Previous Speakers

Here’s just some of the speakers &
performers from our past events

Hover over images for more info

WINNIE M LI

Co-Founder

WINNIE M LI

Co-Founder

Winnie M Li is an author and activist. Her debut novel, DARK CHAPTER, is winner of The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize 2017 and will be translated into eight languages worldwide. Partly inspired by her own assault, it explores a rape from the perspective of both victim and perpetrator. A Harvard graduate, Winnie is now Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Clear Lines Festival, the UK’s first-ever festival addressing sexual assault and consent through the arts and discussion. She is also a PhD researcher at the London School of Economics, researching the uses of social media by rape survivors to share their experiences and form a community. Winnie has appeared in The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday, The Times, The Independent, The Irish Times, BBC World News, BBC Woman’s Hour, and RTE Radio One, among other media outlets.

VICKI BOTHWELL

Speaker

VICKI BOTHWELL

Speaker

Vicki, born in Cape Town, has spent ten years as an actor in London and is a founding member of Doll’s Eye Theatre, a company that writes and produces theatre to challenge audience perception of gender roles and raise awareness of Violence Against Women. She co-wrote and acted in the sold-out show Might Never Happen in 2016. Vicki works at Rape Crisis South London and has recently completed her MA in Woman and Child Abuse at CWASU London Metropolitan University. She is currently working on the third novel of her series These Last Strands.

ZAHRAH AL-BEJAWI – BROOK

Speaker

ZAHRAH AL-BEJAWI – BROOK

Speaker

Zahrah is an Education and Wellbeing Specialist at Brook, the UK’s leading sexual health and wellbeing charity for young people. She delivers Sex and Relationships Education in group settings to young people in Camden and Islington on a range of topics including consent, healthy relationships, pornography and sexual health. As the coordinator of a free condom scheme for young people, she also works with individuals, supporting them to make safe, healthy and consensual choices.

DR NINA BURROWES

Co-Founder

DR NINA BURROWES

Co-Founder

Dr Nina Burrowes is a psychologist, author, activist, and co-founder of the Clear Lines Festival. When she’s not drawing cartoons or working with prosecutors she’s often filming new episodes of ‘Sexual abuse: The questions you’ve never had the chance to ask’

MARTI LEIMBACH

Speaker

MARTI LEIMBACH

Speaker

Marti Leimbach is the author of seven novels, including New York Times bestseller Dying Young and Daniel Isn’t Talking. Widely translated, and published worldwide, Marti is a core tutor at Oxford University’s Creative Writing Program, where she teaches on the Masters programme. Her latest novel, Age Of Consent, was published in July 2016 by Penguin Random House in the USA and Fourth Estate in the UK with the paperback out in July 2017.

UNA

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UNA

Speaker

Una is an artist, writer and lecturer, author of Becoming/Unbecoming (2015: Myriad Editions). Becoming/Unbecoming has been featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, in Elle Magazine, The New York Times, El País and Oprah.com. Una is currently working on a new graphic fiction for Virago Press and a graphic life story based on women in County Durham, a commission for New Writing North. Becoming/Unbecoming explores what it means to grow up a girl in the atmosphere of shame, misogyny, violence and silence of West Yorkshire between 1975 and 1981.

LIZ KELLY

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LIZ KELLY

Speaker

Liz Kelly, PhD (Sociology), BA (Sociology and Politics), is professor of sexualised violence at London Metropolitan University, where she is also director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) and holds the Roddick Chair on Violence against Women. She has been active in the field of violence against women and children for forty years, and is the author of Surviving Sexual Violence, which established the concept of a ‘continuum of violence’ and over 100 book chapters and journal articles. In 2000, Liz was awarded a CBE in the New Years Honours List for ‘services combating violence against women and children’, and in January 2005 was appointed to the Board of Commissioners of the Women’s National Commission.

SARA PASCOE

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SARA PASCOE

Speaker

As a stand up, Sara Pascoe has starred on Live at the Apollo; QI; Never Mind The Buzzcocks; Room 101 (all BBC), along with 8/10 Cats and being a regular contributor on two series of Stand Up for The Week (both C4). Sara Pascoe vs History earned her a prestigious Fosters Comedy Award nomination for Best Show at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival. Sara won the 2014 Chortle Award for Best Breakthrough Act. As an actress, Sara has enjoyed series regular roles in W1A and Twenty Twelve (both BBC). Sara has written for the Guardian, the Independent and Standard Issue Magazine.

