Leftover Women

To mark International Women's Day 2018 Red Raw presents Leftover Women.

Sheng nu loosely translated as 'leftover women' is a derogatory term most prominently used in China to describe unmarried women over 27 years old.

The evening will begin with an installation and performance by Li Maizi - one of China's 'Feminist Five' who were arrested
and detained for 37 days for campaigning against sexual harassment on International Women's Day in China in March 2015.
Li will share her experiences of being held in a detention centre and provide a detailed view of feminist activism in China.

vaChina, a UK-based Chinese feminist group, will then perform excerpts from a play developed in the style of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues, in which personal views are shared on the gender issues in Chinese society.

A cabaret featuring contributions from a diverse range of performers and artists will then close the evening. Artists include:

Meena Kandasamy

Meena Kandasamy has actively sought to combine her love for the written word with the struggle for social justice through poetry, translation, fiction and prose for the last fifteen years. Her debut collection of poems, Touch was themed around violence and untouchability, and her second, Ms Militancy, was an explosive, feminist retelling/reclaiming of Tamil and Hindu myths. Her critically acclaimed first (anti)novel, The Gypsy Goddess, smudged the line between powerful fiction and fearsome critique in narrating the 1968 massacre of forty-four landless untouchable men, women and children striking for higher wages in the village of Kilvenmani. Chosen as a book of the year by The Guardian, Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph, her second novel, When I Hit You: Or, The Portrait of the Writer As A Young Wife, drew upon her own experience within an abusive marriage, to lift the veil on the silence that surrounds domestic violence and marital rape in modern India. She lives in London. You can read more about her work here: http://www.kandasamy.co.uk or follow her on Twitter: @meenakandasamy

Roseann Lake

Roseann Lake is the author of Leftover in China: The Women Shaping the World’s Next Superpower and the creator of “The Leftover Monologues” – a bilingual stage play that debuted in Beijing. In it, performers describe tales of lost innocence, embarrassing blind dates orchestrated by bumptious matchmaking mothers, and electrifying, but ill-fated love stories. They recount their personal battles with duty and desire, passion and practicality, and chronicle the travails and tribulations of being/fearing/or totally loving - being a "leftover." You can read more about her work on www.roseannlake.com or find her on Twitter: @roslake

Rubyyy Jones

Rubyyy Jones is a glittering force of nature! Burlesque Hall of Fame Winner! And a ‘big, fat, fabulous, queer Canadian’! Trained in dance, voice and theatre, Rubyyy Jones has been moonlighting in burlesque and cabaret in the UK for the last seven years. A provocative MC, a innovative and award winning neo burlesque artist, a pioneer of the Queerlesque genre and marvellous mentor to many, Rubyyy is creator, curator and creature of the night! From Las Vegas to Paris, from Amsterdam to Toronto, Berlin and beyond, Rubyyy has brought her signature ferocious style and focused disruptions to stages and spaces all over the world. From tongue in cheek sing ‘n flings to hardcore, heart wrenching ceremonies, Rubyyy’s work in ‘lesque and live art is a balance of dance, queer performance and neo feminist activism. In addition to their work as a performance artist and teacher, Rubyyy is also an actor and director, dramaturge and choreographer of theatre, cabaret and burlesque productions.

Ms Samantha Mann

Charles Adrian is a performer, writer and podcaster whose alter-ego, the multi-award-winning spinster Librarian, Spoken Word Artist and Agony Aunt (in training) Ms Samantha Mann, made her début at the École Philippe Gaulier in 2003. Ms Samantha Mann has performed across the UK as well as in France, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Japan and is the holder of awards including a Grand Prix from the 2016 Stockholm Fringe Festival and a ‘Merv’ Spirit Of The Fringe Award from the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. To date, her advice videos on the YouTube have been viewed over 15,000 times. More information is at mssamanthamann.com

Vera Chok

Vera Chok is a cross-platform artist and writer. She produces seemingly simple, always naughty pieces. Current state: wary of and excited by her rage. More at verachok.com

Joelle Taylor

Joelle Taylor is an award winning poet, playwright, critic and author, and the founder of the Poetry Society’s national youth slam championships. She has performed her poetry nationally and internationally, and is the host of the Out-Spoken poetry and music club in London. A member of pioneering 90’s polyvocal poetry collective Atomic Lip, her first collection Ska Tissue is in its 4th edition, and her last The Woman Who Was Not There was named as one of the UK’s recommended collections in the Morning Star. Her new collection Songs My Enemy Taught Me was published in July 2017 by Out-Spoken Press. Her novel The Woman Who Looked Through Walls is undergoing edits for publication in 2018. She is a Subject for Study on the OCR English syllabus, and has featured on Tedx Talks and Outsider Lectures. She was recently awarded a Southbank Centre Change Maker prize, awarded annually in recognition of life changing work, as well as a Fellowship of the Royal Society of the Arts. She was longlisted for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2017.

All gift-wrapped and air-hosted for you by Sophie Cameron.

The line-up may be subject to change.