This month, we’re inviting our sassy storytellers to tell us about the time they broke the bias and didn’t act very “ladylike” AT ALL. Maybe they (gasp) were rude, lewd, or very, very nude. Maybe they realized they weren’t “ladies” at all (we all know gender is a construct). Maybe they spoke up, spoke out, and stuck it to the man. We’re here for all of it, and you should be too. Join us for a joyful night of dancing around a roaring bonfire of gender expectations!
Our performer line-up:
Team 20s: Nicole Conception is a business coach who is on a mission to help women move out of the hustle and into more flow, teaching them to work with their mind and bodies to access new levels and possibilities with ease.
Team 30s: Jen Ward is a writer, comic, procrastinator, black belt in Karate, Family Feud auditionee and garlic bread aficionado. She uses comedy to navigate complexities of life, and tries to see the lighter side. Jen is intensely proud of her ‘willpower’ but not so much her ‘won’t’ power especially around free samples.
Team 40s: Katia Ariel is an author, book editor and educator from Melbourne/Naarm. She was born in Odessa, Ukraine. She was a recipient of the Varuna Residential fellowship in 2022 and has been published in a variety of literary journals, including Womankind and Antithesis. Her memoir, The Swift Dark Tide, published by Gazebo Books in 2023, chronicles the discovery of queerness later in life, as well as the history of desire and rebellion in her female line.
Team 50s: Maha Sidaoui has been writing for more than thirty years. First letters, then lyrics and later stories. Maha has a deep passion for words and a desire to explore her own personal journey through her stories. Maha searches her childhood and early years for whatever it was that made her the person and author that she has become.
Team 60s: Wendi Bradshaw is a recently retired nephrology nurse, of forty years ‘vintage’. She now enjoys a relaxed life of art, writing, reading and friends. In 2021 she was nominated ‘Autumn Digital Writer in Residence’ for Peninsula Writers’ Club, and she made the longlist for the 2022 ‘Furphy literary awards’.
Team 70s: EV Ratnam (Enid Ratnam-Keese) is a Visual artist, Printmaker and Writer. She has works in Public collections in Australia, France and Italy. She counteracts the major setbacks in life by writing and creating micro gardens around her home . So far, a moss garden, a fern garden and a red garden.
Generation Women is an award-winning cross-generational storytelling night founded in New York in 2017, Sydney in 2018, and Melbourne in 2020. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those women, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s, and her 70s+.
Hosted by Rebecca Lister, Produced by Donna Logue, Hopepunk Productions. Created by Georgia Clark.