Welcome to “Women Who Dare” a creative writing community engagement project delivered for Longsight’s Women’s Voices. The project culminated in a performance event and publication of “Women Who Dare”, a poetry collection of the women’s poems with images produced by Sagittamedia
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The women took part in six creative writing workshops. Using the poem “ Still I rise” by Maya Angelou as inspiration, along with creative exercises, breathing mindfulness and music, the women were supported to build up confidence in themselves and their creative and writing abilities.
It was wonderful for me to work with these enthusiastic women. Watching them increase in awareness about themselves and write poems that impressed themselves and all of us. We hope these poems will encourage other women to be “ brave enough to knock”. It is up to us with persistence and daring to open doors, shatter ceilings and dissolve the walls that separate us, remembering by name all the other women who have dared.
Shamshad Khan, poet, workshop facilitator and resilience coach, February 2017
The project was funded by New Writing North via the Arts Council Strategic Touring fund and delivered in partnership with Manchester Literature Festival and Longsight Library. Special thanks to Nadia Siddiqui who runs Women’s Voices.