International Women’s Day in Swansea

Last night International Women’s Day celebrations were held at Cinema & Co on Castle Street, Swansea. The place was packed. I know it sounds a bit daft, but I didn’t expect so many women to be there. Or maybe, I expected more than six men to come along, (of those one was a was a performer, another was a film-maker, another was one of the caterers and another was my husband, Seamas).

The night was made up of a series of short films, a couple of musical performances, a mini TED-talk and quite a few “Cake Breaks” (yum).

This year’s exhibiting artists were Aida Garton, Ally Jay Phillips, Alyson Williams, Amber Hiscott, Amelia Thomas (Unity), Amy Goldring, Angie Stevens, Ann Jordan, Ann Lucas, Carol Lawrence, Catrin Jones, Chris Bird-Jones, Claudia Mollzahn, Emma Cownie, Fran Williams, Hana Scoular, Kara Seaman, Kat Ridgeway, Kathryn Trussler, Kate Bell, Laura Niehorster, Leanne Vaughan Phillips, Louisa Helen Johnson, Lynne Bebb, Nazma Botanica, Natie M Davies, Patricia McKenna Jones, Rose Davies (Scribblah), Rosy Ind, Rhona Tooze, Sally Davies, Sally Price, Tina Wisby.

Those are female Welsh rugby players, by the way.

For me, the stand out performance of the night was Rufus Mafusa,  with her hip-hop dancers, who has been described as “a hip-hop educator, performance art poet, rapper, lyricist, writer and all-round creative soul”. She looked like a 21st century Rosie the Riveter. See below. She was wearing a 1940s style play/boiler suit with a red bow in her hair. Her thumbing performance of “Daughters of Dylan” brought real energy to the evening.

 

You can hear more of her work here.

Friends, poetry, music, art, political talks, film, dancers, food, what more could you want?

Special shout out to Rose Davies (aka Blogger Rosie Scribblah) Rosie for organising this brilliant event and cooking so much wonderful cake.

Me and fellow artist, Nazma Botanica- we match!