Registration now open for Clear Lines 2017
We did it! Thank you for supporting our crowdfunding campaign.
WOW — we did it!!
We set a very steep goal of raising £3,000 in just 3 weeks, and we’re THRILLED to say we surpassed that goal! On Nov. 17th, we successfully raised £3,320 from 71 supporters in just 21 days.
Thanks to all of you, we are now able to officially declare Clear Lines 2017 a go! We’ve been able to secure our amazing venue, Rich Mix, for 3 days with incredible sessions, arts, and performances taking place from Friday to Sunday.
From all of us, a massive THANK YOU — and we hope to see you at Clear Lines from Dec. 1-3! Tickets will be available this week; in the meantime, please check out our speakers and schedule to get excited!
— the Clear Lines 2017 team
Volunteer Recruitment Meeting on Oct. 31, 2017
We are fast approaching Clear Lines 2017, which is taking place from Friday, December 1st until Sunday, December 3rd, 2017 at Rich Mix.
If you are passionate about ending sexual violence, and all forms of VAWG, please come along to the Clear Lines 2017 volunteer recruitment meeting at 7 pm on Tuesday, October 31st, 2017, at the Southbank Centre (exact location to be announced on our Facebook event).
There are lots of ways to get involved, big and small, remotely and in person. We are looking for individuals with a variety of skill sets to help with planning and logistics on the lead up to the festival, to support us with fundraising, ticket sales, and social media, and to volunteer througout the festival. We only ask that you are honest with the amount of time you can commit and are passionate and commited to making Clear Lines 2017 happen!
Feel free to get in touch via Facebook or email or email info@clearlines.org.uk if you have any questions.
We hope to see you on there!
Festival Organizer Winnie M Li Named 2017 Not the Booker Prize Winner
We are pleased to announce to the Clear Lines community that our festival organizer, Winnie M Li, has won the 2017 Not for Booker prize for her debut novel, Dark Chapter.
Dark Chapter, which chronicles the violence and aftermath of a brutal sexual assault of a Taiwanese-American woman in Belfast, was the leader among both readers and the judges panel and beat out four other shortlisted titles for the top prize: Man With a Seagull on His Head by Harriet Paige, The Threat Level Remains Severe by Rowena Macdonald, Not Thomas by Sara Gethin, and Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout.
Li based Dark Chapter around her own experience of, as she describes, falling between the cracks of the justice system following her sexual assault. It is from this place that Li co-founded Clear Lines as a space to talk about sexual assault — and we are thrilled to be bringing Clear Lines back for its second iteration from Dec. 2-3, 2017. Stay tuned for more details on this year’s programming.
#itsnotok – Films of the Clearlines Festival are now online!
The first ever Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week is taking place from the 1st-7th February 2016 to help public, statutory and third sector organisations to participate in a discussion about sexual abuse and sexual violence. During the week initiatives like Clearlines Festival and organisations, individuals and groups working in this area or affected by these issues are invited to raise awareness about sexual abuse and sexual violence and how to prevent it in the UK. The hashtag is #itsnotok.
To coincide with this week, we are releasing films of some of the amazing sessions that took place this summer.
Some highlights include:
What do we tell the kids about sexual abuse? How do our messages about sexual abuse confuse children? Learn why your child is unlikely to tell you if they are being sexually abused.
Finding pleasure after pain: Sex and intimacy after sexual violence. How can you build or reclaim your sex life after experiencing sexual violence?
How can we improve media coverage of sexual assault and abuse? Why do certain stories make the news and others don’t? Can we can change the way media professionals understand and portray sexual assault and abuse in the media?
Watch more of the films here.
Thanks for making Clear Lines a success!
