by Dear Damsels team

On Friday night, the DD team plus pals headed to October’s Friday Late at the V&A, hosted by gal-dem, the superb online magazine written by women of colour. And boy, did we have a good time.

The place was genuinely buzzing; the feeling of walking into the grand entrance hall while female DJ A.J pumped grime around the opulent, cavernous room was utterly surreal. As a one-in-one-out queue formed outside (yep, really) we quickly consulted our maps – which promised a veritable feast of creative exhibitions, discussions and interactive activities – and set off with the same amount of nervy excitement usually reserved for a dodgy Spanish water park.

gal-dem V&A Friday late.png

Despite much running around the maze of museum hallways, it  was impossible to see all that was on offer – but among our favourites were BBZ’s DJ set in the fashion section, and the huge crowd that formed there while bemused V&A security guys looked on; the Unmasked Women exhibition programme, exploring mental health and black female identity through spoken word performances and live illustration (we joined in for a quiet 10 minutes’ life drawing); and a packed Q&A session between Lotte Anderson, Art Director and founder of MAXILLA, and Lynette Nylander, Deputy Editor of iD.

All in all, the evening left us inspired and completely uplifted. It felt like a proper celebration, and we were reminded that London is one of the few places in the world you can partake in such an event – and all for free. So, with that in mind, we decided it was high time for another roundup of the upcoming events marked in the DD team diary…

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1. How Much the Heart Can Hold Live Storytelling Event

3rd November @ Waterstones Tottenham Court Road

There are so many exciting events surrounding this brilliant short story collection – not only is it being launched in style this week with a live storytelling event featuring readings from the authors and the audience on the theme of love, the publication is also heralded by a short story competition, and there will be a short story writing workshop, held in January at Waterstones TCR (check out #SceptreLoves). We’re excited about it all, and have this Thursday’s event marked firmly in the diary.

Tickets available

2. Standard Issue: with Sarah Millican, Kathy Burke & Jo Brand

20th November @ Leicester Square Theatre

We may have mentioned a few times how much we love Standard Issue and what they do, so we were v excited to see they had a series of ‘in conversation’ events planned. The first will see Sarah Millican, Kathy Burke & Jo Brand discussing all things Standard Issue, feminism and more, and although it is now sold out, there are more events planned for the new year. Hurrah!

Tickets Available

3. Curator’s Tour: Guerrilla Girls with Nayia Yiakoumaki 

8th December @ Whitechapel Gallery

We’re sure you will have seen that the Guerilla Girls are back, bringing the absurd lack of diversity in art organisations throughout the world to the public’s attention in their characteristically un-ignorable way, this time focussing on European galleries and museums through an exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery. And now there’s this: a brilliant opportunity to experience the exhibition under the guidance of curator Nayia Yiakoumaki, and all for free.

Free


@deardamsels

Are you going to any of these events? Let us know! We love to hear from you.

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