Shameless!

On 24 September, Ecoar!, the second Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The culmination of several years of partnership work between the SHaME project, the WOW Foundation, and Redes da Maré, the vibrant one-day festival brought together creatives, researchers, activists, front-line practitioners, and members of the public, to harness the shared power of art, activism, and academic research in dismantling the shame and stigma so often attached to experiences and disclosures of sexual violence. Seeking to empower survivors in their healing, and to provide a call to action for urgent changes to professional practice and policy around abuse, the festival aimed to create a space to share perspectives and build ongoing collaborations.

Read the SHaME team’s reflections on the Ecoar! Festival in this blog post.

On 24th September, the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence will take place in its second year in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. Called Ecoar! Festival, the one day festival will be created and presented by Redes da Maré, in partnership with SHaME and the WOW Foundation.

This year’s event is curated and produced by Redes da Maré, an organisation working in the 16 Maré favelas in Rio de Janeiro to ensure effective public policies that improve the lives of their 140,000 residents. Their projects emphasise ‘the social role of citizens, their collective actions and the respect for differences and diversity, as well as the criticism of social inequalities currently existing in the country and in Rio de Janeiro.’ Read more about the organisation and their work in Brazil here.

Six months ago, nearly 1000 people joined the first ever Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. The festival sold out and we know not everyone who wanted to be there could be, so we’re really pleased to announce a number of the day’s talks are now available to watch on the Birkbeck YouTube channel, with captions by Stagetext.

We are particularly excited to feature presentations by SHaME’s own Prof Joanna Bourke, Dr George Severs, and Allison McKibban among the 11 filmed events, panels and talks.

You can find out more and watch the virtual experience on the SHaME blog.

SHaME team members Dr George Severs and Dr Rhian Keyse have created a series of podcasts in which they speak to contributors from the 2021 Shameless! Festival about their work, their reflections on the festival, and their insights on creating a rape-free world.

You can find out more and listen to The Shameless! Podcast: Voices From the Festival series on the SHaME blog.

Healing Hearts is a short film of poetry created by a young women’s group from The Lighthouse Service in North London, filmmaker Sunnah Khan, Clinical Psychologists Dr Anna Churcher Clarke and Dr Isabella Girling, and Assistant Psychologist George Yerbury. The film was presented at the Shameless! Festival along with a panel discussion covering the background of the project, how the collaboration between the psychology team, young people and filmmaker developed, and the role of creative arts in supporting recovery from sexual violence.

We invite you to read more about the creative writing workshops and watch the Healing Hearts film on the SHaME blog.

SHaME team members Adeline Moussion and Emma Yapp share their experiences of designing and facilitating the ‘Unpopular Opinions Workshop’ at the Shameless! Festival. The workshop provided a space for survivors to express their anger and frustrations, while challenging institutional and societal expectations of victimhood and survivorship

You can find out more about Adeline and Emma’s workshop on the SHaME blog.

SHaME team member Dr Ruth Beecher gives an overview of her Shameless! Festival workshop, History Investigators, an interactive session that invited festival goers to delve into the fact, myth, folklore and personal histories in order to build a timeline of resistance to sexual violence.

You can read all about Ruth’s workshop on the SHaME blog.

Scholar, writer, artist, expert on body politics and speaker at the Shameless! Festival, Mary Morgan has written a blog for SHaME about rape myths, stereotypes about the ‘ideal victim’ and how these harmful ideas shape outcomes for survivors of sexual violence in their pursuit of justice.

You can read Mary’s thoughtful piece, ‘Words from an “Unideal” victim’ on the SHaME blog.

The SHaME Project and WOW are excited to share our bespoke Code of Conduct, created for the first ever Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence, which took place at the Battersea Arts Centre in London on 27 November 2021.

The SHaME and WOW teams, along with specialist organisations, worked together to make the Shameless! Festival a space of safety, dignity and respect. This included creating a Code of Conduct specifically designed for the festival. We encourage you to check out our Shameless! Festival 2021 Code of Conduct to see how we supported survivors, attendees, speakers and staff on the day and beyond.

The SHaME Project and WOW are excited to share the official programme for the first ever Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence, which took place at the Battersea Arts Centre in London on 27 November 2021.

