We are pleased to announce that Lock Her Up will be appearing as part of a three-day festival in Leeds, Tonight We Fly, from Wed 31 Oct – Sat 03 November 2018. This follows its very successful launch at Tate Modern in June 2018 and an appearance at the Latitude Festival in July.

The festival invites audiences to “reflect on the past, consider the present and celebrate our hopes for the future” through performances and installations, conversations and ideas, food and drink.

Our three-part audio installation was produced by Fuel in response to archival research exploring women’s experiences of imprisonment and explores themes of maternity, solitude, and resistance while incarcerated.

• Rachel Mars, No Soft Place
• Sabrina Mahfouz, This is How it Was
• Paula Varjack, In the Times After the Raids

For Tonight We Fly, the installations will be in the highly atmospheric location of the old police cells under Leeds Town Hall. Dr Rachel Bennett will also be participating in the Wound Back: Being Conscious of the Past panel on Weds 31 October 6-7pm, to discuss how artists and historians can work together to be conscious of the past in our work.

All tickets are pay what you decide, in cash at the end. Download the Leeds Tonight We Fly Programme.

Rachel Bennett reported on the event: “Listening to the pieces on iPods within the confines of the Victorian cells below Leeds Town Hall provided visitors with a thoroughly immersive experience. The atmospheric surroundings allowed visitors to gain a brief snapshot into the experiences of many of the women locked on the other side of the cell door. The fact that the pieces were to bound to one time or one prison prompted a range of responses from visitors. Some reflected upon the broader history of the prison system and its continued impact on the system today. Others dwelled more upon the past and present experiences of the women who lived and worked within their confines and expressed a desire to know more about their indvidual stories.”

The festival, a collaboration between Fuel, The Holbeck, Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds Library, Leeds Town Hall, Live Art Bistro, Slung Low, Transform, and University of Leeds. It is supported by Leeds Playhouse and the Wellcome Trust.