Emma Daniel: Celebrating sisterhood in Brighton and Hove

With International Women's Day next week on March 8, and a big event tomorrow (March 3) being held at the Brighton Dome and Brighton Museum (free entry) in collaboration with the Brighton Women's Centre, as well as other events around the city, I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on the sisterhood in our city.

Cllr Emma Daniel, Labour Chair of the Neighbourhoods, Communities & Equalities Committee

Last week, the B-Right-On Festival celebrating LBGT history month invited me to chair a session on Stronger Sisterhood, with a fantastic panel including the marvellous poet Alice Denny, one of our senior council managers Ododo Daafe, and two leaders from our voluntary sector, Chris Brown (former director and founder of Grassroots Suicide Prevention) and Vanessa Crawford of the Black and Minority Ethnic Young People’s Project (BMEYPP).For me, it was rare to have an all-female panel to chair, and one that was truly intersectional as we considered race, trans issues, and health equalities.

We covered a range of topics including self-care when fighting for social justice and our relationships outside our work, how we parent, how we are as daughters.

What was fascinating to me was that our takeaway was to reduce isolation. To take small steps to include others, to smile at people, and make real efforts to bring people into our events. We believe that our networks, and our female relationships in particular, strengthen us and sustain us. It is vital not to leave people behind.

I have also been busy sewing a patch for the International Women’s Network tapestry “Illuminate”, which will be on display at the Dome this Saturday.

This new local network is already very successful at calling in women to a place to belong and share values that are important to me. Textiles as a way of giving a voice for women is a centuries-old tradition for most cultures and a genuine political action. It is planned for the work on the tapestry to continue until it includes every culture and heritage of communities in the city. If you would like to join the International Women’s Network to make friends, share skills and enjoy the city, email [email protected]

Cllr Emma Daniel is the Labour Chair of the Neighbourhoods, Communities & Equalities Committee.