TANAKA MHISHI

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TANAKA MHISHI

Speaker

Tanaka Mhishi is a poet, performer and playwright who works with issues surrounding trauma and masculinity. He is currently performing in Boys Don’t, an OFFIE nominated spoken word theatre show for ages 8+ about boys and crying. His work has appeared on stage at the Brighton, Shambala and Vault Festivals, and in print in publications worldwide. He also works as a lecturer and facilitator. For more information please visit www.tanakamhishi.co.uk.

EMMA BERENTSEN

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EMMA BERENTSEN

Speaker

Emma and Tiffany Murphy met during their MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths University back in 2013. They work both together and separately as independent artists. Their first collaboration was in 2014 with the performance MY NAME IS B, which they created with the international performance collective Company B. Anne meets Jeffrey is their second full-length show together. Emma and Tiffany are interested in the relationship between audience and performer and their work is influenced by the role and representation of women in contemporary culture and society. #AnnemeetsJeffrey

SERAPHIMA KENNEDY

Speaker

SERAPHIMA KENNEDY

Speaker

Seraphima Kennedy grew up in west London. She completed an MA in poetry at Goldsmiths in 2009, and is currently in the final stages of a PhD in Life Writing. Seraphima writes poetry and creative non-fiction about family, migration, conflict and music. Recently she’s been published in Magma, And Other Poems, SouthBank Poetry and the Rialto, and has performed at the Troubadour, Vortex Jazz Club, Ledbury Poetry Festival and Poetry in Aldeburgh. In 2016 she was longlisted for The Poetry School/Nine Arches Press Primers competition, and in 2017 was selected for the Jerwood Arvon mentoring programme and has just been shortlisted for the White Review Poet’s Prize. Seraphima is a member of the collective Malika’s Poetry Kitchen.

LINDA STEINHOFF

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LINDA STEINHOFF

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When she was 18 years old Linda Steinhoff was raped by someone she knew. In the documentary RAPED, she examines various aspects of rape, such as how rape victims are met by the system put in place to help them and how this system itself can be seen as yet another abuser. Is it possible to avoid defining yourself as a victim? Can life go on like before? Should you press charges or not? Through interviews with a convicted rapist, a victim, a psychiatrist, a lawyer, her boyfriend and some good helpers, Steinhoff makes the case that the first step towards a more sensible approach to the question of rape is learning to talk about it. Linda Steinhoff, born in Norway, graduated in 2001 from ALRA ( the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts) in London.

PAMELA DRYNAN

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PAMELA DRYNAN

Speaker

Pamela Drynan is a Scottish documentary filmmaker based in Dublin. In addition to developing and directing Unbreakable : True Lives ( BAI/TV3), her most recent credits include Asking for it? (RTE) with Louise O ‘Neill. Where I Am was Pamela’s feature directorial debut. She has also recently produced On Probation (RTÉ) Surgeons (RTÉ), Who Stole the World Cup? (CH4), Teacher Teacher (BBC1), Scottish BAFTA winning Gutted (BBC1), Chancers (BBC1)) Little Angles (BBC2)

NINA MILLNS

Speaker

NINA MILLNS

Speaker

Nina is a Writer, Actor, Producer who founded the comedy collective Bad Handshake and has worked extensively in theatre, radio, TV and film. Her first full-length play Delete has been longlisted for the PapaTango award 2017 and will be premiered at the Clear Lines Festival on Saturday 2nd December. Nina is passionate about producing work that gives a platform to marginalised voices and places the female experience centre-stage.

TIFF STEVENSON

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TIFF STEVENSON

Speaker

Tiff Stevenson is an award winning stand up comedian, actress and writer. Her 2015 Edinburgh Fringe show Mad Man received a slew of 4 and 5 star reviews, making it officially one of the top 25 best reviewed shows that year. Mad Man went on to tour nationally and was followed up with the even more political, critically acclaimed Seven in 2016. The Times picked Tiff as one of their top 10 comics to watch: ”a hugely accomplished and enjoyably provocative comedian”. Her weekly show Old Rope showcases new material from up-and coming as well as established headline acts and plays to capacity crowds every Monday night in London. Tiff’s TV credits include Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central (Comedy Central) The Apprentice: You’re Fired (BBC Two), Russell Howard’s Good News (BBC Two), Mock The Week (BBC Two), and Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC Two).

