PRESS RELEASE - Friday 11 October 2024

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WOW - WOMEN OF THE WORLD MARKS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL 2024

• 300WOMEN, GIRLS AND NON-BINARY PEOPLE TAKE OVER THE LASTMINUTE.COM LONDON EYE FOR A MASS MENTORING SESSION.

• MENTORS INCLUDED PERRI SHAKES-DRAYTON, LIB PECK, HELEN PANKHURST, SHOBNA GULATI, DR RONX IKHARIA, NATASHA DOWIE AND MANY MORE

• STUDENTS TOOK PLACE IN A SERIES OF SPECIAL CAREER-BUILDING WORKSHOPS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL THEATRE AND WOW’S GLOBAL GIRLS CHAMPION STANDARD CHARTERED

Today, WOW – Women of the World celebrated the 12th International Day of the Girl by bringing together 150 inspiring women and non-binary people and 150 secondary school students on The lastminute.com London Eye for a morning of speed mentoring sharing dreams, ambitions and challenges as they soared over London.

WOW is a global movement promoting gender equity and celebrating women, girls and non-binary people, run by UK charity The WOW Foundation. Since 2012, 11th October has marked International Day of the Girl to address the needs and challenges faced by girls all around the world and to highlight their phenomenal strength and power.

Now a much-anticipated event, WOW Day of the Girl 2024 offered secondary school girls (aged 13 to 18 years old) from schools and community groups across London and the south east the opportunity to meet highly influential and inspiring women and non-binary people including: WOW Founder and CEO Jude Kelly; actor Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street) and Rhea Norwood (Heartstopper); paralympic archer Jodie Grinham; former GB athletics champion Perri Shakes-Drayton; former Liverpool FC Women’s footballer and current club ambassador Natasha Dowie; TV presenter and Doctor Ronx Ikharia; Director of the Mayor of London's Violence Reduction Unit Lib Peck; activist and founder of Free Periods Amika George MBE; campaigner Doreen Lawrence; artist Lubaina Himid and activist Helen Pankhurst CBE.

Each student was matched with three different mentors for 15-minute mentoring sessions during two complete rotations of The London Eye. The mentors joined from a wide range of professional backgrounds and industries which spanned the world of business, sport, politics, public life, the arts and more, enabling students to have a snapshot into the ways in which women and non-binary people are paving the way for the future.

This afternoon the young people will take part in a series of creative career-building activities with WOW working in partnership with the National Theatre and WOW's Global Girls Champion Standard Chartered. Workshops will include confidence building, problem solving, creative-writing, dancing and a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Theatre.

Speaking at a WOW event earlier in the year, HM The Queen, President of The WOW Foundation, said "I have been enormously impressed to hear of the mentorship that has been offered [at WOW], the panel discussions that have challenged and strengthened those present, and the partnerships that have been forged with organisations that are, year round, doing incredible work with young people. So I want to say, quite simply – well done and thank you."

Jude Kelly, WOW Founder & CEO said: “As WOW looks ahead to our 15th anniversary in 2025, celebrating girls and giving them the space to explore their hopes and dreams is of utmost importance to us. We are at a time where injustice faced by women is at an unprecedented level, but we are continually inspired by the creativity and bravery of girls around the world. They energise us to continue to stand up and strive for gender equity. By bringing together these 150 students today with 150 incredible people to share their stories and dreams, we hope to demonstrate to them that their voices are important and their potential limitless.”

Tanuj Kapilashrami, Chief Strategy and Talent Officer at Standard Chartered said: “We are delighted that Standard Chartered is set to deepen our partnership with The WOW Foundation for the second year as the Global Girls Champion. We continue to drive greater economic equality and a more inclusive future for all, and we are excited about the opportunity that girls, women and non-binary young people involved in the Bank’s community initiative Futuremakers have from greater involvement with WOW events. These opportunities to celebrate achievements and inspire others, not only raise ambitions for a brighter future, but also serve to empower participants with the tools to help them succeed. We will continue to connect even more clients, colleagues and communities to these events for maximum impact.”

