It’s our one year anniversary! To celebrate, we wrote a little piece about why we decided to choose a female monster as inspiration for our magazine…
All in Arts & Culture
#PodcastPick - The Adam Buxton Podcast: Episode 85
Ever since podcasts burst onto the popular culture scene, we’ve been avid audio consumers. To help our fellow podcats stay in the loop, we’ll be recommending a specific episode that we’ve loved every fortnight. This week, we returned to an old favourite, The Adam Buxton Podcast, for a slightly surprising episode with author and journalist, Michael Scott Moore…
Ear Hustle's Nigel Poor on Empowered Women and the Secret Life of Men
This November, Harpy met with Nigel Poor, the co-host of popular prison podcast, Ear Hustle. Nigel gets talking about her work as a visual artist, her changed attitude towards men, and the creative art of listening.
Women in Food: Celebrate, Inspire and Bring Change
Vicky North, chef and founder of ‘Women in Food’, talks about finding her way in a male-dominated industry and bringing change for the next generation of female chefs.
The Maids at HOME: Deconstructing Gender Roles on Stage
Maids playing masters, maids playing murderers; men playing maids. This production of Jean Genet’s The Maids at once addresses gender roles head-on and never mentions gender at all.
God or Stripper? Little Mix, Ariana Grande, and Pop Music Subterfuge
Music videos are perhaps as important as the song itself. But is it possible for modern female musicians to make successful videos without pandering (even just a smidge) to the male gaze? And, even as women who love a Sexy Getting Ready Song, are we satisfied with the media we’re consuming?
Future Bodies: "Stop Being Normal"
The latest explosive collaboration from Unlimited theatre and, feminist favourites, RashDash, brings us into the realm of artistic sci-fi. A montage of two-person sketches explores the human relationship with the machine from a scattergun of different angles. Ultimately, Future Bodies becomes a question of the human relationship with our own corporeal being.
Chicago: The Female Lament behind the Vaudeville
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': a bold attempt at realigning gender focus
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.
Queen Margaret: Putting the SHE in Shakespearean Drama
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.
Championing Untold Stories: Three Feminist Productions breaking the silence at the Royal Exchange
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.
Jonathan Van Ness Genders Things
Megan Piontkowski, one of Harpy's favourite illustrators, is here for something pretty specific about Jonathan...
Ella Woods: Wing Defence
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.
Find Your People at these 7 Inclusive Spaces in Leeds
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.
7 Immersive Novels for the Reluctant Reader
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.
Bee Kind: How You Can Help Save Our Pollinators
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.
How the Light Gets In, and other solstice reads
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: Thought-Provoking Theatre
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.
Review: The Drill @ Home, Mcr
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”.
There’s No Such Thing as ‘Female-Fronted’ Music
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?