Blog Archives

Sam Sleeman

Sophie Sleeman

I was really inspired by Greta Thunberg the Swedish activist and I was wondering why… you know why isn’t this happening in the UK? And then… kind of that converged with me, I was on Facebook… and social media has

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Jenny Lloyd

Jenny Lloyd

‘We were very embedded in Exeter Labour Party and there were obviously these big national rallies, so we went up and then Kate… Becca was in a pushchair. When I was in the Labour party, I organised… I was a

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Moira Macdonald

Moira Macdonald 1980's and 1990's feminist badges - Exeter

Recorded on 20.05.2019 by Carmen Talbot. Transcript by Jayde Stevenson All I knew was that there were women, first of all at school that I felt attracted to, and then at university. And it wasn’t until a long time afterwards…

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Rose Gander

Rose Gander

Recorded 07.01.2019 Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I’d been a Unison – or before that a NALGO (National and Local Government Officers Association) trade union member since the age of 18 when I first started work, and my father said to

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Penny Avant

Penny Avant

Record on 07.01.2019 by Carmen Talbot. Transcript by Jayde Stevenson Um my daughter – I’ve got three daughters and two of them have been really active with refugees, um actually going to north France and building things and shelters and

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Zion Lights

Zion Lights

Recorded 08.05.2019 by Carmen Talbot. Transcript by Jayde Stevenson It was kind of a few days before London I just thought I’ve gotta go, this is really important and it’s gonna be big and I knew, you know, there’s a

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Diana Derioz

Diana Derioz

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson My mother was an activist you see and she just passed it down. They were talking about breast feeding on the radio and I was thinking, yeah my mum gave me that and I gave it

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Rosemary Schonfeld

Rosemary Schonfeld SouthWest for Europe Rally Bristol 14.10.17

Recorded by Carmen Talbot on 24.10.2018 Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I probably need to go back a little bit, um, in terms of how I got into the… I suppose the activism anyway, which was through the gay liberation movement,

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Rosemarie Cawson

Rosemarie Cawson Greenham Common headband

So I have now ended up in a care home and I’m very old, but I remember, and we have just worked out how old I was when I attended Greenham (Greenham Common), well visited Greenham and I was a

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Fiona Green

Fiona Green image of Ursula from newspaper climbing silo

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson It was 1980… or ’81 – I can’t remember exactly… um, my mother had gone on ahead – she’d gone on in 1980. Um, and she rang and told me the whole story about the women

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Alison Williams

Alison Williams poster

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson From Dartington… um… I’d joined Dartington College Women’s Group and… we… basically organised buses to go up to Greenham Common… and we’d stay there, umm… we’d stay there in a little caravan, sort of four of

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Melissa Hardie

Melissa Hardie

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I’ve never slowed down from earliest days and I’m now 79. People are forever remarking that they don’t know how I do everything I do. I’ve never looked upon it as being particularly social activism. In

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Jenni Kerswell-Frost

Jenni Kerswell-Frost

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson Right… it’s a bit like film – um, rather drastic. I had three young children, I was living with an abusive husband… he had already set fire to my daughter… and… one night when he’s gone

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Pip Wright

A Breathing Space logo

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson Since I’ve been working with singing, I’ve had the good fortune to train for Singing for the Brain for people living with, um dementia, and their carers. And then after a few years based on that,

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Alison Meaton

Alison Meaton

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I was given early retirement because I had been unwell, umm, and I wasn’t able to work any longer, but… I still felt I had a… you know, I have a… my brain is fine and

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Dr. Sarah Wollaston

Dr. Sarah Wollaston

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I think it’s representing a really important issue that affects thousands and thousands of women, and men as well, and trying to see whether I can actually make a difference personally by taking an Act of

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Avril Silk

Avril Silk Just Women Magazine

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I happened to be singing with a friend of mine- a guitarist called Ivor- at the youth and community centre in Taunton at some… special party- I can’t remember the ins and outs of the party,

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Cllr. Desna Allen

Cllr. Desna Allen

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson My Grandfather firmly believed there was no place for a woman with education because she will only get married. Unfortunately, he communicated this to my mother who, uh, would refuse to allow me to stay on

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Janet Haley

Janet Haley WASPI

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I saw an article in The Cornish Guardian, uh, two ladies who’d, uh, found out that they weren’t gonna get their pension and they were organising a meeting. So, I said right, that’s something I’ve gotta

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Alix Harris

Alix Harris

When I started working with the Barbican Theatre, um, we — I was involved in quite a lot of projects which were around social, social justice. I’m very responsive so I feel like I create work, create theatre pieces, that’s

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Maddie Harris

Humans for Rights Network logo

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson I originally… I guess… feel as though… it might- yeah, when I sort of started to become an activist was when I first went to Dunkirk refugee camp, which was in September 2015. So… I wouldn’t

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Anon 2

Rebellious Sounds Archive Logo

I don’t think activism came into my life until probably [pause, sighs] 2010 or beyond, so over the last eight years. Um, I’d, fled a very abusive – relationship. I say very, it wasn’t physical. Um – apart from the

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Nicci Wonnacott

Nicci Wonnacott

I was at art college and I thought I would come out painting Devon landscapes [laughs], was my pre-conceived idea of being an art student, and actually I came out as a performance artist interested in art action so art

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Linda Regan MBE

Linda Regan MBE

I think I would say that I’ve been involved in some form of activism since I was 16/17 years of age which is a long time ago now as I’m just about to hit 65 and I would say that

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