Glasgow Women's Library

Save the Date //

Heroica Theatre Company presents Pat Douthwaite: Alive and Kicking, written by Anna Carlisle and performed by Alexandra Mathie.
Thursday 19 Sept, 5:30pm

This one-woman theatre piece – with images and music – aims to shine an uncompromising light on the very confronting yet utterly genius painter Pat Douthwaite and to write this wickedly undersung Scottish artist back into life.

The play will pull no punches, so get ready for an extraordinary performance.

Pat Douthwaite: Alive and Kicking | Glasgow Women's Library Heroica Theatre Company presents Pat Douthwaite: Alive and Kicking, written by Anna Carlisle and performed by Alexandra Mathie.

The National Gallery Art Road Trip will be joining our regular Story Café to share techniques on how to ‘read’ paintings. Taking a painting from the National Gallery’s collection and spending time looking, thinking and imagining the stories within it.

There will be space for mindful looking, as well as open group discussion.

Story Café, Thursday 8th August, 1pm-2.30pm – Book here:

Story Café | Glasgow Women's Library Rediscover the joy of being read to, as we dip into stories and poems by some of the best women writers around.

The National Gallery is coming to Glasgow! We're delighted to be working together in August - join us for some creative fun!

This will be an action packed event of creativity, play and celebration of women artists in the National Gallery’s collection. You can make your own personalised badge, take part in making a collaborative installation and even have a go at some drawing games. The Art Road Trip team will also be doing some ten-minute talks throughout the day for anyone who wants to know more about the wonderful women artists in the collection. Activities are for all ages, we look forward to seeing you there.

Find out more:

Women Making It Special: National Gallery Art Road Trip | Glasgow Women's Library This August Women Making It are joined by The National Gallery on their Art Road Trip for a family-friendly celebration of making.

Please note the change of date for Readers of Colour Edinburgh at Lighthouse Books. This session will now take place this Tuesday 30 July from 6.45pm.

Readers of Colour – Online | Glasgow Women's Library Readers of Colour is a thriving community of Women* and Non-binary Readers of Colour who come together to read writing by Women and Non-binary Writers of Colour! We share our laughter and ideas over…

Hakoto: Hawthorn (2024) Performed by Reiko Goto Collins and developed by Collins and Goto Studio with Chris Malcolm. Filmed by Lou Mcloughlan.

📺Available to view at Glasgow Women's Library as part of Peace Arbour until 31st August. Screening daily📺

Hakoto, Hawthorn, filmed in April this year shows the artist engaged in a deep listening practice over stretching to 20mins.

Rooted in the current climate crisis, Hakoto creates a bridge of experience between human and tree, human and more-than-human, sharing a common atmosphere and planet.

The instruments include a hand crafted backpack, with sensors, computer and speakers and arm piece with leaf chamber that communicates with the backpack through wireless tech. The instrument interacts with the tree ( in a unique way), translating changes in light, temperature and moisture experienced by its leaves into sounds that are informed by traditional Japanese Gagaku instruments such as large and small drums, a bell, bamboo flutes and a lute.

The resulting soundscape is unique to that tree in that particular moment. Through her climate duet Reiko creates a moment to pause. opening up a space for understanding, communication and empathy.

Photograph: Sally Jubb

Save the date //

Mother State: Helen Charman in conversation with Hannah Proctor
Thursday 29th August, 5.30pm to 6.30pm

On the launch date of her new book Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood, Helen Charman in conversation with Hannah Proctor will discuss the political act of motherhood. Mother State takes us from Women’s Liberation to austerity, meeting mothers fighting for alternative futures: le***an squatters, antinuclear campaigners, wives of striking miners and teenage mothers protesting housing cuts. Can we imagine a world where mothering ceases to be a solely individual responsibility and becomes one of shared possibility for people of any gender, with or without children of their own?

This event is free to attend, please book your ticket in advance via the link below:

Mother State: Helen Charman in conversation with Hannah Proctor | Glasgow Women's Library On the launch date of her new book Mother State: A Political History of Motherhood, Helen Charman in conversation with Hannah Proctor will discuss the political act of motherhood.

