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Press Release
PRESS RELEASE – 25 February 2022
WOW FESTIVAL LONDON 2022
FRIDAY 11 - SUNDAY 13 MARCH
New Festival trailer here.
FULL LINE-UP ANNOUNCED FOR WOW LONDON 2022 WITH TWO WEEKS TO GO
THREE DAYS OF IN PERSON PROGRAMME ACROSS LONDON’S SOUTHBANK CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY INCLUDING:
FRIDAY 11 MARCH: JUDE KELLY, PATRISSE CULLORS, ADWOA ABOAH,LISA TADDEO AND PANDORA SYKES; SUHAIYMAH MANZOOR-KHAN, GRACE VICTORYAND CANDICE BRATHWAITE, MUSLIM GIRLS FENCE, AND LADY PHYLL
SATURDAY 12 MARCH: SANDI TOKSVIG, SOPHIE DUKER, BRIDGET CHRISTIE, DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE, MARIAN KEYES, KIT DE WAAL, WARSAN SHIRE, MINA SMALLMAN, CAMILLA PANG, KHAIRANI BAROKKA, MARIANA KATZAROVA, BARONESS HELENA KENNEDY QC, FAWZIA KOOFI, NOVA REIDAND RENI EDDO LODGE
SUNDAY 13 MARCH: WOMEN AND POWER LED BY JUDE KELLY WITH STELLA CREASY AND ELIZA REID, PROFESSOR ANGELA Y. DAVIS WITH LIVE MUSIC FROM LAURA MVULA AND CASSIE KINOSHI, LAURA BATES, AINDREA EMELIFE, NATALIE HAYNES, ELIZABETH DAY WITH ANDI OLIVER AND JORDAN STEPHENS, BERNARDINE EVARISTO WITH HANNAH AZIEB POOL, BARBARA BLAKE, JUDITH BRYAN, JACQUELINE ROY AND NICOLA WILLIAMS
CONVERSATIONS WILL INCLUDE A PANEL ON WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN, PROTEST AND THE RIGHT TO RESIST, REMEMBERING BELL HOOKS, MISSY ELLIOTT, YA FICTION, LOVE AND NEURODIVERSITY, GRANDMOTHERS, AND WOMEN AND POWER
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS: LUCY KIRKWOOD’S MARYLAND AND FIGS IN WIGS - LITTLE WIMMIN
DIGITAL PROGRAMME RUNS 6-9 MARCH, INCLUDING WOW ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
MUSIC PROGRAMME, MARKETPLACE AND WORKSHOPS RUN ACROSS THE WEEKEND
AFTERNOON PASSES AND INDIVIDUAL TICKETED EVENTS ARE NOW ON SALE
WOW - Women of the World has announced the full daytime programme for its 2022 London Festival, which returns to the Southbank Centre from 11-13 March, supported by Bloomberg, to mark International Women’s Day. Led by Founder Jude Kelly, the London edition of the world’s biggest, most comprehensive festival celebrating women, girls and non-binary people is back in person after some of the toughest years in recent history for gender equality.
Alongside a series of standalone headline evening events, WOW 2022 will present three packed afternoons on 11, 12 and 13 March in the Royal Festival Hall. The three hour line-ups for each of the three days include brilliant women imagining an equal world - from those on the front lines of global movements transforming the future, to girls and young women changing our world for the better. The programme will consist of panel discussions, music, WOW Big Ideas, performances and more. Tickets are available to book for each entire afternoon, and are on sale now.
FRIDAY 11 MARCH
The Festival kicks off on the afternoon of Friday 11 March by taking a frank look at the world around us whilst celebrating the joy, resilience and creativity to be found in a world in flux at Friday at WOW (2pm-5pm). WOW Founder Jude Kelly leads the opening event with Yassmin Abdel-Magied, reflecting on 2021 and all of its changes.