WOW Day of The Girl follows recent WOW Festivals in Rotherham and Manchester in the UK, and in Pakistan, Turkey, Greece and Australia, all of which have taken place in the build-up to WOW’s 15th anniversary in 2025 that will be celebrated at the Royal Albert Hall on 8th March with WOW at 15, featuring legendary activist Angela Davis. Founded in 2010, WOW Festivals and events celebrate women, girls and non-binary people and take a frank look at the obstacles they face. Run by charity The WOW Foundation, WOW has reached five million people across the globe to date.

The WOW Foundation is proudly supported by its Global Founding Partner Bloomberg and Global Girls Champion Standard Chartered.

ENDS

For further information please contact Bread and Butter PR
Kate Hassell | kate@breadandbutterpr.uk | 07921264564
breadandbutterpr.uk | @breadbutterpr

LISTINGS

Royal Albert Hall and WOW - Women of the World Present

WOW at 15

Saturday 8 March 2025

The Royal Albert Hall

https://thewowfoundation.com/events/wow-at-15

NOTES TO EDITORS

About The WOW Foundation
The WOW Foundation was created by Jude Kelly CBE in 2018 to run the global movement that is WOW - Women of the World Festivals. The Festivals began in the UK in 2010, launched by Kelly at the Southbank Centre London, where she was Artistic Director, to celebrate women and girls, taking a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential, raising awareness globally of the issues they face, and discussing solutions together.

To date, WOW has reached five million people in 45 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA.

Over the last 13 years the Festivals have developed a reputation as a space for world renowned artists, activists, thinkers and performers including Angela Davis, Malala Yousafzai, Annie Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Salma Hayek, to come and participate, alongside thousands of women and girls who don’t have public profiles but are doing amazing things. WOW provides platforms for people of all kinds, changes attitudes, brings communities together and provides a unique space for people to work together towards gender equity in their own communities. One example of the Festival’s impact came in 2015, with the founding of the Women’s Equality Party by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer.

In 2018 Kelly left the Southbank Centre to run The WOW Foundation full time as a charity working to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is possible and desirable through festivals and empowering women and girls. The unique festival model creates numerous pathways for participants to take part in WOW projects, amplify their own causes, or start new initiatives which have a wide impact on communities. It is the biggest, most comprehensive and most significant festival dedicated to presenting work by women and promoting equity for women and girls.

WOW Festival was originally produced and presented by Southbank Centre.

The President of WOW - Women of the World is Her Majesty The Queen.

WOW Festivals will be taking place around the world in the next 12 months:

• WOW Australia: 25 October 2024

• WOW Kathmandu: 23-24 November 2024

• WOW Athens: 4-6 April 2025

• WOW Baltimore: 5 April 2025

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg – the global business, financial information and news leader – is a founding supporter of WOW - Women of the World Festivals. Bloomberg has long supported organisations and causes that advance gender equality and seek to address challenges women face around the world, from maternal and reproductive health to women’s economic empowerment and inspiring the new generation of female leaders. Bloomberg has proudly supported WOW Festivals since 2012 www.bloomberg.com/women

About Standard Chartered

We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 53 of the world’s most dynamic markets, and serving clients in a further 64. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good. Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

For more stories and expert opinions please visit Insights at sc.com. Follow Standard Chartered on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About the National Theatre

The National Theatre makes theatre that entertains and inspires using its creativity, expertise and unique reach. The National Theatre shares unforgettable stories with millions of audience members across the UK and around the world – on its own stages, on tour, in schools, on cinema screens and streaming at home.

World-leading artists make their best work at the National Theatre with the widest possible audience and impact. The National Theatre invests in talent and innovation on stage and off, taking seriously its role as the nation’s theatre. Of the new productions developed each year with a wide range of theatre companies, a third of that research and development resource is dedicated to shows staged at theatres outside London. =

Through touring our work to local theatres and schools and nationwide education and community programmes, we are active in 71 of the 109 levelling up priority areas in the UK. A registered charity with deeply embedded social purpose, the National Theatre works with hundreds of schools and communities across the UK to fire imagination and inspire creativity, and to develop skills and pathways for careers in theatre.

