Demoliton of the largest women’s prison in Europe has finally began.
There will be a candle lit vigil on Saturday 26th November between 4pm and 5pm at the entrance to the old site of HMP Holloway on Parkhurst Road. The vigil will be held to reflect on Holloway’s past and is organised by Reclaim Holloway.
Many of our past and future attendees of the Saturday Forensic Forums will be aware that they typically take place at the Philadelphia Association in Hampstead, north London. The Philadelphia Association was founded in 1965 by R. D. Laing and colleagues in order to challenge established ways of thinking about and responding to distress.
The Philadelphia Association (PA) offer several psychotherapy courses including an introductory course to psychotherapy and other training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
Interested or know someone who would be? See the PA website for further details and applications: https://www.philadelphia-association.com/training
You warmly invited to the next Saturday Forensic Forum on Saturday 19th November at the Philadelphia Association (time to be confirmed).
We’ll have our esteemed guest speaker and author, Dr Estela Welldon, leading the conversation about her book: “Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherhood” amongst her other publications.
In addition to the conversation with Dr Welldon, we will also have a space to discuss and reflect on a 30-minute film by Amelia O’Loughlin about the closure of HMP Holloway in July 2016 (see the following link):
https://vimeo.com/719276596/801efc0b26
We would also like to invite those of you who are working on a project and care to share your work to contact us using the email address below so that we can arrange a time and a date for you to present your work at upcoming SFF forums. This would be a fabulous opportunity to test run and try out ideas with a friendly and open forum.
Should you have any queries or wish to book a place at the November forum, please respond to this email: saturdayforensicforum@gmail.com.
Decriminalised Futures is a group exhibition featuring 13 international artists whose work speaks to the multiplicity of contemporary sex worker experiences. The exhibition highlights the history of the sex worker rights movement and its inextricable links to issues of racial and social justice, migrant rights, labour rights, anti-austerity work, and queer and trans liberation.
Decriminalised Futures features works from Tobi Adebajo, Khaleb Brooks, Chi Chi Castillo and May May Peltier, Cory Cocktail, Hanecdote, Liad Hussein Kantorowicz, Letizia Miro and Yarli Allison, Aisha Mirza, Annie Mok, pxr•mxt•r, and Danica Anna Uskert-Quinn.
The exhibition will be hosted at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (nearest stations: Charing Cross / Embankment).
Information about the exhibition and ticket booking can be found on the following website: https://ica.art/exhibitions/decriminalised-futures?dm_i=56G9,HK7D,1259BF,21LVS,1.
A recent review by Pamela Windham Stewart has been published on the International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy website. Her review reflects her visit to the Tate Britain exhibition by Paula Rego, a Portuguese-British visual artist who is particularly known for her paintings and prints based on storybooks. See link below to download the review.
James’ case presentation will tell the sad story of Seán, a man he has been seeing weekly as an inpatient since 2006 and as an outpatient since 2012.
The case presentation will provide an opportunity for discussion and reflection.
For further details and to book your place at this forum, please email: saturdayforensicforum@gmail.com
Following the closure of HMP Holloway in 2016, Peabody Housing Association have released exhibition boards of the design proposals in progress.
You can view them here: https://hollowayprisonconsultation.co.uk/exhibitionboards/
They are also holding in-person events for local residents who may wish to discuss the design proposals further with the Peabody project team. Which will take place at the former prison site on the following dates:
Thursday 21 October 2pm – 5pm
Friday 22 October 11am – 2pm
It’s 5 years since the last prisoner left HMP Holloway. Help remember the thousands of women held over its 160-year history, and call for a positive, living legacy.
What: Personal stories, poems and songs honouring women’s struggles for justice. Art from Make Space for Women competition. Information on the Women’s Building, green space, and housing to be built on the site.
Bring: A single flower or plant to leave as a memorial.
Wear: green, white or violet, the Suffragette’s colours standing for Give Women the Vote. (Purple is fine too!)
Where: Main prison entrance, junction of Parkhurst Road/Camden Road, London N7 0NU. Nearest tube: Caledonian Road
Bread and Roses
As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
As we go marching, marching, we’re standing proud and tall.
The rising of the women means the rising of us all.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
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March 25, 1911: a garment factory fire in New York killed 123 women and girls and 23 men. Mostly recent immigrants, they were trapped because stairwells and exits were locked, a common practice at the time. In a speech soon after, trade unionist Rose Schneiderman said, “What the woman who labours wants is the right to live, not simply exist — the right to life as the rich woman has the right to life, and the sun and music and art… The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.” This inspired the lyrics by poet James Oppenheim, which was set to music in 1974 by Mimi Fariña. The song can be heard in the movie Pride (https://tinyurl.com/j9sup7ed).
The next Saturday Forensic Forum is scheduled for Saturday 18th September 2021 at the Philadelphia Association (pending lockdown guidelines). Watch this space for further updates.
Saturday Forensic Forum 