Leeds Libraries presents a virtual exhibition and series of events brings together these local stories, connecting them to the wider history of women’s rights.

Inspired by the British Library’s exhibition Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights, we’ve created our own online exhibition highlighting Leeds’ unique contribution to the campaign for gender equality and featuring important books connected to the wider history of women’s rights.

Leeds has a strong history of female activism from the fight for suffrage, Reclaim the Night Marches, union strikes for fairer working conditions to the current campaign to make Leeds the first women friendly city.

A virtual exhibition and series of events in partnership with the British Library brings together these local stories, connecting them to the wider history of women’s rights.

Browse the online exhibition here

Book for events here

Thursday 19 November 7 pm:
Spoken Word Showcase

Hosted by renowned literary activist, writer and playwright Khadijah Ibrahiim, the showcase features poets and artists from Leeds.

The event begins with a panel discussion exploring women’s voices, activism and the fight for a fairer world, featuring guest poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan. A screening of new short films featuring emerging writers from digital media initiative Studio12 will follow. Finally, there’ll be a performance by The Sunday Practise, a leading grassroots, jam, poets, DJs, musicians and vibes night in Leeds, representing a wide cultural perspective of women poets in the UK.

Friday 20 November 7 pm:
Writers in Conversation with Tracy Chevalier, Nikita Lalwani and Stephanie Scott

For this special event, novelists Tracy Chevalier, Nikita Lalwani and Stephanie Scott will read extracts from their latest works, followed by a panel discussion led by journalist Yvette Huddleston.

The authors will discuss their books and their own experiences and how they chime with the historical and contemporary themes and figures featured in our Unfinished Business exhibition. The event finishes with a Q&A session between the panel and the online audience.

Saturday 21 November 5 pm:
A Mixed Reality Portrait

Watch live as artist Rosie Summers brings art to life, creating a portrait of the inspirational primatologist Alison Jolly, who features in our exhibition.

Using Tilt Brush and mixed reality technology, Rosie will paint a portrait in real time of Jolly, a pioneer of lemur biology who championed environmental education with her Malagasy colleague Hanta Rasamimanana.

Rosie has undertaken VR art performances with organisations such as the BBC and National Football Museum. This will be the first time she has done this virtually.

Saturday 22 November 1pm:
Wikithon – Women in Leeds

Celebrate some of the amazing women of Leeds past and present, by learning how to edit pages on Wikipedia and address its gender imbalance in this informal online workshop.

With over 53 million articles, Wikipedia is hugely influential and gives the public more access to knowledge than ever before. However, it is heavily weighted towards men, with just 18.44% of biographies on the UK site dedicated to women, and only 9% of contributors identifying as female. This is a friendly and practical session and no previous experience of editing Wikipedia is required.

Digital support during lockdown

Digital support We know many people have struggled to access digital services during lockdown.

Here’s how we can help:-

• Access to computers at a number of sites across the city during lockdown for 90 min sessions.
  Details can be found here: leeds.gov.uk/leisure/libraries
• Basic digital enquiry support via our #DigiDropIn on Twitter and Facebook every weekday from 10 am-4 pm
  Just get in touch and we’ll respond! Or call us on 0113 378 3005
• Bookable 1 to 1 digital sessions with a librarian
  Call 0113 378 5005 or email libraryenquiries@leeds.gov.uk
• We also have resources such as Niche Academy to help you develop your online skills.
  We’re running a series of free coffee break webinars aimed at partners and community organisations on how we can help residents access free digital support – book here