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New speakers and events added to All About Women 2020 line-up

Event Details

What: All About Women
When: Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 March, 2020
Where: Various venues, Sydney Opera House
Tickets: From $33 + booking fee (multipacks available)

Sydney – Tuesday 28 January, 2020. The Sydney Opera House today announced new speakers and events for the eighth annual All About Women festival, taking place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 March 2020 to coincide with International Women’s Day.

They join a strong and diverse line-up, including Lindy WestChanel Miller, Jung Chang and many more, who will adopt an intersectional feminist lens to examine a range of topics impacting the everyday lives of women across generations in the post-#MeToo era, from representation in the media and STEM industries to justice, ageing, beauty, sexuality and sobriety.

New speakers and events announced today for All About Women 2020 include:

  • A ‘Green with Rage’ panel featuring three unstoppable women at the forefront of the climate justice battle including actor and climate activist Yael Stone, school student and lead organiser of School Strike 4 Climate Jean Hinchliffe, and National Director of the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network Amelia Telford;
  • A cross-party panel examining the political machinations behind the successful passage of The Abortion Law Reform Act 2019 in NSW, with insider accounts from Independent Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich MP, Labor’s Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the NSW Legislative Council Penny Sharpe MLC, Liberal Member for North Shore Felicity Wilson MP, Nationals Member of the NSW Legislative Council Trevor Khan, and Greens Senator for NSW Mehreen Faruqi, moderated by Pro Choice NSW Alliance Chair of the Women's Electoral Lobby Wendy McCarthy AO;
  • Miles Franklin and Stella Prize-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend Charlotte Wood AM, offering literary advice on the art of writing female characters, hosted by Fenella Souter;
  • Distinguished Professor and Dean of Indigenous Research and Engagement at Queensland University of Technology Aileen Morton Robinson, moderating a cross-generational dialogue on Blak Matriarchy with Paola BallaKirli SaundersAmelia Kunoth-Monks, and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks;
  • ABC Radio National’s Stop Everything! host Beverley Wang, moderating a post-#MeToo analysis with US writer, comedian and TV producer Lindy West;
  • Mastermind host Jennifer Byrne, in conversation with internationally bestselling author of Wild Swans and Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister, Jung Chang; 
  • Sydney Morning Herald journalist Jacqueline Maley, in conversation with veteran Middle East correspondent Azadeh Moaveni about the women of ISIS;
  • Outspoken feminist Clementine Ford, joining Sober in the Country’s Shanna Wan, writer Jill Stark and broadcaster Yumi Stynes for a deep dive into women's often complicated relationship with alcohol;
  • Best-selling author Melina Marchetta and journalist and academic Cynthia Banham, joining a ‘power seekers’-themed ‘Generation Women line-up;
  • NITV science and technology editor Rae Johnston, exploring female astronomers’ vital contribution to the study of our universe with UK astrophysics professor Jo Dunkley;
  • ABC Radio National’s Science Friction host Natasha Mitchell, dismantling the notion of distinct differences in male and female brains with UK cognitive neuroscientist Gina Rippon;
  • The Saturday Paper editor Maddison Connaughton, interrogating whether tech is inherently gendered with Creative Director for Google's Creative Lab in Sydney, Tea Uglow;
  • Buzzfeed reporter Gina Rushton, moderating a cross-cultural discussion on domestic abuse between Pakistani author Sanam Maher and Jess Hill;
  • Writer and social commentator Jane Caro AM, busting taboos about menopause and the post-reproductive years of women's lives with memoirist Darcey Steinke;
  • DJ and TV presenter Flexmami, hosting a chat between Beauty author Bri Lee and appearance activist Carly Findlay about transcending normative standards of beauty; and
  • ABC Digital Arts editor Dee Jefferson, examining the practice of weaving as a global act of female political resistance with Ukrainian-Australian artist Stanislava Pinchuk (Miso).

The festival extends beyond the House precinct with a selection of films, digital events, podcasts and long reads with All About Women Digital. Wakka Wakka/Yaegl artist Hannah Brontë has been commissioned to make a short film featuring mothers empowering their children in their native tongue, which will be screened in-venues and online. In an All About Women first, a feminist film program co-curated by Kate Jinx, Director of Programming at Golden Age Cinema, will be staged in the Sydney Opera House Studio on Saturday 7 March. Screenings include:

  • Starstruck, the classic 80s Australian rock musical film, followed by a Q&A with director Gillian Armstrong; and 
  • Thelma and Louise, the ultimate female buddy road film, followed by a panel discussion with comedian Judith Lucy, screenwriter Michelle Law and film critic Sarinah Masukor

Also introduced for the first time, the All About Women Digital Education Stream will make three talks on women in science, climate change and the societal construct of beauty available to stream on demand for free into year 7-12 classrooms across Australia. Teacher resources, developed by Sydney Opera House’s pioneering Creative Learning Team, will link session themes to the curriculum. Highlight sessions on the gendered brain, the forgotten women of astronomy and sober curiousity will also be broadcast into a wide array of regional venues across Australia and New Zealand as part of theAll About Women Satellite Program.

An outdoor photographic exhibition by South Sudanese artist Atong Atem will be displayed along the Opera House Western Broadwalk. 'Us' pays homage to and reclaims ethnographic West African studio photography of the 1960s to comment on contemporary colonialism and cultural identity.

During All About Women, the Sydney Opera House Playhouse foyer bathroom mirrors will be given a Trans Pride Australia makeover featuring quotes from their members’ experiences of public bathrooms.

Every All About Women session will be Auslan interpreted or captioned.

Currently confirmed satellite venues include

  • Canberra Theatre Centre, ACT
  • Hurstville Library and Service Centre, NSW
  • Riverside Theatres, NSW
  • Ourimbah Campus, NSW
  • Shellbarhour Civic Centre, NSW
  • The Music Lounge, NSW
  • Wagga Wagga City Library, NSW
  • Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, NSW
  • Griffith Regional Theatre, NSW
  • Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, NSW
  • Charles Sturt University, NSW
  • Jetty Memorial Theatre, NSW
  • Taree Library, NSW
  • Maitland Town Hall, NSW
  • The Loop, TAS
  • Alice Springs Public Library, NT
  • City Library Function Room, NT
  • Oamaru Opera House, NZ
  • Wallace Arts Trust, NZ

For media information, please contact:

Georgia McKay
Senior Communications Manager
gmckay@sydneyoperahouse.com
02 9250 7825 / 0466 223 293

Isabella Phillips
Communications Coordinator 
iphillips@sydneyoperahouse.com
02 9250 7761 / 0413 033 727