11 minute read
International Women's Day
With International Women’s Day landing on 8th March, we’re taking a look at the women who shaped Sunderland’s past and the women shaping Sunderland’s future. Introducing the Rebel Women of Sunderland; a stunning project from Sunderland Culture that shines a light on the lives of Rebel Women from the city, with specially commissioned artworks and stories from Kathryn Robertson and Jessica Andrews...
International Women’s Day: Celebrating the Rebel Women of Sunderland
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Heroines of the past…
Florence Collard & the Shipyard Women
During World War Two, when men joined the army, more than 700 women stepped into their big steel toe caps, pulled on their overalls and got to work. Sunderland was once known as ‘the largest shipbuilding town in the world’ and the ships built by women during the war were vital in carrying food and fuel supplies. America’s shipyards rusted and languished without men to run them, and people across the world looked to the fierce women mending, hammering and storming Sunderland’s docks for inspiration. The women drove cranes, welded metal, fixed rivets and laboured in freezing conditions. They worked 12-hour days, then went home to peel potatoes, sweep hallways and read bedtime stories to their children. They tingled with fear as the threat of bombs loomed over them. They thought of their husbands and brothers, who might never come home. Florence worked as a welder at Bartram & Sons shipyard and she was the first woman ever to be granted membership to the Boilermakers’ Society union.
Dr Marion Phillips
First female MP for Sunderland
Marion Phillips was Sunderland’s first female MP. She was elected as a Labour candidate in the first-ever election in which men and women had equal voting rights. She marched down to the shipyards in her round glasses, demanding free trade and paid holidays for the shipbuilders. A salty wind blew up from the Wear and whipped her face, but she wrapped her big coat tightly around her shoulders and stood her ground. The workers cheered and stamped their feet. She was a fierce feminist who wanted working-class people to enjoy their lives.
Kate Adie
Journalist and Broadcaster
Kate Adie was born by the sea in Whitley Bay and adopted by a family of pharmacists in Sunderland. She grew up among the clink of cough mixture bottles and the soft pop of chalky pills in foil packets. She went to Newcastle University and spent afternoons studying in Leazes Park, until she got her first job in journalism at BBC Radio Durham. In 1980, when the London Iranian Embassy came under siege, Kate sat in a car below the embassy for six days, as gunshots rattled the terraces. When the SAS team entered the building through the upstairs windows, it erupted into orange flames and dark walls of smoke choked the street. Kate made a live BBC broadcast crouched behind her car door, interrupting the quiet of the World Snooker Championship. She remained calm before one of the largest live news audiences ever recorded, and became a household name.
Ida & Louise Cook
WWII Activists
Ida and Louise Cook were born in a redbricked terraced house with bay windows in Millfield. They moved to London to work as typists for the Civil Service, where they visited the red velvet heart of the Royal Opera House. They fell in love with the gold-flecked ceiling and the lamps that blazed from the seats. They watched women in furs press painted nails to lipsticked mouths and peered through silver-rimmed binoculars. Ida and Louise saved 29 people from Nazi Germany. To avoid suspicion, they stayed at a hotel where Nazi officials spent their lunchtimes drinking sharp whiskeys in their stiff military boots. One afternoon, a Jewish man telephoned the sisters and told them he would be driving past their hotel in a taxi. He asked if they would run out and jump into it, to help him escape. The sisters risked their lives in front of the soldiers, tosave people they had never even met.
Hope Winch
First Head of Pharmacy at University of Sunderland
Hope Constance Monica Winch was strong-willed and full of big ideas. She arrived in Sunderland in her long white coat, mixing tinctures, stirring medicines and rustling folders crammed with plans to set up the finest pharmacy department in the North East. It was a daunting job, but Hope set about organising meetings and arranging classrooms at Sunderland Technical College, which later became Sunderland University. By 1930, Hope’s pharmacy department was a big success. All of the pharmacy teaching in the region was moved to her lab, and it became known as the best place to study. Students came from all over the country to look at the shifting surfaces of cells shimmering through microscopes and to understand the composition of compounds coursing through the human body. Hope’s legacy helped the university grow into the excellent pharmacy department that exists today, and students still flock from across the country and overseas to understand the substances that hold our world together.
Heroines shaping the future…
Abbie Robinson
Team GB Paraclimber
Abbie is a British paraclimbing world champion. As the first blind woman ever to represent Britain in a climbing competition, she travelled to France and Austria to compete with paraclimbers from around the world. She came home with two gold medals hanging from her neck, glinting in the sun as it set over the Wear. In 2017, she joined the British paraclimbing team. She
climbs with a guide wearing a headset who describes the size, shape and placement of each hold that Abbie encounters. Abbie puts her trust in her body and relies on her memory and spatial awareness to pull herself to great heights. She translates her guide’s descriptions into shapes in her imagination, which help her move her body through the world.
