1 Billion Rewind in a Pre-Pandemic World
Feb, 5 2022
On February 14th 2020 couples would meet together in restaurants in the city of Preston during lunchtime to celebrate their love for each other. They could freely associate without wearing masks.
At another part of Preston, inside the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre, the annual group dance was taking place, led by professional World Dance Champion Phil Kaila and Salsa Northwest.
These people were dancing together in solidarity and support and their message was designed to raise awareness of violence against women and girls.
Unbeknown to these participants, in just one month’s time, the freedom they had previously enjoyed, of meeting together and raising awareness through '1 Billion Rising' would be cut short.
However the message from this event and it’s previous years of success shouldn’t be overshadowed by a pandemic. As well as addressing physical attacks on women and girls, it also looks to address other issues such as:-
- Worker exploitation
- Poverty
- Racism
- Refugee rights
- Transphobia
Take a look at the 2020 event film organised by The Creative Communities Group. This is what real freedom looks like. It’s time to break the chain:-
A rapturous round of applause in a pre-pandemic world where we could gather in areas of safety such as school and places of worship and make a defiant stand. Especially since one in three women will be beaten or raped in their lifetime.
In Preston alone, over 4,000 women and girls aged between 16 - 59 have suffered some form of domestic violence.
Russell Hogarth University Honorary Fellow, Community Ambassador and chair of the UCLAN Creative Communities Group expressed his appreciation for everyone involved,
“This was an amazing event which was very well supported on the day. It makes me very proud to have seen our university staff, students and community members coming together in solidarity to raise awareness of the one billion violent attacks against women globally”.
Special thanks also went out to:-
- Zumba with Becky
- Dance Syndrome
- CCG Volunteer and UCLAN Student Marta Rulyte -camerawork for the film.
Maybe one day we can be together again……..
^Alex Ashworth CCG Art Blogger