Threading local and global voices together

Celebrating womxn and non-binary voices on International Women’s Day
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Celebrating womxn and non-binary voices on International Women’s Day

By Rosy Ross, Producer and Head of Fundraising, Threads

We, at Tottenham based community radio station Threads celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) last month by streaming a full 24 hours of content from and about female, trans, female identifying, and non-binary individuals and organisations who are making great things happen in London and further afield.

IWD 2020 presented an opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing womxn and non-binary people already involved with Threads, but also to rekindle and make new connections – bringing new voices into the programme.

The flexibility and increasing availability of the internet means Threads has the potential to reach a huge number of listeners worldwide. As a community-focused organisation, there’s a responsibility to use the platform effectively and to help motivate cultural growth in the local area and beyond. It was our great pleasure to amplify the diverse, important and often underrepresented voices celebrated on IWD.

Ensuring no single demographic is monopolising, is a process, and not a box to be ticked, and there will always be work to be done. We are a small team with a lot of ideas, so happily there was such an enthusiastic response to our call-outs for new voices, that we ended scheduling content every hour, to fit as much in as possible into the day.

Thanks to the radio’s position above The Cause nightclub, we were also able to commit our second channel, Threads*, to a live stream of the ‘Pour Femme’ room at the monthly gay rave Adonis. Curated by DJ Michelle Manetti, it introduces a specifically female-focused DJ line upto the party, which took place in the early hours of IWD.

Michelle and Adonis founder Shay [Malt] have their own shows on Threads, and a lot of the radio crew are regulars at the night, on the dance floor and behind the decks. We’re proud of our friends throwing amazing, inclusive parties and pushing for gender balance in music event line ups, and it’s great we can help promote them. As a station transmitting a lot of music based shows, it’s also important we explicitly support that.

Threads honoured its global/local focus by ensuring the IWD programme featured local groups and concerns. For example, In Conversation: Mona Bani and the Haringey Migrant Support Centre, discusses issues facing womxn migrants and refugees in Haringey and more generally worldwide. We also returned to the Save Latin Village campaign (which Threads supported via a fundraiser event last year). In this show, two representatives talked about social cleansing and the importance of protecting the Seven Sisters cultural hub and the communities it houses.

Threads has also recently introduced a regular outreach slot into its schedule, for local groups and individuals seeking more exposure for their work, ideas and campaigns.

The IWD programme, (which has been uploaded onto Mixcloud for you to listen back to) consisted of resident Threads shows, as well as special guest slots from DJs, producers, activists, academics and charities.

Listeners will discover a veritable treasure trove of deep cut playlists and mixes, activism in global and local politics, education and art, and true stories of ambition, creativity and collaboration.

If you’d like to pitch your ideas: Email [email protected]

Head to www.facebook.com/threadsradio/ for behind the scenes video footage of IWD 2020 and further announcements of broadcasts of the shows Threads couldn’t squeeze in.

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