RHAMA HUSSEIN

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RHAMA HUSSEIN

Speaker

Rahma Hussein is a student at King’s College London reading History. She is also a speaker and activist, campaigning on issues relating to intersectional feminism, disability rights, women’s rights, migrant rights, religious freedoms and socialism. She has been elected as the Vice-President for Activities and Development for King’s College London Students’ Union (KCLSU) for 2017/18. She is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of I RISE Magazine, a women of colour & non-binary people of colour online creative platform. She has also been featured on the mainstream press – including Sky News and BBC 100 Women in 2016. In her free time she enjoys learning languages, travelling and dreaming of a world ruled by self-defining women.

IMOGEN BUTLER-COLE

Speaker

IMOGEN BUTLER-COLE

Speaker

Imogen Butler-Cole trained at RADA and LISPA and has directed and acted in theatre and TV in Brasil, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Bangladesh, India and the UK. Favourite roles have included Ophelia in The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, Ursula in Ursula and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Directing credits include a multi-lingual Much Ado About Nothing (Mumbai); As You Like It: Gender as a Construct (RADA/ NYU Tisch); The House of Bilquis Bibi (ATC, London) and her own plays PiNiK, Dreamtime, A Story and A Song and Capoeira: Fora Das Correntes. She produced The Tempest in Bangla for Shakespeare’s Globe and was Casting Director for Bishaash, a BBC TV series in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Imogen trains business professionals in communication for The Old Vic, Aspire Leadership, and RADA in Business. She directs Shakespeare and Devising on the Young Actors’ Summer Schools at RADA and has lectured in Drama and Creative Writing at Universities in the UK, India and Bangladesh. Foreign Body was developed at Rich Mix, the Lyric Hammersmith, Pleasance London, RADA Festival, Calm Down Dear, and with the support of Flying Cloud Theatre. The show premiered at WOW Festival at the Southbank Centre in March 2017, completed a run at Soho Theatre in August and has toured to Oxford, Exeter, Bristol, Coventry, Northampton and Dhaka, Bangladesh. We will be touring India in 2018 and are booking UK tour dates between now and then.

SABRINA MAHFOUZ

Speaker

SABRINA MAHFOUZ

Speaker

Sabrina Mahfouz was raised in London and Cairo. Named ‘one of the rising stars of new British playwrighting’, she has received a Fringe First Award for her play Chef and a Sky Arts Academy Award for her poetry work, which has been produced and performed on TV, radio and film. She has many acclaimed publications – poetry and plays – and her work appears in award-winning anthologies including The Good Immigrant (Unbound); This Is Not a Border (Bloomsbury) and Here I Stand (Walker Books). She is currently working with Cambridge University Philosophy Department to write poetry around consent and is the librettist for an opera adaptation of Woman at Point Zero (Royal Opera House/Shubbak/Aldeburgh). She is currently working with Cambridge University Philosophy Department to write poetry around consent and is the librettist for an opera adaptation of Woman at Point Zero (Royal Opera House/Shubbak/Aldeburgh).

BRIDGET MINAMORE

Speaker

BRIDGET MINAMORE

Speaker

Bridget Minamore is a writer from and based in south-east London. She is part of the creative team behind Brainchild Festival and works with charity My Body Back, a project to empower women who have experienced sexual violence. She has an English degree from UCL, has worked with British African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi, and runs poetry workshops – mostly for young people – around the UK. Bridget has worked with the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House, and been a repeat guest on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour and BBC Radio 5 live’s Good Week Bad Week. In 2011 she represented the UK at the International Biennale in Rome with Point Blank Poets, and in 2013 was shortlisted to be London’s first Young Poet Laureate. Bridget was chosen as one of The Hospital Club’s Emerging Creatives in 2015, and more recently, as one of Speaking Volumes’ ‘40 Stars of Black British Literature’. As a journalist, Bridget has written for publications like the Guardian, Pitchfork, The Pool, and The Debrief. She mostly writes about London, pop culture, race, and feminism, as well as the intersections between them. Her first pamphlet Titanic (Out-Spoken Press) came out in May 2016.