Save the date //

Women Making It Special: National Gallery Art Road Trip
9th August , 10.30am to 2pm

This August Women Making It are joined by The National Gallery on their Art Road Trip for a family-friendly celebration of making. Our Women Making It sessions have been running for over 8 years, producing artwork inspired by women’s activism including zines and badges, collages and candles.

There will be workshops for all ages, so drop-in anytime and stay for lunch. No need to book!

Women Making It Special: National Gallery Art Road Trip | Glasgow Women's Library This August Women Making It are joined by The National Gallery on their Art Road Trip for a family-friendly celebration of making.

Women Making It

Friday 19th July

10:30am to 12:30pm

Make Your Mark: a tactile clay play making workshop lead by artist Zana Araki inspired by their methods and sensory wellbeing approaches to practice. Here we will use natural clay materials to soothe and ground through process squishing,smoothing, rolling and kneading the clay letting tension and emotion release through our hands enjoying the sensations and freedom of exploring material.

Thinking about non-verbal ways we can express feelings using different textures and various everyday tools to mark make with giving the option to build our own individual tactile patterned relief imprints that can be left raw or painted when dry to finish or giving the option to develop the unique tactile blocks into tools to further create rubbings or prints onto fabric, paper or other surfaces.

Save the date //

Story Café Special: Bad Girls and Lady Detectives with Donna Moore
Thursday 22nd August, 1pm to 2:30pm

Story Café regular, Donna Moore, joins us to talk about her work-in-progress, the follow up to The Unpicking, set in 1921. Hear about all-women crime gangs such as the Forty Elephants, and their queens, Diamond Annie and the Bob-Haired Bandit. And find out about the women Private Detectives employed to foil their plans, including former pantomime actor, Matilda Mitchell, head of Selfridges Secret Service, and Zena Scott-Archer, the ‘Mrs Sherlock Holmes’ of Merseyside.

Story Café Special: Bad Girls and Lady Detectives with Donna Moore | Glasgow Women's Library Story Café regular, Donna Moore, joins us to talk about her work-in-progress, the follow up to The Unpicking, set in 1921.

This month's Readers of Colour sessions will be facilitated by the amazing Sunnah Khan.

Sunnah is a Scottish Pakistani poet, creative facilitator and documentary producer. Her debut poetry pamphlet was published by Rough Trade Books as part of the collective offering from 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE in 2020. She has had poems featured in Poetry London and The Rialto and was shortlisted for the Aesthetica poetry prize this year. Sunnah has performed in the UK and abroad.

This month's read is 'Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies', a collection of short stories by the Palestinian writer Heba Hayek published by Hajar Press.

Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies is written for those who had to leave - collected remembrances of a childhood in Gaza by a woman far from Palestines sun and sea.

Overindulgent, chaotic and sentimental, Heba Hayek’s narrator struggles to navigate life in colder unfamiliar worlds. She holds tightly to memories of home, hoping they will lead back to her sisters and mothers.

With brilliance and grace, Hayek’s vignettes explore the methods of survival nurtured by Palestinian women in the face of colonial occupation and patriarchy - the power of community care and of loving what’s not meant to be loved.

Her reflections reveal the intimate magnificence and quiet devastation of everyday life: a family drive on the shore, waxing for the first time with aunties, or peeling figs while waiting at a checkpoint.

Our dates and times this month are:

Thursday 25th July 6-7.15pm
Readers of Colour - Online
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/readers-of-colour-online-10/

Saturday 27th July, 3.30-5pm
Readers of Colour - Glasgow
Glasgow Women’s Library
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/readers-of-colour-glasgow-10/

Wednesday 31st July, 6.45-8pm
Readers of Colour - Edinburgh
Lighthouse Bookshop
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/readers-of-colour-edinburgh-11/

Readers of Colour – Online | Glasgow Women's Library Readers of Colour is a thriving community of Women* and Non-binary Readers of Colour who come together to read writing by Women and Non-binary Writers of Colour! We share our laughter and ideas over…

Make a wish on Yoko's Wish Tree

Peace Arbour continues Glasgow Women's Library until the 31st of August 2024

Yoko Ono

📸Becky Male

Diverse Beings, Feel My Frequency
Lines Of Connection, Series of Six, Mixed Media.