The festival featured artists, activists, and scholars covering issues including the normalisation of sexual violence, rape myths, consent, everyday triggers, and survival. If you missed the festival, or if you joined us but want to revisit the day, please feel free to browse the Shameless! Festival 2021 Brochure.

SHaME team member Allison McKibban gives a behind-the-scenes look at her own experience in one aspect of planning the Shameless! Festival. She explains how safeguarding training not only helped her prepare for the festival, but also transformed her ways of thinking around survivorship and the intricacies of creating safer spaces.

You can read more about Allison’s experience as well as The SHaME Project and WOW‘s approach to safeguarding on full schedule on the SHaME blog.

As part of the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence, The SHaME Project and WOW worked together to create a special Shameless! Festival Toolkit with resources, books to read and actions to take.

Whether you attended the festival or not, we encourage you to check out the Shameless! Toolkit on the SHaME Blog and the WOW website to find out what you can do to help create a rape-free world.

The SHaME Project and WOW are excited to share the schedule for the first ever Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence at the Battersea Arts Centre on 27 November 2021.

The festival schedule features artists, activists, and scholars covering issues including the normalisation of sexual violence, rape myths, consent, everyday triggers, and survival. You can check out the full schedule on the SHaME blog and the WOW website.

Professor Joanna Bourke offers a warm invitation to the Shameless! Festival on November 27th at Battersea Arts Centre. The event will bring together artists, activists, and scholars in a powerful and uplifting day of programming to confront the global crisis of sexual violence.

You can watch Joanna’s welcome message on the SHaME blog.

Professor Joanna Bourke interviews academic and activist Dr Maryyum Mehmood ahead of her appearance at the Shameless! Festival. They discuss Dr Mehmood’s campaigns to empower women that combine the forces of academia and grassroots activism.

You can read the interview on the SHaME blog.

The SHaME Project and WOW – Women of the World are thrilled to host Poetic Unity for ‘Safe Space’, an evening of poetry and spoken word confronting attitudes towards sexual violence and advocating for a safer world for women and girls. The event will feature four amazing poets; rising musician from Myanmar Phe Phe; spoken word artist and facilitator Jayda David; actress, writer and spoken word artist Demii Walker and West London poet Reya Saint.

This is a free, drop-in event taking place at the Battersea Arts Centre on 27 November 2021 from 6.00-7.00PM. No tickets needed! For more information, check our events page.

The SHaME Project and WOW are excited to announce more amazing speakers and creators joining us for the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence at the Battersea Arts Centre on November 27th.

We’ve brought in amazing artists, advocates, scholars, activists, health and wellness practitioners, and survivors for panels, workshops, and performances that will stimulate important conversations on sexual violence, but also provide spaces for healing, laughter, and hope. Check out all the new additions to the festival here!

The SHaME Project, along with WOW, were delighted to launch the Shameless! Festival on Wednesday 27 October, at a reception hosted at the Wellcome Collection. We were thrilled to hear from HRH the Duchess of Cornwall who spoke inspiringly about building a rape-free world. You can read more about the reception on our SHaME blog.

Tickets are now on sale for the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence at the Battersea Arts Centre on 27 November 2021. You can find them HERE.

Tickets are now on sale for the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence on 27 November 2021. You can find them HERE.

We are also thrilled to announce that the festival will be taking place at the Battersea Arts Centre in Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN. There will be a full programme of events, talks, workshops, and creative happenings. You can find out more on the SHaME Events Page, SHaME blog and the WOW website.

On 18 August 2021, we were thrilled to announce that the first ever Shameless! Festival will take place on 27 November 2021. You can read more about this exciting announcement on the SHaME blog and the WOW website.

We’re looking forward to announcing which major London venue the festival will take place in, as well as sharing the Shameless! Festival programme, in the coming weeks, so please watch this space!

In June 2021, we released a Call for Proposals seeking public engagement activities from academics working in collaboration with artists, activists, survivors, practitioners and others working on sexual violence from a medical or psychiatric perspective. You can find out more and read the CFP on the SHaME blog.

We’re looking forward to sharing the Shameless! Festival programme in the coming weeks, so please watch this space!

In July 2020, we were thrilled to announce that we had been awarded a ‘Research Enrichment – Public Engagement’ award from the Wellcome Trust to co-produce a series of Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual Violence with The WOW Foundation.

You read more about the announcement and our enthusiasm about this ground-breaking collaboration on the SHaME blog and WOW’s website.