langdon Olgar is our print publication. With it, we aim to put the issue of street harassment in context with text and visuals on a variety of related issues. Issue two is now available with work from Tavi Gevinson, Jen Calleja, Barbara Hammer, Jes Skolnik, Judy Berman, R.M Phoenix and many others, as well as art and writing from the editors themselves, and design and layout by Jamie Reid. Staple-bound, full colour, and professionally risograph printed at Ditto Press.
An extract:
Two years on from our first issue, we are still watching.
We’re watching, eyes narrowed, as Alternative Youth Media happily paints itself as the creative, subversive foil to The Mainstream, foolishly grasping the easy money of major corporations disguised as youth brands, while holding a mirror to the same forms of ubiquitous, banter-powered rape culture one might pick up in any newsagent. We pounced on the possibility of another kind of feminist publication, taken beyond those fanzine assumptions, too easy to write off as a de-fanged corner of galling retroisms, aging references and aesthetic cliche.
That said, you’ll notice the many references to feminisms of times past in this issue, as we outright reject the notion of an ahistorical resurgence. They say those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but we must pore over these histories, the achievements of yesterday’s agigators, artists and thinkers, before we build upon them. The demands may remain constant with our fore-sisters to some extent, but we’re at pains to move forwards, not sideways.
Ordinary women across Britain are being hit by what the Fawcett Society have termed ‘Triple Jeopardy.’ Disproportionately hit by wage freezes and job cuts in the public sector; most likely to be the frontline users of public services from libraries to sure start centres and other community facilities; and because of their traditional role as carers, are often the first called upon to step in as state help is withdrawn. Langdon Olgar Issue two takes flight against a backdrop of these swingeing cuts, enacted by cabinet of 19 men and 4 women, with a combined personal wealth of £70 million.
The worst is undoubtedly yet to come and it’s certain they’d rather you dancing at a shoe-brand sponsored warehouse party or scrolling sleepy blogs of neutered art, indeed doing anything else as long as you’re not listening, not reading and certainly not organising. By collecting these contrasting perspectives from right across the gender spectrum and seeking new ways out of aesthetic irrelevance, we hope to challenge both cultural cul-de-sacs above, and give to you a momentary break from that dull, low drone of misogyny echoing through the city.
Can’t you hear it?
Bryony Beynon
Brixton, 2012
For more information and to order, see here.
Builders face the sack after harassing women outside Stoke Newington railway station
Builders who racially and sexually harassed women on Stoke Newington High Street could be losing their jobs thanks to a commuter who contacted the Hackney Gazette.
http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/sexist_builders_in_stoke_newington_face_sack_after_harassing_women_1_1394046
Hollaback Baltimore interviewing Hollaback Brussels!
HollabackLDN on Radio 4 tomorrow – 8pm!
Our QME Equality Workshop last month on International Women’s Day was recorded by Radio 4 for a feature on new feminisms and anti-street harassment activism, also taking in debates about slutwalk and ‘the rules of sexual engagement.’ As well as interviews with HollabackLDN site co-Director Bryony Beynon, it features interviews with Vera Baird, QC, the chair of Labour’s Commission on Women’s safety, a spokesperson from the Met’s Sapphire Unit (sexual violence unit) and the organiser of the London Slutwalk.
Programme airs tomorrow at 8pm on Radio 4, and again on Sunday. Listen here.
Stuck for things to listen to in the mean time?
HollabackLDN workshop at QME Equality Festival 51
This coming Tuesday, Julia and Bryony of HollabackLDN host an open workshop at Queen Mary University, in celebration of International Women’s Day. Festival51 is an entire week of events, activities and workshops discussing women’s international and national issues, proudly hosted by QMEquality.
The HollabackLDN Workshop is at 6.30pm in Francis Bancroft Building Room 1.02.06 (Nearest tube Mile End – Here’s a detailed MAP of how to get to the room itself)
It’s a free workshop/talk that is open to all genders and all people (if you’re not a ULU student you’ll just need to drop an email with your name to womensofficer@qmsu.org) and we’ll be talking all about why HollabackLDN started, what we’ve achieved so far, and get everyone thinking about what street harassment really means, how it affects women and LGBTQ people, also looking at issues of bystander intervention and responsibility (as the We’ve Got Your Back campaign launches globally this week) and how to build constructive cooperation amongst all genders to end the social acceptability of street harassment.
In the meantime, check out this promo video for the Festival and please come along!
NEW EMAIL ADDRESS
PLEASE NOTE:
The HollabackLDN address DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE! We’ll email y’all, but be aware of this. Thanks