Voice of Freedom: an Ethiopian woman photographs the sea © Desta Getaneh / PhotoVoice / Ma'agan Shelter Artist and poet, Leila Segal shares the voices of women who have escaped trafficking
Brixton Library, Monday 11th November 2013. 2.00pm & 3pm Tomorrow is Remembrance Day - and I am honoured to contribute to Silent Cacophony on this day, adding the voices of a group of formerly enslaved women to our remembrance of bravery and resistance during war. Voice of Freedom is a project that supports African women who have escaped from people traffickers in the Sudan and Sinai as they speak about their lives through photography and text. The full title of the project is 'Voice of Freedom - trafficked women speak into the silence', and its goal is to make space for the women to speak, on whatever subject and from whatever perspective they choose. Not all the work has to be directly about the experience of being trafficked. It is enough - more than enough - that women who have had these experiences find a way through creativity to express joy, wholeness, hope for the future, and whatever else they wish; to be fully human. It was my privilege to accompany them on this process of discovery through the camera lens; these women who, until we ran our first workshop a month ago, had never even held a camera in their hands. So much for silence. Once they began, the women had a lot to say. Some wanted to speak about the past - and to become advocates in their home communities against trafficking. Others spoke more obliquely: they created beauty, found wholeness, self-discovery through the lens, with a subtle inflection of experience at its hilt. I hope you will join me as I share some voices from the project at Brixton Library on Remembrance Day - in the lobby at 2pm and 3pm. The ideals we will celebrate are embodied by the courage of the women whose work I have been privileged to be a part of. Voice of Freedom: http://ourvoiceoffreedom.wordpress.com/