That's What She Said - She Grrrowls Takeover feat. Aisling Fahey

"The biggest spoken word night in London for women" (Evening Standard) and shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Night in the UK (Saboteur Awards, 2017), is back! That's What She Said showcases the best new writing and performance by women, featuring iconic and emerging authors with a mix of performance, poetry, storytelling, slam and more.

She Grrrowls featured Performers

Aisling Fahey (@_AislingF) is a poet who has performed in various locations across England, Ireland, America and India, including the Barbican, the Houses of Parliament and Glastonbury. She previously won the London Teenage Senior Slam and SLAMbassadors UK, run in association with The Poetry Society. She was a member of Barbican Young Poets and is part of the Burn After Reading collective, established by Jacob Sam-La Rose and Jasmine Cooray. Aisling was Young Poet Laureate for London 2014 – 2015. During her tenure, she completed residencies in places such as the Free Word Centre, the London Irish Centre, Waterstones Piccadilly, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and her old primary school in Walthamstow. Her year ended with a tour of India organised by the British Council where she performed and led workshops across India. She has appeared on Front Row, BBC Radio 4, The Robert Elms show on BBC London and ITV London Tonight. She graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in English Literature in 2014.

Sophie Fenella (@sophiefenella) writes and performs poetry in theatres, festivals, smoky bars and the odd park or back alley, in both the UK and Germany. Her journey in poetry began with The Roundhouse Poetry Collective, the Burn After Reading Collective and the invaluable opportunity of being long-listed to be London’s Young Poet Laureate in 2013. Since then, She has performed at lots of festivals and been published in many different magazines and anthologies. Most recently, she won the Live Canon Poetry Prize (2017).

Belinda Zhawi (@mamoyobornfree) is a Zimbabwean born writer and educator who’s work explores themes of “sexuality, displacement, gender roles and intersectionality.” She’s co-founder and host of the bi-monthly poetry social BORN::FREE. Zhawi was the 2016/17 Institute of Contemporary Arts Associate Poet and is currently based in London, working on her debut pamphlet.

That's What She Said featured performers

Annum Salman (@writeroholic) left the PR world in Pakistan to travel to England for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Surrey. She is currently in the midst of writing her debut novel and proving her worth to employers so she can stay in the country. She writes about family, love, her experiences as a woman and a minority. After successful performances at the 1000 Monkeys, Write Out Loud, Surrey's New Writers Festival and her first feature show at Dorking is Talking, she can't wait to take over more stages across UK delivering original metaphors that will make your fingers snap!

Jaz Sufi (Frankie Roberts is a London-based artist and performance poet and recent graduate from Slade School of Art. Her spoken performance walks a tightrope between anger and empathy, piecing together fragments of the human condition in what she feels to be an age of increasing overwhelm. Frankie recently exhibited and performed a solo show at Alice Black gallery in London as part of Desire and Menace summer festival.

Open mic walk ups on the evening are welcomed but with limited places it might be advisable to email paul@forbookssake.net if you have a burning desire to speak 
out and speak up.

Get your tickets for only £7 now while you can, or come along on the night for £10 on the door. 

And remember - For Books' Sake is a volunteer led, community organisation so all your pennies will be going back into championing women writers!

WHAT THEY SAY...

"This is feminism at its ruthless best." - Blouinart

"To put it bluntly, I'd never come across a spoken word night with such a fantastic lineup. 'How have I never come across this before?', I kept asking myself, 'this is everything I've ever wanted from a night out...'

I was blown away. I left feeling inspired, with renewed confidence in my own abilities, and almost missed my tube stop on the way home trying to write down scraps of poetry and prose.

Not only is That's What She Said a great place to see talented literary performers, for everyone and not just women, but it provides a space for women to shout and scream their anger, their frustrations, their desires; a space without censorship, without objectification and without the dreaded “it must be her time of the month” quip. I think For Books’ Sake is doing some really important work." (Thanks SexyVeg for this recent review of one of our London shows!