We invite you to join us at an online reading session of By Us, For You: A Personal Safety Guide, made in collaboration with artist Ali Baskerville, community arts organisation Multistory and women*, girls and non-binary people in Sandwell.
The guide responds to an urgent need for personal safety initiatives that focus on empowering those who, due to structural oppression, are most at risk of violence. It contains safety advice written by Ali, self-defence instructions by Fatima Ben (Blossoms Self-Defence) and the personal stories and creative writing of local community members and creatives.
This reading group is open to people who identify as women and non-binary people only.
About the session
In this session we will collectively read from the guide, taking the time to draw out questions through conversation, including what it means to be safe as a woman or non-binary person, and what tools and support systems we can put in place to look after each other.
Zoom information plus a link to download the PDF of the guide will be sent to you in advance via email, and we will let you know which sections we will be focusing on during the session. We will be reading the sections aloud during the event, so don’t worry if you don’t have time to prepare! Places are limited, so booking is required.
* This term is inclusive of all who identify as women, including trans, cis and femme.
Book here.
About Multistory
Multistory is a community arts organisation. We have been based in West Bromwich in the borough of Sandwell for 15 years and the people and place shape our work. We build meaningful connections between local communities and artists to produce creative projects that tell stories of everyday life. We believe in the power of art to reflect the times we live in and tell stories to bring people together. www.multistory.org.uk
About ROAAAR
ROAAAR is a personal safety training initiative that gives basic and easy to use tools to help you feel safe. Over the decades of working as a conflict photographer, serving in the armed forces and working as a media safety advisor for freelance journalists, founder, Alison Baskerville, set up ROAAAR to provide basic personal safety sessions to women, girls and non-binary people after accessing many resources to keep herself safe. Since then, it has developed two strands of work which focus on community safety workshops as well as safety sessions for the media and has facilitated a number of personal safety and self-defence sessions for World Press Photo and Women for Women (UK).
www.roaaar.co.uk