Sam Gilroy has received some £15,000 funding for her project F Wordz from the Arts.
Council, but needed further funding to make the project happen. HAT is providing £7249 or a third of the whole project cost. The project is an oral history and performance project and is ambitious. It is based on interviewing women of ethnic background in Southampton and recording their responses to a series of questions Such as:
- What is something you’re proud of achieving in your life?
- What do you think are conventional and unconventional female roles in society: in and out of the home / in the workplace?
- Do you have any female heroes?
- What’s your understanding of feminism?
- What do you do to feel a sense of freedom?
- What does being fierce look like to you?
- What did you think of the #MeToo campaign?
- How do you think covid has highlighted the disparity between genders?
- How has covid affected you as a woman?
- What changes would you like to see for women?
- What advice would you give to a 12-year girl today? about discrimination etc, they have experienced.
These questions all explore thoughts and experiences about being female and will be based and will be centred on Southampton which has a rich, culturally diverse population of women.
The results will be shared with Hampshire Archives Trust, Southampton Archives, British Library and UK Web Archive and provide a potentially key series of recordings capturing experiences in one period of time. They will also be transformed into a series of performances that will be open to the public.
Part of the project will deliver a podcast which Sam describes as ‘an uplifting, female focussed podcast raising underrepresented voices to elevate and empower girls and women of all ages and will be available on www.samgcreates.com.