JudeKelly will celebrate new beginnings with people who’ve been beacons of hope for others during the last year. She is joined onstage by Adwoa Aboah for a conversation about the turning points in their lives and their hopes for the future.
Maslaha, an organisation seeking to change and challenge the conditions that create inequalities for Muslim communities, have come together with British Fencing for a collaborative project. On Friday Maslaha Muslim Girls Fence take to the stage for a live bout, as award winning spoken word artist Rakaya Fetuga performs a selection of poems.
From suffrage to BLM and the abortion ban march in Poland, women have always been at the forefront of resistance and change, but in recent months this looks set to change. In light of the Protest and Borders Bill, WOW asks what accountability looks like if restrictions are put on our rights to publicly gather to protest. Join this phenomenal group of frontline activists for an unmissable discussion on ‘Protest and why we resist!’ featuring SaveBrickLane campaigner and academic Fatima Rajina; political activist and UK Black Pride founder Lady Phyll and Migrants Organise spokesperson.
An integral part of WOW, ‘Big Ideas’ are back for 2022. They’re an opportunity to hear about pressing conversations and important ideas for change as five different speakers talk about the issues close to their heart. On 11th March the line-up includes: Artist and writer Selina Thompson getting her freak on, talking about how The Missy Elliott Project - a project looking at Black liberation and Teenage Girlhood through the lens of Missy Elliott - is helping her redefine her life and her art on her own terms; author and journalist Sophia Smith Galer on why we're living in a sex misinformation crisis – and how to stop it; Burnt Roti founder Sharan Dhaliwal on being queer, brown and hairy, and how her queer identity allowed her to break out of cis hetero normative ideals on beauty; and author and journalist Juno Dawson on writing YA and what her fictional characters have taught her.
The guests for Friday at WOW announced today join previously announced unmissable ticketed events on Friday evening: Black Lives Matter co-founder and former Executive Director, and TIME 100 most influential person Patrisse Cullors, in conversation with Afua Hirsch; bestselling writers Lisa Taddeo and Pandora Sykes in conversation about what happens when we are pushed to the brink; writer and poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan launching her new book, Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia; and Grace Victory and Candice Brathwaite share how they grew their careers to encompass writing, fashion, presenting, and inspiring others in their journeys to motherhood.
SATURDAY 12 MARCH
On Saturday 12th March, WOW Founder Jude Kelly will lead an emboldening, challenging and moving afternoon of activism and celebration at Saturday at WOW (2pm-5pm). Conversations will cover everything from how to build communities, neurodiversity in love and science, representation in the great outdoors through to a dedication to the late, great bell hooks and an powerful conversation on women in Afghanistan. The afternoon opens with magic from the first woman President of The Magic Circle, magician Megan Swann.
In a year of uncertainty and turmoil, WOW hears from some of the women who have been most impacted by political upheaval in Afghanistan. Mariana Katzarova, Founder of RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in WAR), and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, RAW's patron, will present the 2021 Anna Politkovskaya Award to Fawzia Koofi. Fawzi is a former member of the Afghan Parliament, its first-ever female Deputy Speaker, and renowned human rights and women’s rights defender. She remained in Afghanistan, under threat to her life, with heavily-armed Taliban fighters stationed outside her home in Kabul until 30 August 2021, the day the last US forces left Afghanistan.
Fawzia Koofi, who continues to mobilise urgent support for the women and the people of Afghanistan with world leaders, and alongside Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, led a drive last year to help more than 100 Afghan judges and their families flee to safety. She will be joined on stage by Fawzia Amini, one of the judges who managed to escape. Together they’ll discuss the current situation for women’s rights in Afghanistan and the work that is happening on the ground to support women judges and human rights defenders.
Palestinian singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Rasha Nahas will perform on the Royal Festival Hall stage to perform during WOW’s annual obituary presentation to honour the lives of those around the globe who have passed away in the past year. Authors Nova Reid(The Good Ally) and Reni Eddo Lodge (Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race) will pay homage to pioneering feminist thinker bell hooks, and reflect on how her work has impacted their lives.