The National Theatre Skills Centre provides engagement, skills development, career support and training opportunities nationwide for over 5,000 people each year. The Skills Centre will supercharge specialist skills needed across the whole creative sector and inspire future artists, craftspeople and technicians.

For more information, please visit nationaltheatre.org.uk @NationalTheatre @NT_PressOffice

SATURDAY 25 MAY - DAY PROGRAMME

Award winning writer and actor Sophie Willan (Alma’s Not Normal), and actress and disability activist Liz Carr (Silent Witness) join the Saturday line-up to discuss the challenges and triumphs of being women on TV and why representation matters. In a conversation chaired by Geeta Pendse, the panel explores the narratives shaping our screens and cultures and who gets to tell those stories, as they share insights, laughs and their incredible personal journeys to fame, from growing up in care to navigating discrimination.

In addition there will be previously announced sessions with Jude Kelly and former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, who will open the Saturday programme exploring the world women, girls and non-binary people face today; The Chain author Chimene Suleyman in conversation with author and activist Charlie Craggs and Dr Leyla Hussein will explore how relationships can quickly turn sour and why society allows persistent misogyny to thrive; and DJ Paulette – one of only two women DJs to have a regular residency at the Hacienda - discussing Manchester’s lost music venues with Factory International’s Head of Music Rivca Burns and Santana Guérout, Chief of Programming at Band on the Wall.

WOW’s Big Ideas provide opportunities to hear some of the world’s best and most compelling speakers present their big ideas to change the world. On Saturday, Dr Layal Liverpool will explore how racism is making us ill; Gift Sally Akinyi O from Womankind Worldwide talks Everyday Feminism and how everydays acts help us move towards achieving gender equality; Taslima Ahmed from CDM UK, will discuss navigating a late life autism diagnosis as a South Asian woman; David Bartlett from Equimundo explains why better boyhoods are good for everyone; and Mel Johnson talks Solo parenting.

Workshops will take place throughout the day delving into a broad range of topics, ideas and creative practices. Pole dancer, academic, performer, activist and blogger Dr Carolina Are will lead a session on the algorithmic bias against nudity, its relationship to patriarchy and how to challenge censorship publicly. Hattie Hasan MBE, founder of Stopcocks Women Plumbers will hold a plumbing workshop for beginners, whilst Yamina Peerzada from WOW Pakistan will lead a session where creativity meets eco consciousness. There will also be a special workshop on Tatreez - traditional Palestinian embroidery - its history and cultural significance, a zine making session with Take Up Space Manchester, and a music and mindfulness workshop inspired by Afro-Brazilian dance and body percussion.

SUNDAY 26 MAY - DAY PROGRAMME

Maxine Peake and Jude Kelly start the day with a discussion on Manchester, what the future looks like for the creative industries and the optimism that keeps them going.

Dr Leyla Hussein, Global Advocacy Director for The Girl Generation - Support to the Africa-led movement to end female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) will lead a conversation on what it means to have a girl-centred approach to tackling gendered violence. Joined by young people who are leading the fight against gendered violence in their communities across East Africa, the discussion will explore why the voices and experiences of young people must be at the forefront of meaningful change.

Actor Zawe Ashton and broadcaster Gemma Cairney, two friends with celebrated careers in the arts, will explore how identity and creativity intersect in a frank and open discussion touching on race, gender, new motherhood and how their industries often do not feel built for the complex intersections of so many artists.

Author and former hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, curator and art historian Rachel Dedman and author on sustainable fashion Aja Barber discuss the transformative power of garments. The conversation will delve into the broader context of fashion, navigating male and state-imposed dress codes, touching on global movements for sustainability in the fashion industry, the erasure of traditions and how clothes and needlework can be tools for change and survival.

Sunday’s WOW Big Ideas will be from: Helen Pankhurst on why she can’t give it a rest; Nazir Afzal making the case for why organisational culture matters; Leanne Yau discussing Radical Connections Through Relationship Anarchy; and Dr Mona El-Farra exploring why the situation in Gaza is a feminist issue.

