Write Women into History

Collaborators: Hackney HOWLers Writing Group
Output: Printed booklet, 64pp
Editors: Celia Burgess-Macey, Gail Chester
Cover artwork: Ayesha Khawla Usmani, BJ, Carol Smith, Catriona Courtier, Celia Burgess-Macey, Gail Chester, Gilli Salvat, Helen Bishop, Jan S, Jeanette Copperman, Jennie Lazenby, Stephanie Henthorne, Sue O’Sullivan and Wendy Knight, assembled by Luise Vormittag
Printers: Duplikat Press (riso)
Supported by: Carers Collective Hackney, City and Hackney Carers Centre, Connect Hackney
Year: 2021
Links: ︎︎︎HOWL website

Risographed copies are now sold out.
Order a digitally printed copy ︎︎︎HERE!

Big thanks to Anne-Marie Payne (Carers Collective Hackney) for bringing us all together and making it happen! ︎
The Hackney HOWLers Writing Group is an off-shoot of HOWL – the History of Women’s Liberation, a group of women who were involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 60s, 70s and 80s and want to take control of narrating their own history.

The writing group met for seven sessions online (due to Covid-19), encouraging each other to write about their lives and to document their involvement with the women’s liberation movement.

My role was to facilitate the creation of the cover-artwork, design the interior of the booklet and oversee the printing and production process. I attended all writing sessions as a listener and worked closely with the two editors Celia Burgess-Macey and Gail Chester to realise the publication of the booklet.

The artwork for the cover was produced during an online session in February 2021. The 14 members of the group were randomly placed in break-out rooms with two women each. They were then invited to draw each other’s portraits, without placing too much emphasis on resemblance. During a second exercise everyone produced a design for a placard with a slogan of their choice, with the option of using Letraset dry-transfer lettering. I cycled around Hackney to collect the artwork in a Covid-secure way, scanned and combined the material. The cover was designed to visually reflect the spirit of the times the stories in this collection speak about – the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 60s, 70s and 80s.