Emeli Sandé
Musician and University of Sunderland Chancellor
Emeli’s father travelled across the earth from Zambia to study at Sunderland Polytechnic, where he met Emeli’s mother. When Emeli was born, her parents played her Nina Simone records. The deep ache of the tuba spun gold from the speakers and the rich melancholy of Nina’s voice wound its way around Emeli’s body. She always knew she wanted to be a musician. She wrote her first song for a primary school talent show when she was 11. A strange silence settled over the school hall when she got up to sing. The words poured like water from her mouth and the teachers blinked in wonder at the complex melodic structure she pushed from her tongue. When she was 16, Emeli took the train to London, where she sang gospel in the shiny MTV Studios, stumbling down Camden High Street afterwards, dazzled by the bright lights and glittering promises. She was offered a record deal but turned it down because she wanted to study neuroscience at university, claiming that she needed a backup, in case her music career didn’t work out. should be used to lift up others, and her first album, 'Love Your Dum and Mad', delved into the barbed world of male suicide and mental illness after two of her close friends took their own lives. She often speaks about the importance of talking and looking after each other, in her role as an ambassador for mental health charity CALM. The daughter of a Pakistani father, Shah draws on her own experiences of moving through the world as a Muslim woman to push back against the racism she sees strung through the core of society. She is honest about how it feels to be a woman in a male-dominated music industry, and speaks openly about gender pay gaps. She uses interviews to give space to urgent issues that feel bigger than her own.
Steph Houghton & Jill Scott
Footballers for England National Team
Steph Houghton and Jill Scott perfected their technique at their local Sunderland football club, dribbling balls and running circuits around the Stadium of Light when they were teenagers. Steph played in the under-16 team at 9-years-old and Jill played for a boy’s team when she was 7-years-old, where she won the Man of the Match trophy. "They wanted to change the inscription to Girl of the Match," she said, "but I kicked up a fuss and didn’t let them change it – I didn’t want anyone to think I’d won because I was the only girl on the team." She got teased for playing football when she was young, but she tightened her boots and stormed onto the pitch. Both women went on to play for Manchester City, training through the days in their sky-blue shirts. Steph was a top goal-scorer in the 2012 Olympics, and played in the European Championship three times. They tackled their way to the top and played for England in the 2019 World Cup, defending their team through the musky French summer. Steph wrapped her captain armband tightly around her arm and led the Lionesses into the semi-final.
Nadine Shah
Musician and Activist
Nadine grew up in Whitburn and carries the sea inside of her. She started out as a jazz singer, working on complex melodies, but her own dark and brooding music grew out of the violence she saw in the world around her. She believes that a platform
TO SEE MORE REBEL WOMEN OF SUNDERLAND STORIES VISIT: SUNDERLANDCULTURE.ORG.UK
Digital treats from Sunderland Culture…
Virtual fun for all members of the family to enjoy from the comfort of your home this spring...
Youth Arts Exhibition 2021: Bright Lights 13 March – 17 April
Arts Centre Washington’s annual Youth Arts Exhibition showcases some of the most exciting artwork by young people in Washington and across Sunderland. The themes of this year’s exhibition have been inspired by the Paint the Town in Sound exhibition at Sunderland Museum Winter Gardens. The exhibition is curated by a group of young people called The Celebrate Different Collective and features work by young artists aged 11 – 19.
Youth Arts Exhibition 2021: Free Online Workshops
During the Easter Holidays, be sure to join Arts Centre Washington as they celebrate their Youth Arts Exhibition with a series of fun online workshops:
Crafting a Character/Persona Workshop 31 March
Join Bonnie and The Bonnettes' Hattie Eason for a session all about creating your very own persona. Be it drag queen, drag king, or a character you're currently writing. Hattie will be guiding you through some of the steps Bonnie and The Bonnettes take when developing new work, and creating new personas.
Lyrics/Poetry Writing Workshop 3rd April
Kema Kay is a rapper/singer/songwriter as well as an actor. Do you have dreams of kickstarting a musical career? Are you the next literature superstar? Join Kema and explore the topic of ’Identity and Expression’, it’s bound to bring up a wealth of creative ideas. Who wouldn’t want to join a workshop with a fully-fledged entertainment star?
SongWriting Workshop 7 April
Get a creative kickstart to provide you with easy to understand, practical songwriting and music production skills that allow you to go on and start writing and recording your own original music. Suitable for ages 11+
Srijoni Exhibition 29th April
An exhibition displaying the end results of a lockdown project which brought together a group of women from Sunderland’s Bangladeshi community to support each other through arts and crafts during this challenging time. Working with local visual artist Padma Rao and Islamic artist Roohia Syed-Ahmed, the women have explored the notion of culture, cultural entitlement, and identity through the art of Arabic calligraphy, drawing and text. This exhibition features work produced during their creative sessions alongside the work of three professional artists.
ARTSCENTREWASHINGTON.CO.UK
For more info on all events visit artscentrewashington.co.uk
Shopping Sunderland Culture goodies!
Take a look at the terrific trinkets, stunning studio glass and cool kit now available online…
New spring range at National Glass Centre’s online shop!
Jam-packed with locally crafted products including stunning studio glass and jewellery, National Glass Centre’s online shop is a great place to pick up a beautiful artist-made gifts for Easter, Mother’s Day or just to give someone that much needed boost! Their new spring range has just launched and features a striking selection of glass in meadow greens and fresh colours reminiscent of spring and summer. Guaranteed to light up any kitchen or living room!
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: SHOP-NATIONALGLASSCENTRE.COM
Sunderland Museum and Winter Garden’s new online shop has launched!
You can now purchase that locally crafted necklace, greetings card featuring local scenes, or even a Roker seafront beach towel all from the comfort of your home! Perfect for picking up a thoughtful, handcrafted gift.
