Uplift Magazine

Empowering Women Awards

By: Sarah Barnes, 15.03.2010 | Comments (0)

Avon and Women’s Aid, in association with Marie Claire Magazine, are launching the first ever Empowering Women’s Awards to celebrate the women who work tirelessly every day to end domestic abuse. These can be women who have survived domestic violence and gone on to help others do the same, or campaigners who are committed to to making a difference. But where do Avon and Women’s Aid find such inspiring women? That’s where you come in!

There are three awards – Survivor of the Year, Campaigner of the Year, and Grass Roots Hero (who will win £10,000 for the charity project of their choice) – that will be won by worthy women that you nominate. You can nominate yourself, or any woman that you think deserves to be recognised for her achievements. The closing date for nominations is the 30th of April 2010. All finalists will be invited to an exclusive awards ceremony in London where nominations will be judged by Sarah Brown, Reese Withersoon, Trish Halpin, Tana Ramsey and Anna Segatti.

Get nominating now!

Dayanita Singh’s Dream Villa

By: Sarah Barnes, 13.03.2010 | Comments (0)

New Dehli born and based artist Dayanita Singh is a brave woman. In order to seek out beauty, photographer Singh has been travelling at night to unfamiliar locations and setting about looking for dream-like visions to capture on camera. The result of her nocturnal travels makes up her new book ‘Dream Villa’.

Part art object and part travelling exhibition, the book simply presents Singh’s images in all their peaceful, mysterious and eerie glory. The images speak of the relationship between man and nature, as Singh relishes in the effects of un-natural lighting and how it brings vividness and colour to the dark night.

Dream Villa is available now from Steidl.

First Woman ‘Best Director’

By: Dearbhaile Kitt, 09.03.2010 | Comments (0)

Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for becomming the first woman EVER to win the Best Director Oscar!

Photo from The Examiner

Celebrate International Women’s Day

By: Sarah Barnes, 06.03.2010 | Comments (0)

International Women’s Day is fast approaching (it’s on Monday, the 8th, in case you weren’t aware), which begs the question; What will you be doing to celebrate it? And when I say ‘Celebrate’, I don’t really mean party hats and bubbly booze (although this is also a very valid, and fun, way to mark the occassion!) but choosing a worthy event where you can reflect on the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. Whilst many people will be marking IWD by donning their marching boots for the Million Women Rise March today, here is a little list of events going on on the day itself…

CRAWLEY – ASSERTIVENESS WORKSHOP
From 9.30am to 12.00 mid-day
You’ll learn to express yourself assertively when communicating with others. The skill of expressing opinions confidently and clearly, with respect for the other person, is essential. This event is free, but spaces are limited.
Venue: Kinnarps, Mack House, Gatwick Road, Crawley, RH10 9RJ

SLOUGH – 100TH INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
From 10.30am to 2.00pm
Prominent women from Slough will be on a panel discussing why this year is so important to make sure you exercise your right to vote.
Venue: Thames Valley Community Centre The Green Chalvey , Slough, SL1 2SP

LONDON – ONE LAW FOR ALL PRESENTS: A SEMINAR ON SHARIA LAW
From 6:00pm to 8:30pm
Speakers including Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (British Muslims for Secular Democracy); Yassi Atasheen, Ismail Einashe and Maryam Namazie (One Law for All); Clara Connolly and Yasmin Rahman (Women Against Fundamentalism);  Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters)  and Joan Smith (Writer and Activist) will come together to discuss opposition to Sharia Law within the UK legal system. Tickets cost £10 (or £3 for students/low income) and you will need to register here beforehand.
Venue: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL (Closest Underground: Holborn)

LONDON – FUNNY WOMEN STAND UP
Doors: 7.30 p.m. for show 8.00 p.m.
Some of the best and most innovative female comedy acts (including Jan Ravens, Shazia Mirza and Bridget Christie) take to the stage in support of Funny Women’s annual charity gala, Funny Women Stand Up. There’ll be free cake too! The serious message alongside the laughs is about bringing attention to the issues surrounding violence against women. Tickets cost £25 (buy them here) with proceeds raised on the night donated to V-Day Tender, which is currently focusing on a campaign to stop the physical violence and brutality that women and girls are suffering as a by-product of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Venue: Leicester Square Theatre – main house, 6 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BX

The Birds Eye View Film Festival is still in full swing, so why not celebrate with one of their film screenings on the day?

Still not found something to do? Then head to the International Womens Day Website for more ideas!

(Vintage Women’s Liberation March image found here)

Speaking of Diversity in Modelling…

By: Sarah Barnes, 04.03.2010 | Comments (0)

Okay, so this whole “We need to re-imagine the entire modelling landscape” argument has really come to the fore-front of my mind lately. Whilst I could blame the fact that I’m reading Crystal Renn’s autobiography, Hungry, for the re-emphasising of this long held belief, I think my resurgence in interest actually came when Company Magazine announced they were going to publish another Reader Issue this year.

In case you hadn’t guessed yet, last year’s Company Reader Issue featured readers in all the places that you would usually find professional models. So that meant the fashion editorials, the beauty pages, the trend pieces… even the bits where stock photos are usually used to show two-gals-having-a-laff, and the like. It was certainly a wake-up call as to how often we consume images of ‘perfect specimen’ women (yes, I know professional models are real women too, but they are a very small, specific and idealised grouping) who are supposed to reflect us.

Of course, it goes without saying that I blinkin’ loved last year’s Reader Issue (and not just because they grilled Gordon Brown about women’s safety). To have a magazine’s readership as models seems a really fresh way to get a representative bunch of women visually represented in the media… and it’s also an interesting tool to open up a publication, in terms of accessibility and personality, to it’s readers.

Ever the nit-picker, I did want to prod Company into considering choosing some larger sized readers to model for their next Reader Issue (which is why I wrote this blog post on the Company blog). Last year the models only ranged from size 8 to 12, and they were mostly pretty tall and all able bodied too. But hey, beggers can’t be choosers, I suppose!

It will be really interesting to see how this years Reader Issue shapes up… and we shouldn’t have too long to wait; last year it was the May issue, which means it actually came out in April. Only a few weeks to go then! And then, finally, I might be able to get this diversity-in-modelling bug out of my system!