Interview: The Women’s Collective
By Resonate | April 24, 2022
Words by Anna Partridge
Photos by Beth Goodchild and Beth Butcher
The Women’s Collective are an exciting new community in Bristol who work with developing professionals. The collective began as a society at BIMM Bristol, where they regularly meet and go on songwriting retreats. They have plans to work with women in music all around the city. Having had the pleasure of collaborating with them on some performance-based projects, I was keen to find out more. I met up with co-founder Jamie Porten at Emmeline cafe on Stokes Croft on a sunny March morning…
Thank you so much for coming to talk to me about The Women’s Collective Jamie. Tell us a little about what TWC is all about.
Jamie: The Women’s Collective is essentially a platform open to women and gender minorities that started as a BIMM Bristol Society. It’s a space for people to launch their projects, promote collaboration and network. It’s a safe space to explore ideas and to interact away from the pressure that we might feel in male-dominated spaces. That may look different from one person to the next, but we’ve found it to be a more gentle and inviting space to collaborate. We have plans to move to something bigger in the future.
It’s a beautiful thing! So how did it come about?
I had the idea when I moved to Bristol. The idea was for it to be a platform where anyone can step up and put forward their project. It gave the opportunity to network, build contacts, relationships and friendships. It’s a constant work in progress. It was different last year to this year and I think it will probably continue to be that way, which is what I like about it.
So how have things changed since you started out? It must have been really hard to get it going in the pandemic?
Yeah. It was a bit of a bold move! [laughs] I didn’t really know what it would look like digitally, but we built an online platform through our Facebook group, and now more predominantly Instagram. We held talks with female lecturers, put on live-streamed gigs, recorded podcasts, started a blog and a collaborative playlist. It was quite a gentle start.
Well, that sounds like a lot to be a gentle start!
I think it was just about building the foundations and figuring out if it would really pick up. It was rewarding to see how many people were eager to join and be a part of it. This year has been a little more focused on building those relationships and contacts. It kicked off with the Songwriting Retreat which was led by you [Anna], with the help of my co-founder Rosie, and BIMM Student President, Holly. It was the first time people had physically come together under The Women’s Collective umbrella, and I feel that moved it forward into its performative projects.
A lot of what we’re seeing on your socials is this performance side, but I know you’ve been doing a lot of work in the wider community.
Yes, Rosie and I are in the process of delivering Anti-Sexual Harassment Training to the Bristol nighttime economy. We’re focusing on how we can improve the safety of women and other vulnerable groups in Bristol. It’s a more educational approach at the back-end so these issues can be better understood, and influence how we organise and design events and venues.
Have you found that the themes you’ve been exploring in these sessions have been reflected in the performance projects?
Of course. For example, Holly Eve gave everyone goosebumps when we recorded ‘How To Say No’ which is about consent, and you can watch the video on our Instagram page. The energy in the room really spoke for itself. It’s important that people are educated on this topic, and that’s where it ties in with the Anti-Sexual Harassment Training. I think anyone in TWC or similar groups knows the importance of this and is happy to highlight it.
We’re focusing on how we can improve the safety of women and other vulnerable groups in Bristol
I know that you’re studying as well, so is this the topic something you’re looking into academically?
At the moment I’m focusing on gendered spaces and feminism, specifically how venues are experienced based on the way they are designed, the way people behave, how that might change with the music genre, the people that work there, or the infrastructure and the facilities of the building itself.
Important work, and impressive too. Can you tell us about the other groups and organisations you’ve worked with so far?
When we launched our Instagram, I noticed we were picked up by other similar groups like Sass and Snarl, She Said So, and Amplify Her Voice. Our concept is not a new thing, and similar groups really celebrate each other. The Anti-Sexual Harassment Training is put on through BID and the Bristol City Council, and Bristol Nights group in the wider Bristol community. We also did an interview with Laura Veirs last year, which was a really exciting opportunity and so inspiring. She had so many great things to say and championed the work we do.
Just before we finish, what are your plans for the future?
We’ve got the next songwriting retreat coming up this summer, which is going to be even bigger and better. I know a lot of people are looking forward to it. It would be really nice to see more people launching their projects with support from those within our group. Everyone that’s shown up to our events has come with such a nice warm presence and I think they would do that with anyone else bringing something into the group. We’re open to collaboration, gigs, jam nights… we’ll see! More meet-ups, more music, good times, good people.
For more information about The Women’s Collective, their current projects and potential collaborations, you can find them on Instagram @thewomens.collective. There are also more Anti-Sexual Harassment Training sessions open for the public to attend, and no doubt more inspiring projects in the pipeline.
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