WOMEN AND WAR Festival Comes to London

Women and War: EXODUS is a month-long multi-disciplinary festival examining the impact of war on women and the roads they take and the changes they make to rebuild their lives elsewhere. Any time, any place, any war, any woman.

Now in its second year, Women and War: EXODUS will focus on displacement and what it is to be a refugee, from any period of history and any part of the world. It will celebrate the lives of some of the courageous women from across the world through theatre, music, dance, art, film, performance, poetry, craft, cuisine, and comedy.

Actress Rula Lenska leads this year's festival fundraiser, An Evening With Rula Lenska at So & So At The Bridge, just by London Bridge Station on Saturday June 17th. She performs a dramatised reading of Peace And War: Extracts from the Memoirs of Elizabeth Carroll, Rula's mother who came to the UK as a refugee from Poland in 1946. Tickets are priced at £10 and are available at www.womenandwar.co.uk. Door open at 7pm with the performance beginning at 7.30pm. A post-show Q&A follows.

The festival will host work from around the globe, visiting Colombia, Myanmar, Chile, Poland, Mali, Afghanistan, India and Iran documenting, exploring and giving voice to the experiences of women, before, during and after war.

This year, the festival is based in a pop-up theatre in South London breathing life back into Streatham Hill Theatre, just ten minutes from Brixton and right by Streatham Hill station.

Festival Director and Executive Producer Sarah Berger said: "This year's Women and War Festival, EXODUS, is a celebration and tribute to the resourcefulness and courage of women from across the world who have found themselves displaced because of war.

"At a time when the rights of women are under attack in sharing our multiple cultures, we will demonstrate that even though we may feel helpless in the face of the greatest diaspora in living history, by listening, bearing witness, and sharing in these extraordinary stories, we can make a difference. Any of those women could be your mother, your sister, your daughter, or you. It is not a story of them; it is a story of us."

"This is a multi-disciplinary opportunity to laugh, cry, imagine, witness, and share the lives and cultures of women from across the world."

Supporter, actress and Fascinating Aida member Dillie Keane added: "When first I visited Women and War last year, what shocked me was that it was the first of its kind - and that it was long overdue. This year's festival focuses on refugeeism and displacement, and it seems to me it couldn't be timelier given what's happening in the world, politically speaking. Do yourself a favour and go to at least one of the events. You'll come away better informed, and maybe a little bit empowered. Go."

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