Until 31 August 2024

Zana Araki (They/Them) is a Scottish, Q***r Neuro-divergent survivor with a multidisciplinary art practice that is informed by these lived experiences and explores themes relating to identity, trauma and wellbeing. Using materials like bark, beetroot and wool that appeal to our senses, including touch and smell, Zana's work is grounded by their experience of natural environments. Works in the Diverse Beings - Feel My Frequency - Lines of Connection (2023) installation have emerged from focused work with trees and other living materials with the artist using repetitive motions to soothe inner dysregulation and in the process raise awareness of unseen conditions. Through touch Zana points towards the quiet ability tress have to transfer soothing energy and create new understanding between ourselves and the non-human others that surround us. The work here overlooks GWL'S new garden space Peace Arbour (2024) and is deeply tuned in to an understanding that in gathering between the trees we come to a place of wisdom and safety.

Alongside this multi-sensory and sculptural practice Zana also has a social practice, designing workshops to explore how non-verbal intuitive experiments with natural materials can be part of the healing process. They encourage you to spend time in the space, to touch the artworks and to make connections between the materials here and those found inside and outside GWL.

Images:
1. 'Lines of Connection', scrim, wool and woodgrain vinyl
2. 'Rooting Affirmations', latex, paprika, thread, wool
3. 'Circle of Protection' (detail), latex, Himalayan salt rocks, cinnamon wax, twigs
4. 'Feel My Frequency' (detail), canvas, Indian ink, cinnamon was, wooden bead, wool, gouache paint, small bells
5. 'Treelings', canvas, wool, soft stuffing, ink, bleach print, cinnamon essential oil
Photographs: Lauren McDougall
6. 'Over and Under' (detail), wool, wire, thread
7. 'Circle of Protection' (detail), latex, Himalayan salt rocks, cinnamon wax, twigs
8. Diverse Beings, Feel My Frequency, Lines Of Connection, 2023, Installation View

Please be aware that due to TRNSMT Festival taking place on Glasgow Green this weekend, public transport and the areas around Glasgow Women’s Library may be busier than usual.

- Remembering Hidden Victims of .

Don't miss our powerful exhibition & event with Amina Muslim Women's Resource Centre remembering victims of honour-based violence. Friday 12 July, 2pm to 4pm (exhibition open from midday)

Learn more & book here: https://tinyurl.com/TellHerStoryX

Only 5 (free!) tickets remaining for our Story Café Special with Scotland’s Makar, Kathleen Jamie.

Get them before they're gone!

Story Café Special: Kathleen Jamie | Glasgow Women's Library After reading her words aloud over the years at many of our Story Cafes, we’re thrilled to welcome our Makar, Kathleen Jamie, to join us around the table.

Tragically, around 12 women in Britain are killed each year due to honour crimes. Many more cases go unreported due to fear and silence. In recognition of National Honour Based Violence Day on July 14th, Glasgow Women’s Library invites you to help us shine a light on these hidden stories.

In partnership with AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, we are marking National Honour Based Violence Day by hosting a powerful exhibition and event dedicated to remembering the BAME women who have lost their lives to honour based violence, and the hidden victims whose stories have yet to be told.

Glasgow Women’s Library is currently hosting Yoko Ono's exhibition ‘Arising’, which showcases pictures of women’s eyes and testaments of harm done to them. We aim to expand this powerful display by incorporating the stories of women who have been victims of honour crimes.

We invite you to anonymously share the story of a woman you know who has experienced honour-based violence. Additionally, we welcome a picture of the storyteller’s eyes to accompany the testimony, symbolising the connection and support behind each story.
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/.../tell-her-story-call-out.../

The exhibition will launch this Friday, 12th July at 2pm, with afternoon of remembrance and reflection, and will run until July 19th.
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/.../tell-her-story.../

Trauma-informed support staff will be on hand at the launch on 12th July to provide support when needed.

