There’s something alluring about the irreverent way female jazz performances reclaim feminine sexuality and play a part in the subversive culture of jazz and metropolitan life. Chicago is a musical that tells women’s stories predominantly through performances by female characters, so it should feel like an empowering romp from one of the raciest decades of American history.
OthelloMacbeth brings together two of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. Promising to bring ‘the voices of some of Shakespeare’s most iconic female characters [...] to the fore’, this combination of plays reeks of ambition.
The eponymous Queen is interestingly mute for the first few scenes of this feminist re-framing of history. We are firmly grounded in the patriarchal realm of Renaissance drama (indeed, all drama), ready to be sprung into a new orbit.
The recent series at Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre has taken on the important role of platforming the unheard. Real women are taking to the stage to sing some home truths and to celebrate the hard-won fight to have a voice.
Megan Piontkowski, one of Harpy's favourite illustrators, is here for something pretty specific about Jonathan...
The UK government is looking to reform the Gender Recognition Act, with the aim of making it easier for trans people to change their legal gender. Some feminist groups have responded with protests and fears for women’s rights. Are their arguments valid, or a mere veil over their transphobia?
Most of us have experienced that unease and paranoia; when a tampon falls out of our bag in public. Worst of all, most of us know how horrifying it is to realise that you have leaked. But, most of us probably don’t know what it’s like to not be able to afford basic menstrual protection.
Heading to Edinburgh this year? Check out Harpy’s new favourite comedian Ella Woods and her show Wing Defence: a comedy about sport by someone who hated it.
It can be intimidating to feel like an outsider in a big city. Whatever your kinks and quirks, Leeds is teeming with open-minded, friendly people… you just need to know where to look. Check out this list of Leeds venues and collectives and you’ll soon find yourself spoilt for choice of things to do and people to see.
Do you suffer from book panic? There’s an ever-growing pile by my bed. There are hard-hitting novels, poignant memoirs and essay collections I’ll never get around to, all lovingly recommended by friends or featured on podcasts. The problem is, when I’m craving a book, I want a big dollop of fiction.
Bees are dying out. We need to do something to curb it.
I’m sure this isn’t news to all of you – and amidst the other innumerable nightmares taking place across the globe, it can feel like just another sign we’re hurtling towards apocalypse.
Wish are a women’s mental health charity; the only national, user-led charity working with women with mental health needs in prison, hospital and the community. Charity director Joyce Kallevik chats to Harpy about their work.
Summer has arrived with a sweaty sigh. Between the never-ending Love Island coverage and the trauma that is swimwear shopping (just buy it online!), it’s easy for our insecurities to bloom and fester. Everywhere we look there are tips for shrinking, tanning, polishing, and concealing.
In an incredible result for women’s rights activists all over the world, Noura Hussein, the Sudanese teenager who was due to be hanged for killing her rapist, has had her death sentence revoked.
On the longest day of the year sunlight floods Hyde Park Book Club for the launch of Clare Fisher’s short story collection How the Light Gets In. Joined by Influx Press, Leeds Big Bookend, Naomi Booth and Samuel Fisher, it's a summer solstice book launch to remember.
Refugee Week is dedicated to recognising the overlooked. Home, Manchester, set aside 16th-22nd June to provide a platform for theatrical, musical, cinematic and political offerings from refugees and solidarity supporters.
The very idea of a woman working acts as an allegory for potential freedom and autonomy: it provides an alternative to being dependent and, to a certain extent, an alternative to marriage. This article will explore how the female artist is portrayed as limited in these two novels, as well as looking at the ways in which this limit still exists given the reaction to Lily Cole’s appointment as creative partner to the Brontë Society.
For Breach theatre company, we live in a world where planning for the future is at odds with the constant threat of lacking a future altogether. We live under the looming threat of terror attacks or even “a tornado, probably with a woman’s name, so no one will take it fucking seriously”.
You’ll never catch me listening to a female-fronted band. Why? Because there’s no such thing. You probably already know that ‘male-fronted’ bands don’t exist—it’s rare to see male artists being defined by their gender, so why have people latched onto the idea that a band can be female-fronted?
Katherine Christie Evans = Velodrome: a queer artist whose work is concerned with social inequality, Feminism, and mental health and queer visibility. Harpy meets Katherine to talk about Velodrome’s debut single and debut event.
