women in protest
Collected by Esther Freeman
"For the Outreach Programme I focused on collecting the stories of women in political movements.
I had been collecting oral history interviews for the Women Activists of East London project since 2015. I’d mostly used existing political networks in East London communities to find people, as well recommendations from interviewees (someone always knows someone they think you should speak to).
As part of this project I went back to a couple of the interviewees to talk a bit more in-depth about their youth, particularly Sonali Bhattacharyya and Jane Conor, who I knew had been involved in pivotal political youth movements.
I also put the call out on social media for people to come forward, but as usual it was the people who knew people who mostly came forward."
Esther Freeman, a social historian who specialised in the history of radical women. Esther works for Share UK, a non profit community group who share stories, skills and ideas, with a particular focus on heritage and arts. Esther has worked with Share for nine years, and has focused specifically on women's history for the last six.
Esther's research project was part of Setting the Record Straight, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
listen to the stories
"One house was a café. Another guy showed up who was a jazz musician so he had a jazz café, which was another house, so you had these alternate cafés. We put sculptures in the street, things in the street but they were barricades as well. There were tree-houses built, then we got a hold of some nets from somewhere and then we put nets between the trees and the rooftops so you could climb across the nets."