Girl Gang Manchester will kick off the workshops on Sunday morning with Screaming into the Void - a chance to scream at the top of your voice into a darkened, expansive space, followed by Angst Aerobics - an emotional exorcism through exercise. Dr Leyla Hussein explores the root cause of burnout in a session which will provide practical strategies to cultivate psychological safety. Award winning arts practitioner, podcaster and broadcaster, Audrey Hall facilitates a sharing circle for women creatives over the age of 35, to ask, 'Was enough, enough?', to connect and convene to launch her Safe Space Sisterhood community. Further sessions throughout the day includes drawing your inner self with Promina Shrestha from WOW Nepal, an upcycling workshop with Drag Kings from Morris Choudry Qreations, an empowering workshop focused on celebrating Black Joy and Menstrual Mood Mapping.

Across the festival WOW’s much-loved Marketplace will feature over 50 pop-up stores, experiences and happenings. There will be interactive spaces from Global Fund for Women, a film screening from Womankind Worldwide; a confessional booth inspired by Gillian Anderson’s new book Want; drop-in workshops on block-printing and clay modelling; a Re:Yak workshop on upcycling clothes from Lucy & Yak; a Youth Zone and new artistic installations commissioned especially for WOW Manchester - Womenity by Ina-Maria Shikongo and MOONMOTH by Tania Kovats on display.

Alongside the Day ticket programmes, WOW will present free events throughout the weekend. Guided history walks highlighting women confined to the footnotes of history will take place, whilst a WOW Pop-Up will host a range of activities in the Social Space including learning how to make dyes from natural ingredients, poetry and WOW bites sessions. As part of ongoing project My City, My Voice, four musicians from Istanbul and Manchester will take up residence at WOW Manchester to create new music, in situ at the festival over a six hour period. WOW’s much-loved Speed Mentoring sessions will take place in the lower foyer offering an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with people from a huge variety of fields, including theatre directors, journalists, scientists, campaigners, artists and WOW speakers.

In the lead-up to the festival, WOW will bring a very special edition of The Hope Brigade to Manchester. Originally conceived in 2020, The Hope Brigade is a photography series profiling incredible women working at the forefront of their fields in 10 essential areas from conflict to climate justice, from Ake to Athens and Beijing to Brisbane. Working in partnership with Selfridges, WOW Manchester has added a further 10 portraits to the collection, profiling incredible leaders, activists and experts living and working in the North West. The series will be on display at Selfridges Exchange Square from 13 - 27 May.

Run by UK charity The WOW Foundation, 2024 will be the 14th WOW Festival in the UK and the first to be held in Manchester. In 2018, WOW Founder Jude Kelly built on the success of the festival to create UK-based charity The WOW Foundation to run the global WOW movement that believes a gender equal world is urgently needed, possible and desirable. Since the inaugural London Festival in 2010, launched by Kelly at the Southbank Centre, WOW and its partners across the world have reached more than five million people in more than 45 locations across the globe on six continents. Alongside Manchester WOW Festivals have also taken place this year in locations including Pakistan and Istanbul, with Kathmandu coming up later this year.

The WOW Foundation is proudly supported by its Global Founding Partner Bloomberg.

LISTINGS

WOW Manchester 2024

24-26 May, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ

Weekend or Day Tickets available for Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th May

All evening events £10-£25
Weekend Ticket price £25, £12.50 concessions

Day Ticket price £15, limited Aviva £10 tickets available

FRIDAY 24 MAY

Brutally Honest - An Evening with Mel B

Friday 24 May / 7:30pm, £25 full price; £12.50 concessions, limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios

BSL Interpreted and Captioned

SATURDAY 25 MAY

Saturday WOW Festival Day Ticket

Saturday 25 May / 10:30am-6pm, £15 Full Price; limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios (Many events will be BSL Interpreted and/or Captioned)

Weirdo - An evening with Sara Pascoe

Saturday 25 May / 6pm, £15 full price; £7.50 concessions, limited Aviva £10 tickets available.

