The WOW Foundation has announced the line up for the first ever worldwide online festival focused on women and girls, WOW Global 24, taking place this weekend. The festival, planned in response to the separation, deprivation and inequalities brought about and exacerbated by Covid-19 will run over 24 hours and be curated by teams from all over the world including the USA, Pakistan, Turkey, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Nigeria, the UK, Brazil, Australia, Malaysia and India.
The festival will include WOW Founder Jude Kelly in conversation with Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard; former President of Ireland Mary Robinson; Indian disability and gender rights activist Nidhi Goyal; and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.
Angela Davis will return to WOW for an interview with Jude Kelly. The legendary activist, writer and academic will be speaking live at the festival to discuss some of the key themes from the Black Lives Matter movement to the potential ramifications the pandemic poses to the fight for gender inequality.
Just some of the huge variety of speakers, activists and global experts across the 24 hours include Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich; Hood Feminism author Mikki Kendall; American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty Sister Helen Prejean, whose work has been dramatised by Susan Sarandon in the the film Dead Man Walking; singer and activist Annie Lennox; Executive Director of Hawaii’s Commission on the Status of Women Khara Jabola-Carolus; Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; feminist and girls’ education activist Chernor Bah; and architects of the Paris Agreement: Costa-Rican diplomat and Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres.
Sir Patrick Stewart, and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, President of The WOW Foundation with Suzanne Jacob, CEO SafeLives, and campaigner Gina Miller, will talk about domestic abuse.
There will be readings from actors including Gillian Anderson and Thandie Newton, and music from artists including Shingai, Les Amazones d’Afrique; Emel Mathlouthi, Helen Epega (The Venus Bushfires) and Muthoni Drummer Queen. Many more details of the vast and varied line up are below, with more to be announced this week.
Created by UK based charity The WOW Foundation, WOW Global 24 will respond to the world’s current events, including racial injustice, and the disproportionate impact the pandemic is having on women and girls, particularly those already marginalised. Black Lives Matter has increased WOW’s sense of urgency. Viewers can tune into one of two channels – The Global Channel and The Local Channel – streaming live and simultaneously over the 24 hours.
