“This centenary year has been a dramatic one for women’s rights.” So said Caroline Criado Perez on confirming that she will be among one of the headliners at this year’s inaugural Rise Up Quines! Festival in Aberdeen.
Taking place from November 12-18 at various venues in and around the Granite City, the festival will run a series of events centred on its main themes of celebrating the centenary of (some) UK women winning the right to vote, women in leadership and women in politics.
Organised by a volunteer group of women which includes a city councillor, two professors, Aberdeen Women’s Alliance, Women’s History Scotland and an independent musician and activist, the festival has been a year in the making.
Films, exhibitions, talks, walks, a suffragette lunch, activism fair, live music and book launches all make for an exciting programme, led and delivered by women.
Caroline will headline an In Conversation event on the closing night of the festival, Sunday November 18.
As a writer and feminist activist, Criado Perez is well known for campaigning to have a statue of a woman erected in Parliament Square earlier this year. For the first time, a female statue was erected, of suffragist Millicent Fawcett, who fought tirelessly for the right for women to have the vote in this country. She has also written extensively on the subject of feminism and women’s rights.
Caroline said: “More women than ever are finding their voices and standing together under the banner of #MeToo. But, at the same time, the backlash around the world to shut us back up is intensifying. When there is so much to fight for and the battle feels unwinnable, I take strength from looking back to the women who fought for our right to vote at a time when women’s participation in democracy seemed laughable.”
Looking back and celebrating Aberdeen’s rich suffragette history is one way the Rise Up Quines! Festival will celebrate the centenary of women winning the right to vote.
A major inspiration for the festival is the city’s unique archive of letters between arguably the world’s most famous suffragettes, the Pankhursts, and local Aberdonian journalist and activist Caroline Phillips.
Sarah Pedersen, professor of Communication and Media at RGU and author of popular book, The Scottish Suffragettes, is on the organising committee for the festival. She said: “Aberdeen has a rich history of engagement with the suffragette movement – as does the P&J! The leader of the suffragettes in Aberdeen from 1907 to 1909 was a woman journalist at the Aberdeen Daily Journal, the forerunner of the P&J, called Caroline Phillips. We are incredibly lucky to have the archive of her correspondence in the city. Her letters show how important Aberdeen was to the suffragette leaders, with frequent visits to the city by women such as Mrs Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel.”
Aberdeen’s Art Gallery and Museum holds this set of letters between the Pankhursts and Caroline Phillips, and one of the festival’s events is a special tour and closer look at the letters, held in the city’s Treasure Hub. This event will be on Thursday November 15.
Other events taking place during the week include a suffragette-inspired lunch, devised by talented trainee chefs at the city’s Gate 63 restaurant at North East Scotland College (NESCOL). The lunch will include mains such as meatloaf and salmon hash with berry pudding and rice pudding as desserts. The lunch takes place on Friday November 16.
Joining the festival organisers for the week will be events brought to the city for the first time by Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL). Firebrand Women features unique materials from the GWL collections that include posters, campaigning badges and zines, and tells the story of Scottish women’s fight for the vote from 100 years ago. The exhibition runs throughout the festival at Aberdeen’s Central Library. GWL will also screen the first-ever showing in the north of Scotland of March Of The Women, at the city’s Belmont Cinema, which celebrates the lives and achievements of Scottish women past and present.
“It’s amazing how much material came to light once we started putting this festival together,” said Professor Pedersen.
“From influential Scottish women in politics to local female leaders that hold major roles across many sectors in Aberdeen, we have been spoilt for choice when it has come to programming women from the north-east of Scotland to take part in the festival and its panels and debates.”
Music workshops and live music performances also play a part in the festival’s line-up.
Festival committee member and local musician Cindy Douglas is also excited about how the festival has come together.
She said: “There are so many talented women and girls out there and part of my role at the festival has been providing a platform for female musicians and experts in the music industry to play a big part in the festival this year.
The music-themed workshops we are offering are really exciting – I’ve never seen anything like it before in the city, and they also look to address the challenges around women being under-represented in the music industry as a whole.”
How to be a DJ, guitar maintenance, DIY filming and editing, and how to promote and manage your music events in the future workshops will all be on offer on Saturday November 17 and are free to attend.
Most events are free to attend and can be booked via the website www.riseupquines.com