On Sunday March 8 the Sydney Opera House will be celebrating International Women’s Day with its eighth annual All About Women Festival.

All About Women 2020 will feature solo talks, panel discussions and hands-on workshops, with a stellar line-up of international and local thinkers, storytellers and game-changers including: 

• Chanel Miller, a writer and artist whose memoir Know My Name is credited with sparking national discussion in the United States about the treatment of sexual assault cases by college campuses and court systems;

• Lindy West, the gloriously loud and unapologetic writer, comedian and TV producer (Shrill, based on her memoir) who expounds on feminism, social justice, body positivity and popular culture;

• Jung Chang, author of the bestselling biography Wild Swans and Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, a new book detailing the lives of the Soong sisters and their influence in shaping modern China; 

• Azadeh Moaveni, a Middle East correspondent and author of Guest House for Young Widows, an account of 13 women who joined the Islamic State;

• Jo Dunkley, a Princeton University astrophysics professor researching the history of the universe, how space is changing, the nature of dark matter and female astronomers’ vital contribution to the field;

• Sanam Maher, author of A Woman Like Her – The Short Life of Qandeel Baloch examining the ‘honour’ killing of Pakistan’s most unlikely feminist and social media star, who will engage in a cross-cultural discussion with Jess Hill, author of See What You Made Me Do about Australia’s domestic violence crisis; 

• Darcey Steinke, author of Flash Count Diary, a memoir exploring the taboos of menopause, the changing gender landscape, and transforming desires in the post-reproductive years of women’s lives;

• Gina Rippon, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Aston Brain Centre and author of Gendered Brain: the new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain, which dismantles the notion of distinct differences in male and female brains by disputing dubious historical science;

• Journalist and author Jill Stark, broadcaster Yumi Stynes and rural advocate Shanna Wan, who will interrogate whether the spike in ‘sober curiosity’ is symptomatic of women’s troubled relationship with alcohol, or indicative of changing moralities around drinking; 

• First Nations artist and curator Paola Balla, poet and playwright Kirli Saunders, community advocate Amelia Kunoth-Monks, and her actress and activist grandmother Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, who will lead a cross-generational dialogue on the cultural knowledge passed through matrilineal lines in First Nations communities;

• Bri Lee, author of Eggshell Skull and Beauty, who will appear in conversation with writer and appearance activist Carly Findlay about transcending normative standards of beauty;

• Amber Jackson and Kerryn Higgs, who lived at Amazon Acres in Northern NSW – a countercultural collective of women attempting to forge a feminist utopia in the 1970s – will appear on a panel with historian Sophie Robinson; 

• Tea Uglow, Creative Director for Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney, who will explore whether tech is inherently gendered; and

• Stanislava Pinchuk (Miso), a Ukrainian-Australian artist data mapping the changing topographies of war and conflict zones, who will exhibit a commissioned artwork, The Red Carpet and deliver a talk on the practice of weaving as a global act of female resistance and political discourse. 

 

The 2020 program extends beyond talks to hands-on workshops in African head wrapping, blending essential oils and digital life drawing with All About Women illustrator Alice Oehr, plus a performance, literary salon, foyer exhibition, and free soapbox-style conversation. 

The Working Bitches, a collective of friends and allies comprising Betty Grumble, Megana Holiday, Iya Ya Ya and Stelly G will unleash their uncensored, unapologetic and high-energy performance Working Bitches Working Title. Flying in the face of the ‘well behaved woman’ trope, they reach towards the physical limits of storytelling, performance and installation to reclaim space to celebrate women’s aliveness. 

A special All About Women edition of the popular monthly event Generation Women will feature a selection of perspectives on ‘How I became a feminist’. Women representing every decade from the 20s through to the 70s will include Kirli Saunders, Dixie Crawford, Jane Caro and Sylvia Kinder, with more names to be announced soon. 

My Mother’s Kitchen, an interactive digital exhibition by Queerstories’ Maeve Marsden and Google Creative Lab, will share the childhood kitchen stories of eight LGBTQI+ individuals (including Zoe Coombs Marr, Alan Clarke and Bhenji Ra) through a deconstructed podcast and roll-a-ball game mash-up.  

Conversations with Feminists returns in 2020, involving the entire All About Women community in a three-hour conversation between a rotating group of festival attendees, speakers, and prominent Sydneysiders. In this free public event open to all, participants can deep-dive into issues facing feminists today, from the personal to the political.  

This International Women’s Day, don’t miss this incredible opportunity to take part in an inclusive forum challenging traditional power structures that celebrates and empowers the female-identifying and non-binary members of Sydney Opera House’s All About Women community.

What: All About Women 

When: Sunday 8 March, 2020

Where: Various venues, Sydney Opera House

Price: From $33 + booking fee (multipacks available) 

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/all-about-women