Herstory Festival Takes Centre Stage at Down Arts Centre

The international Herstory Light Festival, an event celebrating women and equality, will take centre stage at Down Arts Centre. The annual festival will take place over the weekend of St Brigid’s Day from 31 January to 3 February, with events taking place across the district’s arts and museum venues.

On Saturday 1 February, She Wolf Theatre Collective present readings from Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Penelopiad’. The play retells the story of the Odyssey from the perspective of Odysseus’s wife, Penelope with a focus on her trials as she waits for Odysseus to return from his Homeric journey. The play exposes both the horrors that men inflict on women as well as the horrors that women inflict on each other.

On Sunday 2 February, writers and would-be writers are invited to take part in a free special ‘Poems on a Sunday Afternoon’ in collaboration with the Herstory Festival, presented by Castle Ward Arts & Crafts with Down Arts Centre. Under the theme World of Equals, this event starts with a ‘Peace Heroines’ Creative Writing Workshop from 11am to 1pm.

Following the workshop from 2.30pm to 3.45pm, will be the Sunday Afternoon Shared Space where all present will be invited to share their work—from poems and stories to songs and favourite pieces.

Rounding off the day-long event, from 4pm to 5pm, the Centre will host Women Aloud NI writers. Focusing on a ‘World of Equals’, these readings highlight women who have inspired the writers to make their voices heard.

Registration for the morning workshop is essential. Please contact Down Arts Centre Box Office on 0330 137 4014 to book your free place.