Fancy getting out and about in Brighton this month? If you’re looking for an inspiring event that will enable you to take a meaningful wander through the city, then HERstory will be right up your street!
HERstory is a city-wide audio storytelling experience that uncovers women’s lives and work usually hidden from history. It’s part of this year’s Brighton Festival and it’s free to explore the trail. At each listening post around the city, you’ll get to hear the real stories of Brighton-based women as they have lived through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event aims to be both insightful and inspiring. HERstory brings to life the works of writers including Sabrina Mahfouz, Jade Anouka, Kate O’Donnell, Nessah Muthy, Monsay Whitney, Rachael Young and Yolanda Mercy. And it seeks to carve out a space where women can be heard.
The stories and their writers
Arch468 has commissioned 18 writers to take part in HERstory. Eight of these writers are community writers from Brighton. And these community writers underwent a four-week storytelling workshop for the event.
The moving pieces in HERstory, challenge some of the most important and universal issues of the day. Issues which have become even more pertinent over the last year.
Nessah Muthy’s work explores a strained mother-daughter relationship, held together by love. While Rachael Young explores the exhaustion of a hospital worker left alone in the dark. Sabrina Mahfouz celebrates one woman’s choice to quit her boring office job and embrace a new way of living as a sex worker. And Yolanda Mercy explores education and one woman’s fight to help refugees like herself.
Other works explore the pandemic through the eyes of a child, single mums, the fight for freedom, the importance of finding connections when we feel alone, and the longing for new beginnings.
Other writers involved in HERstory include Zena Rose-Allen, Mia Daliya Cunningham, Shirley Falchi, Jenny Milligan, Julie Orchard, Anna Osella, Malasula Peace, Phonetic, Boudicca Pepper, Nou Ra and Carley Reid.
How the HERstory trail works
To find the listening post locations, you can check out the trail map online. Use this to navigate your way around Brighton and discover a trail of stories that celebrate the truth and power of women all around us. There are 18 different listening posts across the city. You’ll find them in Hangleton, Moulsecoomb, Whitehawk and Central Brighton.
When you get to a listening post, you simply scan the unique QR code to discover the stories and portraits of these Brighton women. The portraits of the women were all captured by photographer Amaal Said. Said is a former Barbican Young Poet, who’s work has been featured in the likes of Vogue, The Guardian and The New Yorker.
Please do remember to keep a social distance at listening posts, to keep everyone safe.
Here’s some more good stuff to listen to this month!
When: On until 31st May 2021
Where: At various locations across Brighton
£: Free (Suitable for ages 14+)
More info: brightonfestival.org and www.herstorytrail.com