A celebration of women’s achievements took place in the Henry Bloom Noble Library on International Women’s Day last week.
The Manx Bard Stacey Astill organised the event and said it would be ‘a wonderful multifaceted event’ with poems and songs all related to women.
Stacey and librarian Jan Macartney introduced the evening to a full room and Stacey read Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’.
International Women’s Day started life in 1908 when, in the face of oppression and inequality, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.
Stacey said: ‘The theme of the International Women’s Day campaign this year is A Pledge for Parity but to make it a bit easier for the poets, I simply decided on the theme of “women” for this evening.’
A very broad and diverse range of voices were represented, from the political to the personal to laugh out loud funny.
Poetry by Stacey, Janet Lees, Bridge Carter, Usha Kishore, Di Benson, Val Quayle and Georgia Lizette covered equality at work, sisterhood, female infanticide, goddesses, canal boats, personal heroines and snoring husbands.
A surprise guest appearance was made by local writer David McKenna, a self-proclaimed feminist who was one of the handful of men present, and he performed a satirical poem about parity of pay based on the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill, written specially for the event.
There were also artworks from ceramic artist Katy Mitchell, who had created a plate featuring the poem ‘Silver Music’ by Janet Lees, and a beautiful paper dress covered with words, by Myra Gilbert.
Singer and guitarist Susie Coyle provided a musical set with some heartfelt ballads celebrating women.
Jan Macartney said: ‘It has been an amazing evening, with such a diverse range of voices, wonderful to hear them all.’