Join Birth Companions and Clean Break online for a special International Women’s Day event, Disrupted Lives: #ChooseToChallenge Maternal Imprisonment.
This year International Women’s Day is inviting everyone to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality, as well as seek out and celebrate women's achievements. At a time when the Government has just announced plans to build 500 new prison places for women and as the pandemic continues to impact on prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing, Birth Companions and Clean Break have come together to challenge the sentencing of pregnant women and mothers of young children.
With moving performances from Clean Break’s plays and an insightful panel discussion, the event will explore the issues relating to maternal imprisonment; champion women’s resilience through adversity; and open up conversations around how we can all help drive positive change.
Hosted by Lorraine Maher, Clean Break’s Participation Manager, panel members will share perspectives on maternal imprisonment and offer updates on work currently underway to shape policy and ensure women’s voices are heard. Joining the panel will be:
- Tanya Tracey, Deputy Chair at Clean Break;
- Dr Shona Minson, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford;
- Naomi Delap, Director at Birth Companions
- Michelle, a member of the Birth Companions Lived Experience Team
Ayesha Antoine (actor) and Lucy Edkins (actor and Clean Break Member) will be reprising a scene from Clean Break’s critically acclaimed play [BLANK] by Alice Birch, produced at the Donmar Warehouse in 2019. Ayesha will also be performing a scene from the unpublished short piece Amazing Amy by Laura Lomas.
The panel and performances will be followed by an opportunity for you to ask questions and discuss what we can all do now to challenge maternal imprisonment.
Tickets are free of charge.
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Photo credit: Helen Maybanks