We’re proud to say the first-ever Clear Lines Festival was a great success! From last Thursday until Sunday, Old Paradise Yard in Lambeth hosted a truly special gathering of speakers, artists, survivors, experts, and festival-goers — all eager to engage in an open, honest, authentic conversation about sexual assault and consent. We could not have done this without the support of our crowdfunders, sponsors, performers, panelists, volunteers and YOU. So thank you for following us on this journey. We’ll now be taking a break to recover, and then have a think about where to take Clear Lines in the future.
Tears and laughter
Many of our events were sold-out, with an estimated 500 people coming to participate at Clear Lines. At our Theatre Night, tears were shed both in the audience and by our artists during the Q&A after these hard-hitting performances. And at our Comedy Night, we shook with laughter listening to Josie Long, Sarah Kendall, Stuart Black, and our MC and curator Tiff Stevenson. Bridget Christie gave us a special preview of her Edinburgh show, and poets from the Burn After Reading Collective moved us with their insightful, elegant readings at our closing event. Panels like ‘Where have all the good men gone?’ and ‘Sex and intimacy after Sexual Violence‘ had our audiences fully engaged in heated discussions with our panelists and performers.
Only at Clear Lines would the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London appear on the same night as comedian Josie Long — or would Bridget Christie’s Edinburgh preview follow a panel called ‘Do Real Men Get Raped?’ If you missed some of our events, we are working on preparing our video coverage, and hope to make these videos available online soon.
What Those Involved Said:
“It was an amazing experience. although very intense, it felt a safe space where vulnerability could be shared and I felt there was also a bit of collective healing.”
“What you’ve done is pretty miraculous and you could see how the festival lit up those people. I haven’t experienced such positivity and hope like that, possibly, ever, especially in the face of such a tough subject.”
“Thank you for organising such an incredible festival. Words fail me sometimes, when I need them most, they start falling away the moment I think of how it is one thing to be a survivor and it is another thing altogether to make things happen, like the festival, so that someone else can survive, can continue surviving – because I do believe it is an ongoing process, a constant working through it. Your festival, helped me do that, helped so many others do it, or at least know how to deal with it a little better. People will have woken up this morning a little bit changed because of you, because of what you made happen.”
Clear Lines in the News
We’ve been thrilled by press coverage of Clear Lines, organised by festival sponsor On Road, including this Channel 4 News segment which aired on Monday:
On the Friday morning of the festival, comedian Tiff Stevenson and our co-founder Dr Nina Burrowes spoke on local BBC Radio stations throughout the UK, discussing the use of comedy in addressing sexual assault. Our other co-founder Winnie M Li did the same, and also appeared on BBC Radio Ulster last night. Her story as a survivor-turned-activist was also covered by the Irish News and the Daily Mail. Our media panelist Radhika Sanghani wrote this Telegraph article about our revenge porn panel, and Vice magazine featured our visual artist Ela Xora.
(On Road is doing a larger piece of work on how sexual assault and abuse is covered in the media so do get in touch with them to find out more or if you are interested in being involved.)
Social Media Buzz during the Festival
Our audiences were busy on Twitter at Clear Lines. Have a look at the festival hashtag #clearlinesfest and check out this storify from our Volunteer Coordinator Kate Llewellyn:
What did you think?
We’d love to hear what you thought of Clear Lines, so please spare a few moments to fill out a quick survey. We’d be really grateful.
Or you could email us at info@clearlines.org.uk — what was your favourite event? How has coming to the festival changed your attitude towards sexual assault and the people it affects? Your feedback will help us plan for the future.
What’s next?
Many people have said they’d like to see Clear Lines again in the future — or in other parts of the UK. We are a small team of volunteers and need to think long and hard about what we can do next. In the meantime, we’ll be sending out thank you packages to our crowdfunders and editing our videos of the festival. Johanna Ward is working on her photographic project ‘The Watchful Eyes’, which some of you participated in. But do spread the word about Clear Lines and what you got out of it!
Festival kicks off today – full programme is online!