Tell Her Story: Remembering the Hidden Victims of Honour-Based Abuse | Glasgow Women's Library In partnership with AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, we are marking National Honour Based Violence Day with a powerful exhibition and event dedicated to remembering the BAME women who have lost…

Anna Molman: Writing fiction is a way to program the future (in English)
18th July, 2pm - 4pm

“One day I noticed that some elements of my fiction had materialised in my life. I’ve studied this phenomenon and found out that laws of quantum physics allow us to programme our future, using specific techniques” Anna Molman.

In this book presentation event and creative writing workshop, Ukrainian writer, Anna Molman will introduce her book Tango of Water and Flame, sharing her unique experience of the way that writing fiction has affected her future and give you the chance to write your own magic story.

Anna Molman: Writing fiction is a way to program the future (in English) | Glasgow Women's Library In this book presentation event and creative writing workshop, Ukrainian writer, Anna Molman will introduce her book Tango of Water and Flame, sharing her unique experience of the way that writing…

Did you know Glasgow Women’s Library hosts the National Museum of Roller Derby?
Can you tell a jammer from a blocker? The Irn Bruisers from the Twisted Thistles?

At our next Open Archive event we'll be showcasing our NMRD collection, so get your skates on to discover more about this inclusive grassroots contact sport!

Find out about Flat Track Roller Derby leagues in Scotland and further afield. Immerse yourself in memorabilia, from bout programmes to helmets, statement stickers, caps, t-shirts and more.

Open Archive: Roller Derby
13th July , 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Free
Book your tickets here >>>

Open Archive: Roller Derby | Glasgow Women's Library This summer we’re showcasing the National Museum of Roller Derby at Glasgow Women’s Library.

Tragically, around 12 women in Britain are killed each year due to honour crimes. Many more cases go unreported due to fear and silence. In recognition of National Honour Based Violence Day on July 14th, Glasgow Women’s Library invites you to help us shine a light on these hidden stories.

In partnership with AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, we are marking National Honour Based Violence Day by hosting a powerful exhibition and event dedicated to remembering the BAME women who have lost their lives to honour based violence, and the hidden victims whose stories have yet to be told.

Glasgow Women’s Library is currently hosting Yoko Ono's exhibition ‘Arising’, which showcases pictures of women’s eyes and testaments of harm done to them. We aim to expand this powerful display by incorporating the stories of women who have been victims of honour crimes.

We invite you to anonymously share the story of a woman you know who has experienced honour-based violence. Additionally, we welcome a picture of the storyteller’s eyes to accompany the testimony, symbolising the connection and support behind each story.

https://womenslibrary.org.uk/2024/07/04/tell-her-story-call-out-for-honour-based-violence-stories-exhibition/

The exhibition will launch on Friday, 12th July at 2pm, with afternoon of remembrance and reflection, and will run until July 19th.

https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/tell-her-story-remembering-the-hidden-victims-of-honour-based-abuse/

Trauma-informed support staff will be on hand at the launch on 12th July to provide support when needed.

Tell Her Story: Remembering the Hidden Victims of Honour-Based Abuse | Glasgow Women's Library In partnership with AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, we are marking National Honour Based Violence Day with a powerful exhibition and event dedicated to remembering the BAME women who have lost…

Please note that due to processions taking place this Saturday, 6th July, travel to and from GWL may be affected. More info about routes affected is available on the Glasgow City Council website:

All Public Processions July 2024 01 Monday OrganisationAssembly Point  Provanhall True Blues F.B.Whitslade StreetMore Info 02 Tuesday OrganisationAssembly Point  GLASGOW SOUTHSIDE ORANGE & PURPLE DISTRICT NO.49MAXWELL ROAD AT BARRLAND STREETMore Info 03 Wednesday OrganisationAssembly Point  Loyal Orange Institute of Sc...

Today, voters in the UK can cast their vote in the . Polling stations are open until 10pm.

Make sure to use your hard-won vote, so many have fought for this right! And don't forget to bring ID!

Your vote is your voice, use it!

{Postcard from the GWL archive collection}