Author: girlpower52

JUNE 2020 LOCKDOWN HAPPENINGS

January seems like a lifetime away and now in late June there is the stirrings of remergence from lockdown and the new routines we have been inhabiting during.Feels like the world’s mood is shifting to what matters…

Lucky to have been furloughed from the bookshop where I work and had time for those things I always feel I don’t have time for – like creative projects and writing. In fact I have bullied and cajoled female friends and family of all ages to contribute to a new Good Being A Girl Zine art project as part of Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook project https://www.sketchbookproject.com/

Fern rubbings, cutting and pasting zine pages, photos, screen prints, my sister,my Mum, my friend’s 8 year old. Will upload the finished sketchbook when done .See below lovely screenprint of a friend by her wife.

Melonie Syrett’s ‘How To Support Your Daughter Through Puberty’ is the ONLY puberty book specifically for mothers of 8-13 year olds! It provides all of the facts around puberty and periods that mums need to know to support their growing girls PLUS ‘How To’ advice on answering questions and picking the right time to speak to your daughter. Melonie Syrett is an Educator and Specialised Menstrual Health Expert. She offers real life experience and questions and combines these with facts and advice to ensure that mums feel supported and that the next generation of girls grow up shame free and body loving! Melonie’s work has been rolled out across schools in the UK as City to Sea’s Rethink Period’s Campaign which has been fully funded by Waitrose, she has been involved in the creation of the Period Friendly Bristol Education guidance and recently trained Girl Guide leaders and Youth Workers in how to confidently support young people with periods. She also trains women to work with girls and their mothers outside of education and holds puberty and period sessions.https://www.meloniesyrett.com/

Tessa Saunderson’s follow up book to Ruby Luna’s Journey is Ruby Luna’s Moontime .

Ruby Luna starts her period at 10 years old and keeps a diary for the next two years all about the menstrual products she tries and the things that happen to her and her friends. It is aimed at 10-12 year olds, but would be suitable for any girl starting her period earlier than that. It also covers the transition from primary to secondary school. It is written with humour to keep the topic light and entertaining, but includes lots of information from the impact of diet on periods to when girls historically started menarche (first period) in an accessible way.

 

2020 is the year for new happenings and connections and celebrating all those women who are linking up to challenge taboos and highlight the wonder and reality that is menstruation , having our monthlies and knowing our bodies and how amazing they are.

JANUARY     CONNECTIONS  

Tessa Venuti Sanderson has written and illustrated a treasure of a book which turns all those boring puberty text books on their heads! Check out her amazing website www.cyclicalwisdom.com

Had a great conversation with Tessa this week about our books Ruby Luna’s Curious Journey and Making Pink Lemonade

http://www.cyclicalwisdom.com/blog/4594381659

Delighted that Rachael Crow from www.moontimes.co.uk is using my book Making Pink Lemonade in her mum and daughter menstruation celebration groups. Check out her incredible range of eco menstrual products and online courses to inspire and guide you through the phases of girl and womanhood.

On just the day I needed it, my much-looking-forward to, copy of Creatrix by Lucy Pearce arrived in the post.What does it mean to live in a service to your creativity and in direct connection to the creative source?So looking forward to finding out! Lucy Pearce has created a pioneer publishing imprint , Womancraft as a platform dedicated to sharing exciting new voices , including her own and powerful messages that are being overlooked, silenced or sanitized in traditional publishing. www.womancraftpublishing.com

Creatrix is about living a creative life and the soul need that we have for doing that. Lucy guides us along a path to creating and making that space and time to do it. With personal experiences from Lucy Pearce , Rachael Crow from Moontimes ( see above) and other Creatrixes, the true reality of the practical process of creating something and the nurturing of the soul ,help to light the way

A GRAND DAY OUT BY THE SEA

Brighton at its best Friday just gone with Laurika. Bluest of skies, bracing wind, lashing waves, plum tart and chips on the pier, no proper tea obviously and a must see tourist attraction visit to newly opened, The Feminist Bookshop on Upper North Street. Fantastic collection of adult and childrens new and old feminist classics, coffee and cake if you need it and a haven of a reading room downstairs. So perfect I thought I must have dreamt it up! As I queued up to buy Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde , there in fornt of me were the women who ran the Silver Moon Bookshop – a feminist bookshop that used to be on Charing Cross Road in. London.The torch has been handed over- hurrah!

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Next year in 2018 there will be lots of celebrations and remembering of all those women and men who campaigned for the vote in the UK, including Centenary of the Vote -100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which enabled all men and some women over the age of 30 to vote for the first time; and 90th anniversary of Equal Franchise Act 1928, which gave women the right to vote at age 21 on the same terms as men; plus much more

see https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/vote-100/vote-100-project/vote-100-project-info/

So I have begun my own It’s Good being A Girl pilgrimage to statues, blue plaques, monuments and places that recognise significant suffragettes, suffragists and other women who made a stand for us all.Starting in London with freedom fighter and nomad Laurika Bretherton

Also with me on this feminist adventure is my very own suffragette Josephine, who as well as standing proud on the steps of the house that Sylvia Pankhurst lived in on the Chelsea Embankment, way before it was posh, was extremely popular at the https://filia.org.uk/filia-conference-2017/

    

Making Pink Lemonade is now available to buy from two wonderfully radical  bookshops in London:

Housmans
5 Caledonian Road London N1 9DX www.housmans.com

Bookmarks
1 Bloomsbury Street London WC1B 3QE www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk