Poetry

On reading Nikita Gill

Oh! What a relief

To find myself,

My life,

Reflected back at me

In poetry;

Without the corsets

Of manned constraints,

Unlaced to let me breath.

I can freely exhale

At last,

And see

My own experience

Reflected back at me.

 

All those years at school learning the lines of … Read more

Dear Men

Dear Men,

Please come support Into the Woods by coming the launch, by buying the book, by talking to your friends about domestic abuse.

I know it is sometimes tricky coming to or getting involved with something which you see as ‘for women’ but it’s what we women have been doing for years, … Read more

War Stories

I’ve just read a book I couldn’t put down, one that I think will change lives.

Clare Best writes the story of her dad’s dying. She weaves together her reflections on the visits, coping with his deteriorating health as cancer takes hold, the clips from the audio he asked her to record and her transcripts … Read more

Periods are political

Thank you to everyone who came to the Red Tent this week…it felt very special to be talking about the thing that we never talk about. Our periods.

We told our menstrual stories; when we started, how we felt about starting our journey into womanhood and how the start of our menses changed how some … Read more

Red Tent

Last night was the first gathering of the Oswestry Red Tent and it was amazing.

There were 13 women, of all ages, most of whom only knew one other person, if anyone at all and yet through the evening there were some deep connections, reflections, laughter and tears. With strangers.  Such intimacy.

Because it was … Read more

Mother Threw New Born – Who cares?

I spotted this headline outside our village shop and saw red.

The story in The Advertiser told of how a 31 year old woman who threw her newborn baby out of the window.

She had kept her ‘unwanted pregnancy’ ‘a secret’ and had ‘had expressed a desire to kills both herself and her unborn … Read more

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julieleoni.com@gmail.com