Women’s Wednesdays: Women & Work – A Look at Unpaid Labour

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
Women & Work features a presentation by Gender Specialist Audrey Roberts on the economic cost of unpaid labour. Following the presentation, she will be joined in conversation by Felicity Humblestone who is an only child and has responsibility for caring for her mother, Juliette.

We invite everyone in the room to participate as we explore the following:

-What is “woman’s work”?
-What is emotional labour, and why does it fall to women to do it?
-What is the role of the caregiver?
-What are the gaps between domestic workers’ rights and their realities?
-What are existing formal and informal support systems for women undertaking undervalued/unpaid work?
-How can we imagine a time and place where women’s work is compensated?

Movies in the Square: Womanish Ways

Womanish Ways, Freedom, Human Rights and Democracy: The Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas 1948-1962 is a documentary film directed by Marion Bethel. In partnership with Movies in the Square by Pupstar Enterainment, it will be screened in Pompey Square on Saturday, August 12 at 7:30pm.
Five Bahamian women — Mary Ingraham, Georgiana Symonette, Mabel Walker, Eugenia Lockhart, and Dr. Doris Johnson — led the Women’s Suffrage Movement in The Bahamas. The journey to female enfranchisement spanned more than a decade, and took place alongside the dramatic backdrop of the Burma Road Riots in 1942, the General Strike in 1958, the Labour Movement of the 1950s, and the quest for Majority Rule. Bahamian women voted for the first time on November 26, 1962. This film narrates the story of the Women’s Suffrage Movement with special attention to its five leaders and the voices of the women who stood on their shoulders.
Concessions by POW; menu coming soon. Lemonade by Seasonal Sunshine Bahamas will also be on sale with proceeds going to Equality Bahamas.
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#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.

Women’s Wednesdays: Women & Sex

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
The Women & Sex discussion centers women’s health, focusing on care for the body, negotiating use of contraception, the definition and practice of consent, and ways to talk to young people about sex.
Questions framing the conversation include:
-How do we take care of our bodies?
-What steps do we need to take before engaging in sexual activity with a new partner?
-How can we talk to our partners about contraception?
-What is consent, and how can we practice it in our everyday lives?
-How can we talk to young people about sex?
-Why does sex seem to be a forbidden topic for women?
-How can we build a sex-positive culture?

Women’s Wednesdays: Sexuality and Online Harassment

#WomensWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
The Sexuality and Online Harassment panel centers the woman’s body and explores ideas of access, presentation, expectations, and vulnerability.
Questions framing the conversation include:
-What is sexuality?
-Who owns and controls the woman’s body?
-How does the state support/impede bodily autonomy?
-What have we learned, and what do we need to unlearn, about our bodies and sexuality?
-What is harassment? Who is at risk of harassment?
-What is our responsibility in protecting ourselves and each other from sexual violence?
Our Sexuality and Online Harassment panelists are:
Jodi Minnis, Multidisciplinary Artist
Princess Pratt, Storyteller
Erin Greene, LGBT+ Advocate
Tamika Galanis, Artist-Scholar

Women’s Wednesdays: Panel Discussion on Citizenship

Panel Discussion: Citizenship

What is citizenship?
What are the rights and responsibilities of citizenship?
What does active citizenship look like?
How do we move forward following the gender equality referendum of 2016?

Panelists:
Ava Turnquest
Shawn-Gabrielle Gomez
Knijah Knowles
Niambi Hall-Campbell

#WomensWednesdays242 — a partnership between Equality Bahamas and National Art Gallery of The Bahamas — highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomensWednesdays242 intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.

Women’s Wednesdays: Gender Equality Panel

#WomenWednesdays highlights Bahamian women and our experiences in The Bahamas, specific to our identities including gender, race, sexuality, age, and ability. Held once per month at minimum, the events will draw women together to have conversations that bring our individual lives into focus while connecting to family, community, and national narratives.
#WomenWednesdays intentionally centers and prioritizes women and girls, and is open to the public through in-person events, livestreams, and social media activity. It is a collaborative effort of Equality Bahamas and the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to create a safe space for knowledge-building, idea-sharing, critical dialogue, and movement-building.
The Gender Equality panel will kickstart our event series, and lay the foundation for later discussions.
Questions framing the conversation include:
-What is gender equality?
-What does gender equality look like?
-What is the importance of constitutional equality?
-How do religious institutions/leaders/views (not) support gender equality?
-What are current barriers to gender equality? How can we address them?
Our Gender Equality panelists are:
Natalie Willis, Cultural Practitioner
Alexus D’Marco, Human Rights Defender
Carol Misiewicz, Supreme Court Registrar

Free Meditation Session

Join us at NAGB for a free meditation session designed for artists of all disciplines, and open to the public. Please bring a mat, cushion, towel, or whatever you would like to sit on during the 90 minute session.
Peace Revolution is a project by World Peace Initiative – an international organization working to promote a culture of peace through the practice of meditation. Through its PIPO (peace in, peace out) initiative, volunteers travel the world to offer free meditation sessions to schools, organizations, yoga/meditation centers, state organizations, and many others. Peace Revolution strongly believes that promotion of a culture of peace begins with self development and the meditation practice improves quality of life, reduces stress, increasing concentration, and increases feelings of well-being and happiness.
Peace Revolution is bringing a volunteer group to Nassau, offering its “Basic Principles of Meditation” workshop using the Dhammakaya technique. Originally from Thailand, this technique has been adapted into a form of practice for everyone, regardless of religion, nationality, and beliefs. The workshop includes an introduction to meditation, basic techniques, meditation practice, a question and answer session, and a talk on the project and the benefits of meditation.
Peace Revolution first visited The Bahamas in 2015 when two sessions were held in Nassau – one public and one private – with facilitation by Ilse, a volunteer from Mexico. This year, two public sessions will be held at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and Cosmosis Yoga Suite (Tuesday, May 3 at 1pm)

Hollaback! Bahamas – Chalk ‘n’ Chat (to end street harassment)

Events

On April 14, 2016, Hollaback! Bahamas held a chalk art event in collaboration with Pro Society which organizes a Chalk Art Festival at College of the Bahamas every year. Students at COB participated in the conversation about street harassment by writing messages in chalk, and “That was street harassment” cards were distributed.

Check out footage from the event below.