Saturday’s Big Ideas will be from: Mother, teacher, priest, archdeacon and activist Mina Smallman on her family’s story and why women of colour don’t matter in the media, the police’s mentality towards women and what we must do to reform Police forces nationally; Camilla Pang, author of Neurodiversity and Explaining Humans, on what science can teach us about love and relationships; Indonesian writer, poet, researcher, editor, and interdisciplinary artist Khairani Barokka.
To round off the afternoon, award-winning comedian and Funny Women Alumni Sophie Duker performs a hilarious set live on stage, followed by an in conversation between WOW’s Jude Kelly and beloved broadcaster Sandi Toksvig on why, despite everything, we must keep laughing.
Saturday evening’s ticketed events are: Edinburgh Comedy Award, Rose D'or and South Bank Sky Arts Award winner Bridget Christie with her brand new show Who Am I?; The Guilty Feminist host Deborah Frances-White with some of her most personal ever “I’m a feminist but…” confessions; Marian Keyes will be in discussion with Kit de Waal about Again, Rachel, her eagerly awaited sequal to Rachel’s Holiday; Warsan Shire, the internationally bestselling author award-winning Somali British poet and activist, and celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Black Is King, will launch her long-awaited first full-length poetry collection Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head in conversation with Bernardine Evaristo; and Jude Kelly will lead The Urgent Conversation, a panel featuring Baroness Helena Kennedy QC and Katy Jon Went, to discuss the most pressing gender equality issues - with the timely programme to be confirmed just ahead of the weekend.
SUNDAY 13 MARCH
For the final day of the Festival, the Sunday afternoon programme presents Sunday at WOW - Women & Power (11am-2pm), a one-off WOW special exploring women and leadership - both in its own right and as a mediator of power - led by Jude Kelly and special guests.
From major keynotes from leaders to lightning fast workshops on understanding your own values, the Royal Festival Hall will be filled with talks, workshops and ideas from global speakers. The afternoon is an opportunity for all leaders - from teachers to care-workers and artists to corporate executives - at any stage in their careers.
Jude is joined by leaders who are innovating for change including MP and founder of VoteMama UK Stella Creasy, and Eliza Reid, author and First lady of Iceland. There will be workshops on leadership style and communication, and The Women Leaders South West join the line up to discuss their pioneering arts leadership programme that seeks to address the gender imbalance in senior roles in arts organisations.
The Big Ideas on women and power for the afternoon come from author and founder of the everyday sexism project Laura Bates, and art curator and historian Aindrea Emelife.
The festival will conclude that day with a variety of other ticketed events and performances:
Broadcaster Elizabeth Day’s guests are announced today for her Sunday afternoon event in the Royal Festival Hall.The How To Fail presenter is joined by chef and presenter Andi Oliver and Rizzle Kicks singer Jordan Stephens, with a further special guest still to be announced.
In the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday, Booker Prize-Winning author Bernardine Evaristo and special guests - including Hannah Azieb Pool, Barbara Blake, Judith Bryan, Jacqueline Roy and Nicola Williams - journey through time rediscovering lost and hard-to-find works about Black Britain and the diaspora; and Lucy Kirkwood’s searing, timely play Maryland is performed, script in hand. Bringing joy to the final day of WOW, comedian and author Natalie Haynes celebrates the remarkable women at the centre of ancient Greek myth and there is a riotous festival finisher from Figs in Wigs - Little Wimmin - a brilliantly satirical adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott classic.
Closing WOW that evening, renowned scholar Professor Angela Y. Davis joins the Festival live from San Francisco in a one-off, special event to celebrate the much anticipated re-publication of her blazing autobiography - An Autobiography - nearly 50 years since it was first published, with live musical performances from Laura Mvula and Cassie Kinoshi.
