The 2018 POW! Thanet festival will launch on March 7 with two events combining music with a message of women’s rights.
The theme of this year’s festival is the 100th anniversary since the first step of women gaining the vote in Britain.
On February 6, 1918, women over 30 gained the vote in Britain. In 1928 this was extended to all women over the age of 21.
The POW! Thanet festival will include suffragette-inspired and thought provoking events presented by artists, authors and academics.
The opening event is a mass choir rendition of Milck’s I Can’t Keep Quiet, featuring singers from all over Thanet who have come together in a specially formed POW! Festival Choir. The choir is led by Emily Watts from Music for Change.
The song went viral in 2017 as people across the world joined together for the Women’s March demanding action on global liberty and women’s rights. I Can’t Keep Quiet became the anthem for the movement and has quickly become a powerful expression of female empowerment with its unifying message of hope for young and old of all genders.
The opening night will also include a performance of VOICE 1OO by Emily Peasgood Commissioned by POW! to celebrate 100 years since women were first granted the vote, VOICE 100 is a sound installation and musical composition from award-winning Ramsgate sound artist and composer, Emily Peasgood.
Featuring the recorded voices of 100 children and adults who share their experiences, this powerful and provocative artwork is at the very heart of POW! The artist has also created a short anthem that will be sung by the Festival Choir.
Both events run from 6pm to 7pm at Turner Contemporary on March 7.
The launch is free but needs to be booked, click here