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Blog Post
Yesterday we announced new sessions and speakers as part of the Day Pass programme for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day features a different line-up, offering audiences the chance to choose from dozens of events in multiple spaces and venues.
Friday 10 March
Jude Kelly CBE, Julia Gillard, Laura Bates, Elif Shafak and activist Josephine Kamara will open the festival on Friday 10 March with a session on women, misogyny and power, followed by conversations throughout the day spanning the cost of living crisis, mental health, fat activism and what it takes to be a CEO.
Other new sessions include Courtney Boateng and Renee Kapuku, co-hosts of To My Sisters podcast, who will explore how to embrace the power of friendship and community as they look to reinvigorate sisterhood and redefine womanhood; Sharmadean Reid runs a workshop on leadership for the next 1000 years; Nike join us to present a Big Idea on confidence and sports bras, with leading mental health and body image expert Dr Phillippa Diedrichs; and there will be a special edition of WOW Big Ideas focusing on health with speakers Ione Gamble and Dr Annabel Sowemimo.
Juno Dawson and Megan Barton-Hanson will ask if you can be Feminist with Fillers; Dr Finn MacKay and Dr Sofia Rehman join Shahed Ezaydi to discuss how we ensure the feminist movement remains led by and inclusive of those that experience marginalisation most keenly; Jennie Agg, Roslyn Springer and Miranda Ward will lead a supportive session on miscarriages and baby loss burnout; and in Women, Life, Freedom, Afghan disability rights advocate Benafsha Yaqoobi, award-winning Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Leila Akrami and WOW festival organisers from around the world share their struggles for justice and stories of resistance.
Saturday 11 March
Urgent political conversations on climate change and the case for free childcare will also take place at WOW on Saturday 11 March, alongside previously announced discussions about hair loss, the future of sex and a joyful in conversation with Kathy Burke.
Joining the Saturday programme is an interactive writing workshop on our Right to Rage with award-winning poet Kim Moore; an exploration and celebration of life as an eldest daughter with Yasin Bojang, co-founder of Home Girls Unite, Aisha Al-Abdallah and authors Ify Adenuga and Esther Oluga; there will be a game show hosted by Consent Collective; and Money and Mental Health’s Helen Undy, Sarah Howard, Theatre Director and Access Manager of Shakespeare’s Globe, Nadia Baksh from Imkaan (an organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and Minoritised women and girls), and stripper, performance artist, writer, activist Stacey Clare lead an urgent conversation on the real cost of cuts for people with disabilities and those in vulnerable positions. Nike will be in the building to talk breaking barriers and belonging in sport with inspiring leaders from community organisations and more. And don’t miss their workshop with dancer extraordinaire Trina Nicole.
They join sessions on the history of Bengali Activism with Raisa Hassan, Shabna Begum, Farzana Khan and Dr Fatima Rajina; Girls’ Day School Trust will explore whether social conditioning has made women better leaders, following the publication of the Girls’ Futures research report; and Emma Boynton and Simona Xu on the role of big tech in the Future of Sex. Change making organisation Beyond Equality will also present a conversation about masculinity and what it means to be a man in 2023, with speakers to be announced.
There will be a major discussion on climate change featuring activist Pat Mitchell, the Editorial Director of TEDWomen and author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman. Joined by a group of the world’s leading climate change and social justice activists, they will ask what must be done in order to tackle climate change, examine how to make the climate crisis a priority and imagine a future without it.
Sunday 12 March
The Sunday Day Pass at WOW will explore how kindness can change your life, the world of deep fakes and revenge porn, and present WOW Big Ideas from Alice Sherwood and Shobna Gulati. RAW in WAR will return to the festival to present Tetiana Sokolova and Svetlana Gannushkina with the Anna Politkovskaya Award. African based programme Girl Generation will also be bringing over five young people to discuss the importance of taking a girl centred approach to gendered violence.
Acclaimed writer Kit de Waal joins Jude Kelly to open the Sunday programme at WOW. Later that day award-winning author, poet and playwright Deborah Levy will be in conversation; journalist Harriet Hall, founder of Everyday Sexism Project Laura Bates, and Cut From the Same Cloth? author and WOW Senior Programmer Sabeena Akhtar will take a deep dive into the murky world of incel culture; Katy Hessel will be in conversation about her bestselling book The Story of Art Without Men, and award-winning comedian and host of The Breakup MonologuesRosie Wilby will be joined by writer, broadcaster and Sex Education script consultant Alix Fox to share funny, bizarre and poignant tales of heartbreak and recovery in a live version of Rosie’s hit podcast.
In addition there will be previously announced sessions on addiction and recovery and the recognition of associated trauma with writers Octavia Bright and Sabrina Pace-Humphreys; and Sali Hughes will be in conversation with Lauren Laverne about Sali’s new book Everything is Washable.
You can buy a ticket for one or all of the days, as each will feature a totally different line-up.