FAYE WHITE

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FAYE WHITE

Speaker

Faye White is a print journalist at the Daily Mail, a rape survivor and a sexual assault activist. She started out in journalism as a broadcast assistant on the BBC flagship Sunday politics program The Andrew Marr Show and her work has been featured in BBC Three, Grazia Magazine, Channel 4, BuzzFeed and The Sun. After she was raped on her year abroad in 2015, Faye waived her right to anonymity and wrote a piece titled ‘A Name To A Statistic’ for her student magazine, highlighting the importance for rape and assault survivors to be recognised as people and not just data on a screen. In the aftermath of the attack, Faye recognised that she was not receiving adequate academic support at university when she told her department what had happened. On realising that this must happen to survivors all over the country, she started a campaign to change the Code of Practice on Extenuating Circumstances (EC) at universities to include a specific clause for rape and assault survivors. The campaign made national headlines and gained the support of ex-liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who wrote to every Vice-Chancellor in the country urging them to change the rules off the back of the campaign. Faye runs a website called whatwedotosurvive.com, where survivors of rape and assault can write anonymously or otherwise about their experiences with sexual violence, with a particular focus on recovery.

NATHALIE MCDERMOTT

Speaker

NATHALIE MCDERMOTT

Speaker

Nathalie set up On Road Media in 2008 and she oversees a number of projects that bring about social change through collaboration with the media, including Angles: A Different Take on Sexual and Domestic Abuse and the award-winning All About Trans project which has leveraged over £5.5 million in programming in the UK media. Nathalie read literature at Trinity College Dublin and has an MA in International Journalism from City University London. With a background in radio production at the BBC, Nathalie joined Media for Development in 2003 to set up the Prison Radio Outreach Project (PROP) and train the prisoner production team at HMP Wandsworth in London before becoming a fellow at The School for Social Entrepreneurs to set up On Road Media. On Road Media is a charity that tackles social problems by improving media coverage of misrepresented groups and issues. The team delivers projects in collaboration with different communities across the UK, including trans people, migrants, and survivors of sexual abuse. They provide media training, peer support and friendly meet-ups with the media that inspire new content and fresh contacts, as well as encouraging a better understanding of people’s experiences and stories.

TAZEEN AHMAD

Speaker

TAZEEN AHMAD

Speaker

Tazeen Ahmad is a Bafta-nominated TV reporter, presenter and writer who has worked across all the major broadcasters for over 20 years including ITN, NBC, BBC and Channel 4. An award-winning investigative reporter, a former foreign-correspondent and a regular contributor to national newspapers, she is also the author of ‘The Check-out Girl’. She regularly sits on a number of international and domestic juries including BAFTA, Royal Television Society, Rory Peck Awards and One World Media. She is also the Founding Director of EQ Matters, an emotional intelligence consultancy that works with Women in senior leadership and those moving into senior management empowering and supporting them through one-to-one coaching, team work and workshops and helping them tackle leadership challenges and fulfil potential. She is also the Patron of two charities ‘Mosac’ and ‘Woman’s Trust’ and the co-founder of ‘The Story Project’, an education programme that uses writing to improve literacy and emotional intelligence amongst school children.

TIFFANY MURPHY

Speaker

TIFFANY MURPHY

Speaker

Tiffany and Emma Berentsen met during their MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths University back in 2013. They work both together and separately as independent artists. Their first collaboration was in 2014 with the performance MY NAME IS B, which they created with the international performance collective Company B. Anne meets Jeffrey is their second full-length show together. Emma and Tiffany are interested in the relationship between audience and performer and their work is influenced by the role and representation of women in contemporary culture and society. #AnnemeetsJeffrey

SILKE GRYGIER

Speaker

SILKE GRYGIER

Speaker

As a survivor activist, psychologist, and dramatherapist, Silke Grygier uses her expertise from lived experience and professional practice to empower survivors of childhood sexual abuse and create the structures needed both for support and prevention. She has founded the Survivors’ Collective, an activist project run by and for CSA survivors, speaks at festivals and conferences as well as on her YouTube channel LittleActsOfRevolution, and is currently launching her new project Not The Only One to bring survivor activism and specialist support to universities and colleges.