Aviva Studios

BSL Interpreted and Captioned

SUNDAY 26 MAY

Sunday WOW Festival Day Ticket

Sunday 26 May / 10:30am-6pm, £15 Full Price; limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios (Many events will be BSL Interpreted and/or Captioned)

Masculinity, Addiction and Learning to Love - An Evening with Jordan Stephens

Sunday 26 May / 6pm, £22 full price; £11 concessions; limited Aviva £10 tickets available

Aviva Studios

BSL Interpreted and Captioned

IMAGES

Download images here.

-ENDS-

For further information please contact

Kate Hassell kate@breadandbutterpr.uk

Skye Redman skye@breadandbutterpr.uk

@breadandbutterpr

NOTES TO EDITORS

About The WOW Foundation
The WOW Foundation was created by Jude Kelly CBE in 2018 to run the global movement that is WOW - Women of the World Festivals. The Festivals began in the UK in 2010, launched by Kelly at the Southbank Centre London, where she was Artistic Director, to celebrate women and girls, taking a frank look at what prevents them from achieving their potential, raising awareness globally of the issues they face, and discussing solutions together.

To date, WOW has reached five million people in 45 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA.

Over the last 13 years the Festivals have developed a reputation as a space for world renowned artists, activists, thinkers and performers including Angela Davis, Malala Yousafzai, Annie Lennox, Patrick Stewart, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Salma Hayek, to come and participate, alongside thousands of women and girls who don’t have public profiles but are doing amazing things. WOW provides platforms for people of all kinds, changes attitudes, brings communities together and provides a unique space for people to work together towards gender equity in their own communities. One example of the Festival’s impact came in 2015, with the founding of the Women’s Equality Party by Sandi Toksvig and Catherine Mayer.

In 2018 Kelly left the Southbank Centre to run The WOW Foundation full time as a charity working to build, convene and sustain a global movement that believes a gender equal world is possible and desirable through festivals and empowering women and girls. The unique festival model creates numerous pathways for participants to take part in WOW projects, amplify their own causes, or start new initiatives which have a wide impact on communities. It is the biggest, most comprehensive and most significant festival dedicated to presenting work by women and promoting equity for women and girls.

WOW Festival was originally produced and presented by Southbank Centre.

The President of WOW - Women of the World is Her Majesty The Queen.

WOW Festivals will be taking place around the world in the next 12 months:

• WOW Rotherham: 11 May 2024

• WOW Biloela: 31 May - 1 June 2024

• WOW Australia: October 2024

• WOW Kathmandu: November 2024 tbc

• WOW Baltimore: 5 April 2025

• WOW Athens: 5 - 6 April 2025

About Factory International

Factory International commissions, produces and presents a year-round programme of original creative work and special events at Aviva Studios, its landmark new home in Manchester, online, and internationally through its network of co-commissioners and partners. It also stages the city-wide Manchester International Festival every other year.

The design of Aviva Studios is led by Ellen van Loon of the world-leading practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Built with flexibility in mind, the building is based around large, open, adaptable spaces that can be constantly reconfigured, enabling artists to develop and create large-scale work of invention and ambition of a kind not seen anywhere else in the world.

A unique canvas to make, explore and experiment, audiences can enjoy the broadest range of art forms from major exhibitions and concerts to intimate performances and immersive experiences. The venue’s development is led by Manchester City Council, with backing of £99.05m from HM Government and £7m National Lottery funding from Arts Council England.

Factory International builds on the legacy of Manchester International Festival, one of the world’s leading arts festivals, and the first to be entirely focused on the commissioning and producing of ambitious new work. Staged every two years in Manchester since 2007, world-renowned artists from different art forms and backgrounds create dynamic, innovative and forward-thinking new work in venues and spaces across Greater Manchester.

Factory International plays an important role in the lives of Greater Manchester residents, bringing jobs, skills, training and creative opportunities. Through the Factory Academy, Factory International is training the creative workforce of the future, while its pioneering creative engagement and artist development programmes create year-round opportunities for local people to get involved, from participating in flagship commissions to shaping the organisation through involvement in its public forums.

Factory International is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.