The Clear Lines Festival starts today! Kicking off with an Open House Session at 2pm with charities and support organisations, the 4-day event takes place at I’klectik in Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Lane, SE1 7LG. Full directions and how to get there are on our website and the closest tube stations are Lambeth North, Westminster and Waterloo.
At 4.30pm today, there will be a panel discussion on domestic violence: ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’. Victims of domestic violence face multiple challenges to leaving abusive relationships. These struggles are often misunderstood by family, friends and the general public. This event will explore these obstacles and suggest ways in which our perceptions can be changed. Featuring Pamela Zaballa and Helen Sweeney from Hestia, Independent Domestic Violence Advisor Mouna El Ogbani and Peter Kelly from Gallop.
From 6 – 7.15pm, Red Chigney will chair an ‘Arts & Activism: Tackling Sexual Assault’ panel looking how we can use art and creativity to challenge social attitudes around rape and gender-based violence. And asking why is cultural change so important alongside legal change? Join panellists from Femme Fierce, Southall Black Sisters and #thisdoesntmeanyes in this discussion.
At 8pm, our Film Night kicks off with a double-bill of thought-provoking documentary films, including the BAFTA-nominated film ‘The Unspeakable Crime: Rape’, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers Sara Hardy and Blue Ryan and Emmy-nominated documentary ‘Brave Miss World’.
Here is the full Clear Lines Programme from Thursday 30th July to Sunday 2nd of August. Check out the schedule too.
Book your tickets on Eventbrite.
Follow the #clearlinesfest hashtag and @ClearLinesUK on Twitter for live updates throughout the weekend.
See you all soon!
Improving media coverage of sexual assault – line-up confirmed for this Friday at 6pm
What are the stories that are not being told in the media? How well does the “goodie, baddie, victim” paradigm serve the audience when covering sexual assault and abuse stories? How can the media improve its handling of these stories? What are the interesting angles that could be used, which will still appeal to large audiences whilst improving public understanding of sexual crimes, its victims and perpetrators?
Our panel of journalists and experts will discuss these issues this Friday evening at 6pm. The evening will be hosted by Nathalie McDermott, director of On Road Media, Clear Lines Festival sponsor.
The panel will be chaired by BBC Scotland’s Head of Current Affairs, Marcus Ryder who will be joined by:
- Award-winning BBC & Panorama correspondent Alison Holt
- Women’s writer for the Telegraph’s Wonder Women section, Radhika Sanghani
- Psychologist, researcher and festival co-founder Dr Nina Burrowes
- Writer, producer, survivor and festival co-founder, Winnie M Li
There are a handful of tickets left for this event – Register for your free ticket here.
Follow @clearlinesuk for updates and the hashtag for the event will be #clearlinesfestival.
- Alison Holt
- Marcus Ryder
- Radhika Sanghani
- Dr Nina Burrowes
- Winnie M Li
- Nathalie McDermott
What should we tell the kids about sexual abuse?
Blogged by Dr Nina Burrowes
Every parent needs to find a way of living with the risk of the sexual abuse of their child. The statistics are frightening. 20% of girls and 8% of boys experience some form of sexual abuse. Sadly this means that abuse is in every community. It’s a crime that stretches across class, ethnicity, and religious group. No child is immune from abuse – so what should parents do?
The simple answer is – educate yourself. There is so much misinformation about abuse. So many unhelpful messages. Teaching your child to avoid strangers is NOT the main way to reducing the risk of sexual abuse.
It’s only by opening your eyes to the real risks that you can keep your child safe. From tots to teens our kids need us to shun the myths and open our eyes to the truth about abuse.
Join Dr Nina Burrowes, author of ‘Eyes open to sexual abuse. What every parent needs to know‘ and therapist Silke Katharina at The Clear Lines Festival for a conversation about the real risks and what you can do about them. The panel ‘What do we tell the kids about sexual abuse?’ is on Saturday 1st of August from 12.30 – 1.30pm.
Tickets are available on Eventbrite – book early to avoid disappointment as space is very limited.