EMILY JACOB

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EMILY JACOB

Speaker

Emily Jacob is the founder of ReConnected Life. A survivor herself, Emily is using her skills, knowledge and experience to help women move forward from living one day at a time, to live their ReConnected Life. She is the author of ‘Desperately Hopeful’, and editor of ‘To Report or Not To Report: Survivor Testimony of the (In)Justice System’ which will be published in Spring 2018. Emily is a powerful speaker on behalf of survivors. She has been featured in Metro, Huffington Post, Psychologies Life Labs, and appeared on BBC Breakfast, Radio 5 Live, and most recently the Channel 5 documentary RAPED: My Story, as well as featuring in a series of videos for the Independent.

JADE SWABY

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JADE SWABY

Speaker

Jade Swaby is a first-class law graduate, who decided against a career in criminal law after experiencing the criminal (in)justice system as a survivor of sexual violence. She instead has chosen to use her knowledge, skills and experiences to support other survivors through, and affect change within, the criminal justice system. Jade works at Rape Crisis South London, and is undertaking her masters in Woman and Child Abuse, at the Child and Woman Studies Abuse Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University. She is also part of the Clear Lines team.

DR SUNDARI ANITHA

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DR SUNDARI ANITHA

Speaker

Dr Sundari Anitha is Reader at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, UK. She has researched and written in the areas of violence against women and girls in the UK and India, and migrant women workers’ struggles for rights in the UK. Her recent publications include books and peer reviewed journal articles on forced marriage, marriage migrants’ experiences of domestic violence, transnational abandonment of women, dowry-related violence, sex selective abortion, gender-based violence in university communities and South Asian women’s industrial militancy in the UK. She has previously managed a Women’s Aid refuge and worked for Asha Projects, a specialist refuge for South Asian survivors of domestic violence and has been active in campaigns and policy-making to address violence against women and girls since 1999.

PROF AMINA MEMON

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PROF AMINA MEMON

Speaker

Professor Amina Memon is a highly skilled researcher and teacher with 30 years of expertise in the field of Applied Cognitive and Social Psychology and over 130 publications. Her specialist areas are eyewitness testimony, investigative interviewing and biases in decision-making. A distinctive flavour of her work has been her close working relationship with policy makers and practitioners in the field of policing, social work and the law. Her applied research is aimed at identifying methods for improving justice for victims and witnesses. Current research projects including work on eyewitness identification, restorative justice, the reliability and credibility of evidence from vulnerable groups, best practice in questioning child witnesses and the reliability of evidence from older adult witnesses. Amina has served as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases in the USA, Scotland and England. She has provided expert testimony and advised professionals investigating allegations of sexual abuse in child and adult cases.

NINA NASIM

Speaker

NINA NASIM

Speaker

Nina Nasim is a transgender activist and the LGBTQI+ Asylum Seeker Support Worker at UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group. Founded in 1993, UKLGIG is a unique charity which supports in excess of 1,500 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people every year many of whom are survivors of human rights abuses including gender based violence and sexual abuse. Nina also facilitates support groups in London for lesbian and bisexual asylum seeking women, gay and bisexual men and also started the first support group in Europe for trans*, non-binary and intersex asylum seekers last year.

EMILY JACOB

Speaker

EMILY JACOB

Speaker

Yasmin Rassool and Kathryn Spark are Training and Prevention Facilitators at Rape Crisis South London (RASASC). As experienced facilitators and accredited front-line support workers, they deliver sexual violence prevention workshops with young people in schools as well as training to professionals. Their work raises awareness of gendered behaviour and gender inequality relating to sex, relationships and the continuum of violence against women and girls. They create open safe spaces to discuss sexual violence, challenge myths and increase knowledge and clarity around sexual violence, with the aim of preventing it from happening at all while ensuring that survivors receive the support they deserve. Previously Yasmin supported survivors of sexual violence at a drop-in service and Katie worked as a domestic and sexual violence caseworker and advocate.

