Hastings holds special event to celebrate International Women's Day this weekend

Hear Me Roar… More! – organised by Women's Voice, will bring together a multitude of local organisations, speakers, and artists to celebrate and stand in solidarity with women locally, nationally and internationally.

The day-long event is running from 11am – 7pm.

The schedule will include time to explore stalls run by a range of diverse local services and organisations, pre-bookable wellbeing workshops, drop-in creative workshops, and speakers discussing a range of topics affecting women’s lives, locally, nationally, and globally. There will be a presentation by multidisciplinary artist Anna Maria Nabirye on her ongoing project Up in Arms, followed by inspiring poetry from local spoken word collective A Load of Poets with special guest Aflo the Poet, ending the day with musical celebration from SHE Choir, Elisha Edwards, and Kinsella.

The event has upscaled to a bigger venue following the success of last year’s festival and the overwhelming numbers of local people who attended at the Stade Hall.

Stall holders will promote the numerous organisations that support women locally with issues such as health, housing, employment, education, wellbeing, issues relating to sexuality and gender identity, and domestic and sexual abuse. Some of the organisations joining the festival for the first time this year include: Acorn Community Union, Change Grow Live, East Sussex Domestic Abuse service, the Education Future Trust, Trans Pride, and St Michael’s Hospice.

There will be a chance to get involved in several creative workshops led by local community arts organisations including creative paper folding with Afri-Co Lab, kids craft with Arts on Prescription, and embroidery with Stitch TLC. The programme of speakers will allow festival goers to hear from inspirational women who support and stand in solidarity with women within our town. They include Emily Booth, local resident with Palestinian heritage, Kate Colley, Chair of Hastings & District Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Councillor Julia Hilton, Leader of Hastings Borough Council, Rossana Leal, CEO of The Refugee Buddy Project, and Elaine Ellis from UNISON.

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Women’s Voice Chair, Anne-Marie Watson, says: "We live in a town with so many inspirational, activist women, trans, and non-binary folk and this is a brilliant opportunity to get everyone together under the same roof to share, celebrate and uplight one another.

“International Women’s Day is a day of solidarity with all women across the globe and we want to extend our support and solidarity to all those who face discrimination, are abused, and suffer persecution, as well as those who spend their lives trying to prevent such injustices.

“We’re always looking for more people to come join us, to help develop projects and work on new events. Please come talk to us on the day about what’s most important to you and what you’d like us to do more of locally.”