Featured image: Molly Goble

Manchester Metropolitan University’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence festival continued with a powerful evening of multilingual poetry and discussion led by poets Anjum Malik and Charlotte Shevchenko Knight.

Both poets explored themes of gender hierarchies, the female body and hunger, weaving personal and cultural narratives into their readings. While their backgrounds and experiences differ greatly, their shared focus on the resilience of women and the transformative power of activism created a sense of unity, underscoring the importance of solidarity in addressing gender-based violence.

Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, a writer of Ukrainian and British heritage and recipient of the Eric Gregory Award, opened the evening with readings from her book Food for the Dead. Currently pursuing a PhD at Manchester Met, Knight’s research examines auto theory as a way to write about eating disorders, particularly through the lens of control and power.

Much of Shevchenko Knight’s discussion revolved around hunger, both as a personal experience and a historical weapon of oppression. She shared the harrowing story of the Holodomor, the man-made famine in Ukraine during 1932-1933, which claimed an estimated 3.9 million lives.

“My great grandmother, Valentina, lived through the famine,” Shevchenko Knight recounted. “It was [designed to] kill off a certain portion of the population who still spoke Ukrainian, which was considered a ‘peasant’ language. [Ukraine] was still very much patriotic, in a time that was meant to be a unified Soviet Union. The famine was orchestrated through grain requisition – grain was still produced, but requisitioned upon production, meaning that the population that made the food couldn’t actually eat it.”

She reflected on how the experience of the famine never left her Grandmother or the other women in her life. All of the poems Shevchenko Knight read were about the women in her life and the unity that brought, through shared experiences around food and control, and the external forces that shaped their realities.

The final poem she read, ‘Life With no Escape,’ is written in couplets. Shevchenko Knight said: “I feel like that was something really important to me in the process, as I think of couplets as two lines holding hands together in thought. This poem is for my Grandmother Valentina and all my memories of her. We didn’t share a common language together, as my first language is Russian, hers was Ukrainian. So every time I would see her, we would just hold hands.”

Anjum Malik, one of Manchester’s first multilingual city poets laureate, expanded on themes of food as liberation and activism. She recounted how her father’s role as the primary cook and cleaner was a form of liberation for her Mother. “In her own words, my mother just ‘sat around and looked pretty,'” Malik said. “So my Mother was a very early activist for women’s rights.”

“Food is such a rich topic for writers to speak about,” said Malik, before sharing her poem ‘The Sizzle of Her’. Vividly celebrating food as a force that unites and heals, she told the audience how food brought her family together, even as they faced challenges as immigrants.

Malik also shed light on the darker side of cultural narratives around women and the kitchen, reading her haunting poem ‘Snaking Flame.’ It recounts the sinister reality of “kitchen accidents” being used to mask violence against women.

“The hiss made her head turn. She saw the flame travel towards her, it came snaking across the kitchen floor. No sound, just a quiet hiss, it was meant for her. Three years of hell, in this strange cold land. No mother, no father, no sister, no brother, no friend, no hope. Three years of hell in this cold, strange land,” Malik read, leaving the audience in stunned silence.

Malik spoke candidly about her own journey of escaping an abusive marriage and finding empowerment through activism and writing. “I got away from an abusive marriage and I went on to do amazing things. I’m so lucky that I had parents like that [who were so loving and empowering], and I had the guts to do that. It’s very important for all of us to be activists and to change the world.”

A Q&A following the readings led by lecturer and writer, Lara Williams. Known for her novels, short stories and journalism, Williams’ novel Supper Club won the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize in 2019 and has been translated into six languages.

Speaking during the discussion with Williams, Shevchenko Knight reflected on the significance of participating in the 16 Days campaign. She said: “I define my work and my life by activism. I am a feminist, so that’s something I try to carry in my practice always, and so to be asked to contribute to this series of events has been incredibly important to me. It’s been a real joy to be recognised in that way and to be able to speak alongside some amazingly strong women who I really look up to.”

Shevchenko Knight also shared insights into the themes of her book, particularly the intersection of food, liberation, sexism, and misogyny. She highlighted how societal expectations around women’s bodies and eating habits, rooted in patriarchal ideals, often diminish individuality and agency.

She said: “The more I read around this, the more I understand it. I’m reading a lot of literature at the moment about how Victorian women were brought up to believe they had to be ‘croquette’, which is a term we’re seeing return now. And this is kind of disgusting because it’s about taking away any ability to show personality, or presence in your daily life.

“Food links so intrinsically tied with that, and when I started to realise some of my habits [around eating] were directly influenced by sexism and misogyny, it really did click something in my brain. I realised, this isn’t about me, this is about diminishing me, and that was the first step in realising that I wanted to change.”

The aim of the campaign is to create an inclusive and safe space to promote discussion and real-world change. MA Publishing graduate, Elly Bell, is working on this campaign as a part of her dissertation. She said: “I’ve found the 16 Days of Activism campaign really interesting and really welcoming.

“Gendered violence is a big topic, and the way we were greeted at the entrance, with trigger warnings, felt really considerate. It came across in a very intimate and approachable way, which is exactly what I hoped for from the event.”

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is a global campaign aimed at raising awareness and driving systemic change. Manchester Met’s festival brings together poets, activists and academics to spark critical conversations.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Festival runs from 25th November to 10th December, 2024. For more information and tickets, visit mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events.