WOW London 2022 will see the return of many other WOW favourites including the free-to-explore WOW Marketplace, WOW Speed Mentoring, pop-up performances and the sold-out Under 10’s Feminist Corners, which invite children to explore equality and discover what life is like for their peers across the world.
There will also be free gigs from WOW Sounds artists - WOW’s dedicated music programme for women and non-binary musicians and spoken word artists who are using music as a form of activism, from violence against women to climate justice to body positivity to the refugee crisis. Miss Baby Sol will perform with her full live band in the Clore Ballroom on Saturday 11 March; and on Sunday 12 March audiences can enjoy WOW Sounds Hour, featuring Nadia Javed and Breakup Haircut, hosted by Miss Baby Sol. Indonesian Muslim all-girl rock band Voice of Baceprot (VOB) will be WOW's first-ever digital artist in residence.
Ahead of WOW, the Festival will launch a digital programme with events in the week of International Women’s Day between 6-8 March. On the 8 March itself Jude Kelly presents ‘WOW on International Women’s Day’ asking Women’s Equality Party Founder Catherine Mayer and WEP leader Mandu Reid, WOW Australia Executive Producer Cathy Hunt, former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal and more guests still to be announced - what changes do you want to see and how are you going about making them? The event launches WOW Changemakers, a global network of people who believe a gender equal world is possible, desirable, and better for everyone. The network enables new conversations, initiatives and communities of diverse people; building visible, vocal and active allies in the drive towards a gender equal world.
The full digital WOW programme runs between 6-8 March and also includes: WOW Under 10’s Digital Feminist Corner; an online gathering of Grandmothers from across the UK and beyond to discuss anything and everything Grandmotherhood with Jude Kelly, activist Marai Larasi and businesswoman Sue Lawton; Writing Happiness, a workshop space for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent creatives to come together and write about their joy; Drawing Breath, a restorative session and chance to take part in some simple mindful breathing practice and accompanying drawing with Tania Kovats and Jane Sassienie; a special new film from Indonesian girl band Voice of Baceprot; and Women, Power and the Brain with Suzanne Alleyne, exploring the “Neurology of Power”.
South Bank design hotel Sea Containers London is WOW London 2022’s Official Hotel Partner. Designed by Tom Dixon's Research Studio, the Thames-side property is home to 359 guest rooms and suites and boasts unparalleled views over the River Thames and City of London.
Run by UK charity The WOW Foundation, 2022 is the 12th WOW London Festival. 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 2011, WOW and its partners across the world have reached more than three million people in more than 100 festivals and events across six continents. You can get inspired by listening here to the second series of the WOW Podcast, which celebrates the achievements of women and girls and takes a frank look at the obstacles in their way.
Other recent WOW events include November’s first-ever WOW Festival in Taiwan, WOW Kaohsiung, and Shameless! Festival of Actvism Against Sexual Violence in London, a co-produced festival by WOW and Birckbeck University of London’s SHaME project to address the global crisis of sexual violence.
Details of more 2022 WOW Festivals across the world, including the return of WOW Virtual Pakistan in March and the first-ever WOW Rotherham, will be announced shortly.
The WOW Foundation is proudly supported by its Global Founding Partner Bloomberg, and Global Partner Mastercard. WOW London 2022 is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
ENDS
IMAGES
Images are available here.