SEJAL CHAD

Speaker

SEJAL CHAD

Speaker

Sejal Chad is an Integrative Arts Psychotherapist. Incorporating a background in creative writing, improvisation and conflict mediation with more traditional talking therapies, she supports people in understanding their experiences and finding their own way to healing.

CORDELIA MORRISON

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CORDELIA MORRISON

Speaker

Cordelia Morrison – better known as Cordi! – manages strategic relationships at Tender, a London-based charity using drama to educate children and young people about healthy relationships, gender equality, and the prevention of domestic and sexual violence. Cordi recently moved into Tender’s development team, following two years as their Education Coordinator where she focused on Tender’s work in primary and SEN schools. Prior to working for Tender, Cordi worked for several years at Shakespeare’s Globe in their Education and Disabled Access teams, and is an experienced theatre facilitator for children with special educational needs, currently volunteering with inclusive children’s theatre company, Angel Shed.

JOHN WELLINGTON

Speaker

JOHN WELLINGTON

Speaker

John Wellington, 61, has been Managing Editor at The Mail on Sunday since 2000 after joining the paper as a reporter in 1986. His first job in journalism was at the Brighton and Hove Gazette in 1978. He then worked for independent radio, BBC radio and as a freelance reporter for The Sun, News of The World, Daily Express, Sunday Express and The Times.

SUBAH RASAB

Speaker

SUBAH RASAB

Speaker

Subah Rasab is a specialist BAMER (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee) Outreach Worker at Coventry Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre (CRASAC). CRASAC has been established for over 30 years, providing free services for all genders, aged 5 and above, in Coventry, who are victims or survivors of sexual violence. We provide a helpline, counselling service, therapy groups for adults and children, an outreach service for black and ethnic minority groups and young people, support and advocacy for those who choose to go through the criminal justice system. Subah has worked with CRASAC for 5 years, in a variety of roles, including working on the helpline, providing advocacy support through the criminal justice system and now as a Specialist BAMER Outreach Worker.

ASHLEY STEPHEN

Speaker

ASHLEY STEPHEN

Speaker

Ashley Stephen is an activist and the Co-founder of Disabled Survivors Unite, a user-led organisation creating change for disabled survivors of abuse and sexual violence. Ashley’s work focuses on campaigning and running The (re)Storytellers Project for DSU, a project that allows disabled survivors to share their stories anonymously. Ashley also regularly speaks at events on issues affecting disabled survivors and has given evidence on this at a hearing in the European Parliament. While visiting London in 2013, Ashley was drugged and raped by a stranger. They did not receive proper support from services or the police, who did not know what to do with an autistic rape victim. In a desire to prevent this from happening to others, The (re)Storytellers Project came into existence and Disabled Survivors Unite was borne.

ROSEMARY FRAZER

Speaker

ROSEMARY FRAZER

Speaker

Rosemary Frazer is a passionate advocate for disability equality and has worked for over 25 years primarily developing policy and campaigns to improve the lives of disabled people and tackle discrimination. A wheelchair user with a life-long disability, who has worked at a range of Public and Voluntary sector organisations including the BBC, Mencap, RNIB, Macmillan Cancer Support and Scope. More recently she has developed accessible campaigns training courses to provide disabled with the right tools to campaign on issues which matter most to them. Rosemary also works part-time as a Consultant advising on disability access and inclusion to a range of National organisations and is a regular Blogger and experienced spokesperson on disability issues on all media platforms.

KATHRYN SPARK

Speaker

KATHRYN SPARK

Speaker

Kathryn Spark and Yasmin Rassool are Training and Prevention Facilitators at Rape Crisis South London (RASASC). As experienced facilitators and accredited front-line support workers, they deliver sexual violence prevention workshops with young people in schools as well as training to professionals. Their work raises awareness of gendered behaviour and gender inequality relating to sex, relationships and the continuum of violence against women and girls. They create open safe spaces to discuss sexual violence, challenge myths and increase knowledge and clarity around sexual violence, with the aim of preventing it from happening at all while ensuring that survivors receive the support they deserve. Previously Yasmin supported survivors of sexual violence at a drop-in service and Katie worked as a domestic and sexual violence caseworker and advocate.

