Join us at the first ever Shameless! Festival, bringing together activism and art to confront and change attitudes towards sexual violence, share ideas, and imagine a rape free world.

Created in collaboration by Birkbeck’s SHaME project and WOW - Women of the World, Shameless! will feature two in-person events on 27th November 2021, featuring high profile speakers, survivors, researchers and medical professionals, alongside performances by incredible artists, poets and musicians, interactive workshops, ‘how to’ clinics, wellness spaces and more.

Shameless! Festival events

• 27 November: Shameless! Festival at Battersea Arts Centre (explore the schedule here)
• 27 November: Emily Ratajkowski In Conversation at Battersea Arts Centre

Tickets for all events are Pay What You Can with a variety of ticket prices available.

Over the festival, the line-up includes WOW Founder Jude Kelly; prizewinning author Professor Joanna Bourke; Founder of Black Mind and UK Slam champion Rachel Nwokoro; best selling author and survivor Winnie M Li; Soma Sara, the Founder of Everyone’s Invited; poet in residence for the Consent Collective Tanaka Mhishi; authors Laura Bates and Rachel Thompson; Academic Dr Rabiya Majeed-Ariss and award winning podcaster Sangeeta Pillai.

Everyone is invited to join this vital festival to spark conversation, address the global crisis of sexual violence (in all its forms) and help get rid of the shame often attached to it. Inspired by and building on the work of SHaME, WOW and activists and academics across the world, be part of this festival aiming to revolutionise conversations around sexual violence; burst open inherited ideas of shame; and give everyone the chance to say to all societies, enough is enough, sexual violence must end.

This festival will address sensitive and difficult subjects. Please use your discretion if attending with people under the age of 18.

Shameless! Festival is produced by SHaME (Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters) and WOW - Women of the World, and is supported by The Wellcome Trust and Birkbeck, University of London.

Birkbeck, University of London’s SHaME project is a research hub for scholarship exploring the medical and psychiatric aspects of sexual violence. Placing medical professionals at the heart of the debates, the project seeks to address the global crisis and help move beyond the shame often attached to sexual violence. The project will take place over three years, with 2022’s Shameless Festival! to be produced by WOW Rio curators Redes da Maré in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Find out more about the SHaME project here. Professor Joanna Bourke is the PI for the project and will be speaking as part of the Shameless! Festival day programme.