LISTINGS
11 – 13 March, Southbank Centre
Under 10’s Feminist Corners (SOLD OUT)
Sat 10.30am for girls aged 6-7 years old
Sat 1.30pm for girls aged 8-10 years old
Sat 4.30pm for boys aged 8-10 years old
Friday 11 March
12.30pm-1.30pm, free but ticketed
Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall (BSL)
Friday 12 March
2pm-5pm, £18 / £25
Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)
Lisa Taddeo & Pandora Sykes in Conversation
Friday 11 March
6.30pm, £25
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Patrisse Cullors: An Abolitionist Journey
Friday 11 March
7pm-8pm, £10, £18, £28, £38
Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan: Tangled In Terror
Friday 11 March
8.30pm-10pm, £10
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
WOW Sounds Presents Miss Baby Sol
Friday 11 March
8.30pm-9.30pm, Free
Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall
Grace Victory & Candice Brathwaite at WOW
Friday 11 March
9pm-10.30pm, £10 / £20
Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
Saturday 13 March
2pm-5pm, £18 / £25
Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)
Marian Keyes at WOW: Again, Rachel
Saturday 12 March
6pm-7.30pm, £25
Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL & Captions)
The Urgent Conversation
Saturday 12 March
6.15pm-7.45pm, £10
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
Bridget Christie at WOW: Who Am I?
Saturday 12 March
7.30pm-9.30pm, £10, £18, £28, £38
Royal Festival Hall
Warsan Shire at WOW: Bless the Daughter
Saturday 12 March
8.30pm-10pm, £25
Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
Deborah Frances-White Stands Up at WOW
Saturday 12 March
9pm-10.30pm, £22
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
Sunday 13 March
11am-2pm, £12 / £20
Royal Festival Hall
Sunday 13 March
2pm-3.30pm, £15
Queen Elizabeth Hall (Captions)
Sunday 13 March
2pm-3pm, Free
Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall
Sunday Afternoon with Elizabeth Day at WOW
Sunday 13 March
4pm-5.30pm, £18, £28, £38
Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)
Bernardine Evaristo - Black Britain: Writing Back
Sunday 13 March
4pm-5.30pm, £15
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
Angela Davis: A Lifetime of Resistance
Sunday 13 March
7pm-8.30pm, £10, £20, £30
Royal Festival Hall (BSL & Captions)
Little Wimmin
Sunday 13 March
7pm-9pm, £25
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Natalie Haynes in conversation: Women in Greek Myth
Sunday 13 March
7pm-8.30pm, £22
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall (BSL)
DIGITAL LISTINGS
WOW Under 10’s Digital Feminist Corner
Sunday 6 March
11am-11.45am £5 standard, £10
This workshop will take place as a Zoom Webinar, and young people can either do the session on their own or along with an adult.
Grandmothers
Sunday 6 March
2-3.30pm, £5
This discussion will take place on Zoom
Writing Happiness - A WOW workshop
Sunday 6 March
5-6pm, £3 (including a donation to WOW)
This event is BSL interpreted and Captioned and will take place on Zoom
Drawing Breath with Tania Kovats & Jane Sassienie
Monday 7 March
7-8pm, £10
This workshop will take place on Zoom
WOW on International Women’s Day
Tuesday 8 March
7-8.15pm, £5
This event is a live Zoom Webinar led by Jude. There’ll be lots of time for conversation and to ask questions at the end
Women, Power and the Brain
Thursday 10 March
7.30pm-9pm, £5
This event will be BSL interpreted and live captioned, and take place as a Zoom Webinar.
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 over 3 million people in 30 locations on six continents, in locations including Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somaliland, the UK and the USA. In 2018/19 WOW was in Rio de Janeiro, Cardiff, Bradford, Bangladesh, Brisbane, Janakpur (Nepal), Baltimore, London, Exeter, Norwich, Perth, Beijing, Ghana and Nigeria. In June 2020, WOW held its first ever worldwide online festival focused on women and girls — WOW Global 24. The festival travelled around the world everywhere from the UK to Nigeria, and Pakistan to Australia exploring the intersectional impact of COVID-19 on gender inequality, and responding to Black Lives Matter. In 2021, WOW’s first ever sold out Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence took place, co-organised with Birkbeck’s SHaME project.
Over the last 10 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 equality in their own communities. One example of the impact of the festival 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 equality for women and girls.
WOW festivals and events are presented by arrangement with the Southbank Centre.
The President of WOW - Women of the World is HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.
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 the Southbank Centre
The Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre occupying a prominent riverside location that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).