Thanks to those women who have been in touch with us at WLMA recently. We’re very pleased to have consequently  added some newly donated material, including a new entry on the 80s’ band Sole Sister, and posters and info to expand the entry for Amy and the Angels. Do check it out on https://womensliberationmusicarchive.co.uk/whats-new-in-the-archive/  – and if you have any info or material you think should be archived please do let us know.

Dear friends of WLMA,

Thank you to everyone who’s kindly wished us a happy birthday for this May Day, on the 5th anniversary of our online launch! And thank you to all the people who have contributed positively to this and other feminist archives by making material available, helping us stay afloat with financial donations and providing us with useful feedback. We greatly appreciate your ongoing support. If you’d like to join our volunteers publicising the music archive, do let us know.

Solidarity this May Day with women fighting oppression everywhere. Lean out, shout out – sing out!

Best wishes from the team at WLMA

International Women’s Day greetings, and solidarity with women everywhere resisting all forms of oppression and exploitation!

Protest and music! If you’re in London do join us at the demonstration at the Home Office organised by the brilliant Women for Refugee Women

WOMEN FOR REFUGEE WOMEN CELEBRATE AND DEMONSTRATE: 8 MARCH, 1-3PM, HOME OFFICE, MARSHAM STREET, LONDON SW1P 4DF

Women for Refugee Women will gather outside the Home Office to send a message of “Set Her Free” and “Refugees Welcome” – with performances by Lips Choir, Gaggle, Sula Mae, Sabrina Mahfouz, Demi Mseleku, Nyakaza (Move) African Dancers, and The London Klezmer Quartet, plus speakers including: Meltem Avcil (ex child detainee and Set Her Free campaigner), Rahela Sidiqi and Jade Amoli-Jackson (London Refugee Women’s Forum), Zrinka Bralo (Migrants Organise), Caroline Lucas MP (Green Party), Sophie Walker (Women’s Equality Party), and Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) London http://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/events/   Facebook Event link

More music: all day Radio 3 programmes featuring women composers and musicians http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/programmes/schedules/2016/w10

And yet MORE great music … Wednesday the 9^th sees the launch of the new Tomorrow the Moon season presented by Blow the Fuse, featuring ARQ – Alison Rayner Quintet: first of five double bills at London’s Vortex Jazz Club featuring some of the UK’s finest, original contemporary jazz all led by women <http://www.blowthefuse.com>

Just click on the badge to donate to the Women’s Liberation Music Archive’s funding appeal and wish us happy birthday! May Day 2015 is the fourth anniversary of our online launch and all donations towards covering our costs and developing the project are very much appreciated! You can donate securely here through PayPal. Thanks and love to all our friends and donors for your ongoing support, from Team WLMA: http://womensliberationmusicarchive.co.uk

“Founders and later members of the British feminist poster collective, See Red Women’s Workshop (1974-1990) are involved with putting a book together about the posters and we are hoping to gather a collection of memories from women who were involved at some time (many women passed through the workshop), or who particularly remember the posters otherwise. If you are one of those women, do please get in touch with us. Or please forward to your friends and networks otherwise.

To jog your memory here’s a link to the website we are also slowly putting together. https://seeredwomensworkshop.wordpress.com/

Much appreciated! As would any ideas about other mailing lists to send this call round to.

Pru, Suzy, Bronnie, Anne and Jess”

Thanks to See Red Women’s Workshop for allowing reproduction of their work under a Creative Commons license.

Please click on the badge

to donate to WLMA’s 2015 fundraising drive and help keep feminist history alive!

Best wishes for the new year from the WLMA team to all our friends, on Facebook and everywhere else, everyone who follows our posts and who has supported the project in 2014. Huge thanks also to everyone who’s sent us material enabling us to expand the archive collection. We’ve had thousands of website hits from around the world, been able to help lots of students and researchers and enjoyed being involved in FLA, the new Feminist Libraries and Archives network, running stalls and being part of the Feminism in London conference (videos of the FLA workshop viewable on our Facebook post for 25th October fyi.) We’re planning to continue our work on the project this year, and if you’d like to support us in this please do consider making a donation through PayPal. (If the link above doesn’t work please go to the website: http://womensliberationmusicarchive.co.uk.) Any money we raise goes only to develop the archive and cover our running costs. WLMA is voluntary and unfunded so every little helps!

Looking forward to the new year and sending best wishes for success to feminist campaigns, global and local. Hasta la victoria!

Tickets are on sale now – and going fast! – for this year’s Feminism in London conference, on Saturday October 25th, at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL.

We’re very pleased to be taking part in the morning workshop: ‘Feminist Archives and Activism: Knowing Our Past – Creating Our Future.’ This is a chance to discuss the importance of documenting and celebrating feminist history, find out about the various great feminist archives and libraries available and explore how they can be useful tools in our ongoing campaigns. This workshop brings together different generations of feminists and is organised by the new network of feminist libraries and archives, FLA. Speakers include Feminist Library volunteers http://feministlibrary.co.uk/, Frankie Green from the Women’s Liberation Music Archive https://womensliberationmusicarchive.co.uk/, Jalna Hanmer from the Feminist Archive North http://www.feministarchivenorth.org.uk/, Liz Kelly and Joan Scanlon from radical feminist journal Trouble & Strife http://www.troubleandstrife.org, Sue John from Glasgow Women’s Library http://womenslibrary.org.uk/ and Zaimal Azad from Nottingham Women’s Centre http://www.nottinghamwomenscentre.com/ The workshop is chaired by Sue O’Sullivan from Spare Rib and Sheba Feminist Press, and the second half of the session will be an open conversation. We are also totally delighted that the after-conference party will feature blast from the past pioneering 70s feminist band the Stepney Sisters, plus other great music-makers! To buy tickets and for more info on workshops, speakers and the whole day’s events, please see http://www.feminisminlondon.co.uk

Today we’re marking the 3rd anniversary of our online launch on May 1^st 2011, the date chosen in solidarity with the tradition of May Day. We began with writing a list of twenty or so bands on the back of envelope in 2010 and now, seventy two thousand website visits later, the archive has 150 entries and is still growing. If you can help us to expand and ensure no-one is left out, we welcome new info to help develop the project. It’s not solely about musicians and singers: we’re documenting and celebrating DJs, journalists, event organizers, photographers, sound technicians, poster and magazine producers and everyone else who created the infrastructure for the music-making and cultural-political activism of the 70s, 80s and beyond. And we like to link with our predecessors to show the continuity of feminist music-making. If you have material you think should be in the archive, or know a woman who does, do contact us!