Beautiful Sentence: Writings from Women in Prison Wed, April 27, 2011. 7pm Fee: £5
Featuring poet Leah Thorn, Farah Damji from Women Moving Forward and Laurel Townhead from Women In Prison Includes screening of excerpts from the film 'Beautiful Sentence' by Suzanne Cohen Films
This event explores the creative writings of women who have experienced incarceration. There will be readings from the anthology release, a book of powerful and moving poetry and life-testimony by women in prison, on the theme of self-harm.
Women In Prison is an organisation that supports and campaigns for women offenders and ex-offenders. The organisation assists women with advice on housing, education, mental health, legal rights, work, benefits, debt, domestic violence, and more.
There will be a screening of excerpts from the short documentary, Beautiful Sentence,
produced and directed by Suzanne Cohen. The film follows poet Leah
Thorn in her work as writer-in-residence in a high security women's
prison. Through her workshops we meet a variety of women striving to
find a voice through creative writing. Personal histories, emotions and
inner conflicts are revealed through their poems and interactions.
Leah Thorn
Leah Thorn is a spoken word poet. At the heart of her writing is the
autobiographical exploration of Jewish identity.Her work is anthologised
in England and the States and 'My Amulet', her award-winning short film
about English Ashkenazi identity and assimilation, has been shown internationally at Film Festivals. www.leahthorn.com
Farah Damji
Farah
Damji is a member of Women Moving Forward, the campaigning group of
Women in Prison, which advocates for better conditions for incarcerated
women and offers post-release resettlement. Leah and Farah met in HMP Bronzefield, when Farah attended one of Leah's
workshops and was stunned to find an angel and an oasis in a the
innermost pit of hell. Writing about her own experience of self-harming
and wanting to do it again helped Farah came to terms with deeper
issues.
Farah
is currently launching a scheme providing ex-offenders with
accommodation and supplemental services which will be launched later
this year, information can be found at http://kazuri.org.uk
Laurel Townhead
Laurel is Policy & Campaigns Manager at Women in Prison where she
campaigns to end the discrimination women experience in the criminal justice system
and to increase understanding of women’s imprisonment as a result of
wider societal discrimination. This role brings together her feminism and
her human rights activism. Laurel
previously worked in Geneva
lobbying the UN to develop international protection of the rights of women in
prison.
Suzanne Cohen
Suzanne Cohen originally studied animation production. She wrote/directed 'Ice Cream and
Jelly and a Punch in the Belly' for CH4s Formations series, and worked
on commercials, short films and title sequences including the BBC
programme 'What makes us tick?'. She currently devotes her time to documentaries and was recently based at the British Museum’s Digital Discovery Centre
making films with young people. For more info, visit Suzanne's website.
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