Headingley LitFest sponsors this annual event early in March each year to mark International Women's Day on March 8th. It was, as always, a triumph of prose, poetry and song that was hard-hitting, thought-provoking and poignant, crafted by the clever local writers from Heartlines. Tales were spun, poems shared, heartstrings pulled and forgotten history revisited. We were by turns cheered, appalled, engrossed and entertained by the witty and perceptive writing of the Headingley Creative Writing Group and local songstresses.
Liz McPherson has nurtured these writers over the years and they provided us with varied pieces of writing of such high calibre. Liz opened the event with a 'paperchain' collaborative poem that pulled no punches. Sexual violence, coercive control, FGM, acid for 'honour', rape as a weapon – her words went beyond the unspeakable to words that must be used to educate. Her poem appears at the end of this piece.
Music was a poem by Kaz Byrne that explored the rhythms of life we listen to: soothing lullabies in babyhood; cheerful songs in girlhood; calming melodies in middle age; the lament of the dying. Sing out sisters!
Being Cross by Rosie Cantrell was read out by Kaz. Hungry babies, tetchy children, adolescent mood swings, PMT leads to a calm old age. Really? Or does partial deafness mute our irritation - until we get to the Pearly Gates when St Peter asks you to show your/you're cross. No problem!
Harissa are a collective of brilliant a capella singers led by Jane Edwardson. The ten talents I thought, as they sang three songs: Blue Moon, A Master of Education (poem by Brian Patten, set to music by Frances Bernstein) and Rise Up. A medley of women's voices in harmony with words sometimes a little less harmonious! As the name Harissa implies.
Rise up indeed was the invitation to the audience.
Shame was explored by Myrna Moore. In the context of well-known greats such as Joan of Arc, Marie Curie and Malala Yusufai, a new addition to the pantheon is Giselle Pelicot. She is a heroine of our era, who declared that 'Shame must change sides.' Should women hide from the glare of prurient publicity? No. She is not vengeful, freeing herself from consuming hate and walking with dignity to face the world's flashbulbs. Other sisters will now follow.
Ivy Benson's extraordinary life was explored by Doug Sandle. Local girl from Beeston, she played piano at five years of age, learned the clarinet and saxophone and by 1943 was leading the BBC's resident all-girl dance band before she was forty years old. 250 girls played with her during her dance band years. Doug had been so proud to give a speech as she was presented with an Honorary Doctor of Music by the-then Leeds Polytechnic. Spice Girl Mel C is a strong supporter of a woman who had generated girl power half a century before her.
Salem in 1692 was explored by Jackie Parsons. Girls who used egg-white divination to see into their futures were condemned as witches after they complained of itching and scratching and gave out odd little cries. Was ergotism caused by contaminated cereal grain ever suggested? – the symptoms are strikingly similar and it was not unknown. But male Puritan justice prevailed in the witch trials of which we perhaps do not know the whole story.
Bill Fitzsimons read us his poem, As Long As Men Do Likewise, based on a picture of a girl confronting a line of soldiers and offering flowers. It's the sort of image we have seen many times and that has all too many echoes this very day. But “men will follow their leaders' lies.”
Maria Sandle performed two songs accompanying herself on guitar and harmonica. The first was by the iconic Joni Mitchell, a powerful exploration of the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries. Prostitutes, destitutes and temptresses (as described by the priests) – all woe-begotten-daughters impregnated by fathers, priests or ignorance. 'Fallen women' whose babies were neglected and ended in the septic tank. Girls buried without ceremony or note. Truly still shocking thirty years later. A more cheerful song of Give to Gain – it's in giving that we gain - was written by Maria herself, with audience participation to lift our spirits.
Malcolm Henshall told us a tale of North Berwick, opposite the Bass Rock, famous for many things. It was once home to the largest colony of gannets in the world before avian flu. He too touched on witches in a little known history of the town's treatment of over 70 local women. They were healers, teachers, environmental supporters, stepping outside their gender roles, just different. Persecuted by the men who feared their knowledge, skills and self-confidence and who sought to control them. Same as it ever was?
A Traveller in Residence: Barbara Lawton recounted the life of Maeve Brennan, basing her exploration on a picture of a fragmented scene with a women half-buried in the shards. Maeve's father Robert was imprisoned for his support of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1917 but later in 1934 was sent to Washington, with his family, as a representative of the Irish Free State when Maeve was 17. Maeve became famous as a short-story writer, feted for her literate tale-telling before she hit hard times (yes, there was a husband involved) and her life spiralled out of her control into mental illness and alcoholism. She never settled, remained a traveller from boarding house to hotel room to the streets where she died. Her work was rediscovered recently and republished; she takes her place in the cannon of Irish literature.
Howard Benn wrote in praise of Augusta Ada, the Countess Lovelace, a daughter of Byron who is known for her work to support the Babbage prototype computer and was indeed a countess in her enthusiasm for calculation. Sadly, she was lost to opium and time. “Too much Byron in you?”
Linda Marshall's short poems Annie and True Glam were read by Liz McPherson and gave a picture of two very different women.
Liz McPherson provided us with the final piece of writing, Mary makes a new start. She updates her look, enjoys some me-time with well-being treats, sells the place in Nazareth, develops her credentials as an influencer with 50 million followers. #MotherofGod.
Harissa sang a rousing finale, I Tell Me Ma, to send us on our way to refreshments and a chance to mull over the many ideas and images generated by the words we have experienced. Once again, such a delightful morning of entertainment provided by the research, craft and skills of the writers of Headingley and the talents of the wonderful local musicians.
This poem is not about women
This poem does not tell of rocks and rusty screws
forced into wombs. This poem can’t repeat
the messages of hate, driven inside them,
cannot count the lives ruined.
This poem will not ask why girls are still cut
to satisfy tradition, why education is withheld,
why permission to go outside, to drive a car,
to travel, has to be given.
This poem never talks of acid flung in faces,
of bodies burned, disfigured for ‘honourable reason’.
This poem will not measure families ripped apart,
it will not hear the children crying, the bullets flying,
the blood-soaked fields, streets, houses, schools.
This poem won’t speak of women kept like beasts,
compelled to spend their lives in servitude.
This poem won’t examine how the world can choose
to make a child bear a child.
This poem will not document how rape is used as gun,
on women, girls, tiny children. This poem will not bear
witness to all this suffering, pain and slaughter.
This poem is not about women.
Liz McPherson. 2025.
This poem is published in Safety in Numbers, a Poetic Conversation, edited by Gill Connors (Yaffle Press) and launching this week at various venues in the region. Copies are available from Yaffle Press or at the events below.
York. Spark, Piccadilly, York. Thursday 5th March. 7 pm
Keighley Library. Saturday 7th March. 5- 6.30 pm.
Zoom. Sunday 8th March. 6.30.
Ilkley Library. Saturday 19th March 6-7.30 pm
(Ticket and link enquiries to safepaperchain@gmail.com)
