Record crowd for feminist stories
To celebrate International Women’s Day, a record crowd flocked to Little Fictions@Knox Street Bar on March 14 to hear stories of women who break away, stand their ground and stand by each other.
The evening featured feminism and fabulous fiction from across the nation and was hosted by special guest MC, Hungry Beast and 7.30 Report’s Walkley Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker, Monique Schafter.
The theme was ‘Vaginal Spray’ and showcased stories by Melbourne writers AS Patric and Libbie Chellew, Canberra-based Felicity Volk, Queensland’s Ariella Van Luyn and Sydney writers Mark O’Flynn and Emma Rose Smith.
The stories were performed by Sydney actors Ella Watson-Russell, Eleni Schumacher, Lauren Neill and Nick Radinoff.
Spineless Wonders asked the Little Fictions audience to name their favourite feminists (and why) and a host of names and reasons were passionately put forward.
A few we particularly liked were:
• Dorothy Hewitt—a maverick Australian author who wrote ahead of her time in SO many genres and who made us think about who we are.
• Ursula Le Guin—defined the feminist sci-fi genre with her book, The Left Hand of Darkness.
• Emily Temple-Wood, who adds female scientists to Wikipedia every time someone sends her internet hate.
• Justin Trudeau for making sure women are represented in the Canadian parliament (50%).
• Emmeline Pankhurst—feisty, courageous, clever and unrelenting. What can modern feminists learn from her? How to take direct action and really mean it. Go girls.
Head over to Little Fictions@Knox Street Bar’s Facebook page to see more and to add your suggestions into the mix.