A FULL PROGRAMME of events, classes and talks has been announced ahead of York Women’s Week.

Venues around the city will host a schedule of events designed to enliven, inform and entertain during International Women’s Week from March 7 to 14. Sponsored by the University of York’s Centre for Women’s Studies, events will range from political debate with Green Party women to yoga for back pain and a bike ride and painting day with York Bike Belles.

Sharon Winfield, the programme editor, said: “This year’s women’s week is a real record breaker! We have over 100 events in the programme ranging from yoga to feminist authors and theatre to craft.”

“There’s something for everyone. We hope lots of people will go along to two or three events and enjoy the vibrancy, commitment and sense of purpose so many York women are displaying during Women’s Week.”

Highlights of the festival include Women on the Front Line: Journeys to Justice at the Theatre Royal – monologues recounting the experiences of human-rights defenders based at the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights.

Stories will come from personal experiences in Afghanistan, Belarus, Brazil, China, Kenya, Mexico, Sudan and Yemen, to highlight how women fight common struggles in different contexts.

The event will be held at 2pm on Sunday, March 8. Tickets cost £5, or £3 concessions, contact Sanna Eriksson on 01904 325830 or sanna.eriksson@york.ac.uk for more information.

Pilates sessions will be held throughout the week with Jo Stewart at Briar House Resources in Museum Street on Monday at 5pm and 6pm, Tuesday at 10.30am and 6pm, Wednesday at 10.30pm, 6pm and 7pm and Thursday at 5pm. Sessions cost £8. For more information contact Jo on 07763 196205 or email jostewartyork@yahoo.co.uk

Meanwhile, a theatre event called What Would Lady Macbeth Do? is being held at Upstage Theatre at 41 Monkgate on March 7, from 4pm to 5pm. Using role play, voice production exercises and improvisation, this workshop will “encourage the bigger, louder and more assertive you to emerge”.
The techniques can help develop confidence in everyday life and take inspiration from some of the stage’s most powerful and charismatic women. The workshop costs £5 and more information is available from Alison Morgan on 01904 693661or email alison@treadtheboards.org

Free programme booklets for the York Women’s Week line-up are available from a number of cafes, libraries and shops across the city and can also be downloaded at www.yorkwomen.org.uk