S.K. PERRY

Speaker

S.K. PERRY

Speaker

Sarah (S.K. Perry) is a fiction writer and poet, and she set up the Great Men Project with Genevieve Dawson in 2013, a project designed to interrogate toxic masculinity, challenge gender binaries and shape healthy relationships. Her first novel Let me be like water will be published by Melville House next year, and she is working on a series of poems about healing from sexual and intimate partner violence.

ALICE FRASER

Speaker

ALICE FRASER

Speaker

Alice is an award winning writer, broadcaster, performer and comedian from Australia. She’s also an ex academic, ex-corporate Lawyer and regular cohost on satirical comedy juggernaut The Bugle. Alice was awarded the 2016 AMP Tomorrow Fund grant for her podcast ‘Tea With Alice’ and has toured the world with her critically acclaimed solo shows, Empire, The Resistance, and Savage.

NESS LYONS

Speaker

NESS LYONS

Speaker

Ness Lyons is a playwright, spoken word artist and qualified solicitor. She creates punchy, funny and thought-provoking performance work about social and legal issues. Her plays and poems have been performed at various venues including the West End’s Criterion Theatre; the Lyric Hammersmith; Old Fire Station Theatre, Oxford; The Arcola Theatre; and at Royal Festival Hall as part of Women of the World Festival. Her first short film, I Smile Politely, in which a young woman learns to speak up against street harassment, was screened at the international Encounters Short Film Festival 2016, and her first spoken word and storytelling show, Sometimes I Smile Politely, was on in June as part of the Off Beat Festival. She is currently developing several scripts including semi-biographical play ‘The Robing Room’ about barrister Felicity Gerry QC and the sexual offence cases she has prosecuted and defended; and ‘Germline’, set in Hong Kong, an extract of which will be staged as part of ‘Foreign Goods 3’ by Pokfulam Productions at The Arcola in January 2018. Ness has an MA in playwriting & screenwriting and is a previous member of Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab and Criterion Theatre’s New Writing Programme. Born in Dartford, she grew up in Hong Kong and lived in California before settling in London. She has two children, and being a mother greatly informs her writing.

YVONNE ROBERTS

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YVONNE ROBERTS

Speaker

Yvonne Roberts is a former Chief Leader Writer of The Observer. She continues to write for the paper. She has worked for all the broadsheets and a number of magazines since the 1970s, as well as working as a reporter in current affairs television for 20 years. She is chair of trustees of the charity Women in Prison, campaigning to substantially reduce the female prison population and is pro bono editor of its quarterly magazine written by and for women affected by the criminal justice system. She is advisor to On Road Media’s award-winning project All About Trans, supporting trans voices in the media, and a Fellow of The Young Foundation. She is working on her fifth novel.

PAMELA ZABALLA

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PAMELA ZABALLA

Speaker

Pamela started working with victims of abuse as a project officer for the United Nations. In New York, she had the opportunity to work with the largest provider of domestic abuse services in the USA – Safe Horizon at Manhattan Family Court as a Domestic Violence case manager. In the UK, she was services manager and senior manager for Refuge overseeing projects nationally. At Hestia, Pamela developed multiple new services dedicated to support victims of domestic violence and Modern Slavery during her time as the Group Manager for Women’s Services. Currently, she is the Head of Policy for Women and Children’s services where she has developed projects like the Bright Sky app and UK SAYS NO MORE initiative. Pamela is a Trustee for the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence and NO MORE. She holds an MA in Poverty, Conflict and Post-Conflict Reconstruction from The University of Manchester.

SC SURVIVORS COLLECTIVE

Speaker

SC SURVIVORS COLLECTIVE

Speaker

By day SC is healthcare focused policy director in a national organisation. By night she is a CSA survivor activist. She has been a member of the Survivors’ Collective since 2015 and believes in the power of small actions to achieve change for herself and others. She blogs occasionally at www.anewselfwritten.org (@anewselfwritten.org).

About Us

Here’s just some of the speakers &performers from our past events

Hover over images for more info

Clear Lines is the UK’s first-ever festival dedicated to addressing sexual assault and consent through the arts and discussion

Here’s just some of the speakers &
performers from our past events