16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

By Kim Moore

As regular readers will know, both Clare and I are busy working on our next books at the moment. So of course this seemed like the perfect time to accidentally organise a full-on 16 day programme of events, which I’m avoiding calling a festival because I’m supposed to be retired from organising festivals.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is a UN global campaign that is taking place at Manchester Metropolitan University, where I’m currently working full-time as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing. I’ve organised it alongside my colleagues Sarah Cleave, a Lecturer in Publishing, and Dr Frazer Heritage, a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics. The 16 Days runs from the 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and finishes on the 10th December, Human Rights Day.

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence first came to my attention a few years ago via social media, and I’ve experimented with various things over the years - I think one year I posted one poem a day on my blog from my sequence “How I Abandoned My Body To His Keeping”, (from my first collection The Art of Falling). This sequence explores my own experience of domestic violence.

We’ve had an an amazing time designing a programme of events featuring writers that I believe put transformational social change at the heart of their creative and writing practice. All of the events are free and there is a mix of in-person events, online only events and two hybrid events.

I am really excited that on the 25th November I’ll be reading alongside Laura Bates. This event will be hosted by Malika Booker. Anyone that knows my work knows that Laura was hugely influential when writing my PhD thesis and the two books that came out of my thesis (All the Men I Never Married and Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism). This is a hybrid event - there are limited tickets available in person so if you are planning to come, you should book soon.

There have been times this year when it feels as if we are in a landscape of violence, and I’m taken over by a the feeling of hopelessness. There has been so many of those flashpoints of hopelessness this year, that feeling of being overwhelmed and as if nothing you do matters. I felt that landscape of violence closing around me, as if was not just the ground I walked upon, as if violence was in the air. But that is not true - there are good people in the world, despite all the stories we hear to make us feel as if this is not true. It’s times like this that I want to surround myself with people I love and writers I admire whose work burns with urgency, who dare to believe that poetry, and writing can change something, if not everything.

The full programme is below - as you can see we have some amazing writers coming, so please come and support us if you are within striking distance of Manchester.

16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 2024 - MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

25 Nov - Reading And Discussion: Dr Kim Moore and Laura Bates

26 Nov - 16 Days - Reading: Clare Shaw and Dr Malika Booker

27 Nov - Erasure Workshop

28 Nov - Dr Frazer Heritage and Caroline Stancer

29 Nov - Reading: Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa

30 Nov - Workshop: Late Night Writing Hour with Kim Moore

1 Dec - Panel Discussion: Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, Naomi Morris and Char Heather

2 Dec - Reading and Discussion: Dr Derek Bousfield and Professor Helen Mort 

3 Dec - Workshop: We Sinful Women 

4 Dec - Reading: Dr Kim Moore and Prof Khatidja Chantler

5 Dec - Reading and Discussion: Anjum Malik & Charlotte Shevchenko Knight

6 Dec - Reading: Joelle Taylor

7 Dec - 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence: Open Mic

8 Dec - Workshop: Permission to Speak with Caroline Stancer

9 Dec - Reading: Nat Raha and Roma Havers

10 Dec - Dr Katherine Angel and Professor Helen Mort 

Some of the 16 Days of events

More 16 days events!