Join WOW – Women of the World’s Founder, acclaimed theatre director Jude Kelly, for an evening of optimism, determination and laughter. You’re invited to join the conversation as Jude explores our often exasperating and confusing journey towards gender equity, covering everything from money, sex, race, food, and ageing. Expect personal anecdotes, local guests, big ideas and lots of fun, as Jude takes WOW on the road across the UK.

Jude will be joined by special guests Laura Bates and Kieran Yates

Laura Bates is a feminist activist, best-selling author, and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project. Her books include Everyday Sexism, Men Who Hate Women, and, most recently, Sisters of Fire and Fury. Laura writes regularly for the New York Times, Guardian and others.

She works closely with government, schools, businesses, police forces and bodies from the United Nations to the Council of Europe on sexism and inequality. Her activism has helped to put consent on the national curriculum, seen extreme misogyny categorised as a form of terrorism by the UK government, changed Facebook’s policies on sexual violence content, and helped to transform the British Transport Police’s response to sexual harassment and assault.

Laura has been awarded a British Empire Medal, a British Press Award, and several honorary degrees and been named a Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine. She is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Kieran Yates is a London-based journalist, broadcaster and editor who has been writing about culture, technology and politics for over 10 years. She’s written everywhere from The Guardian, FADER, VICE, The Independent and beyond, had an acclaimed monthly column at VICE titled British Values, was nominated for Culture Writer of the Year in 2016 and regularly host events and panels discussing issues across music, politics, and news. Kieran is also a regular host, most recently hosting a discussion at the Southbank’s WOW festival discussing race, interviewing Mohsin Hamid and Riz Ahmed at the London Literature Festival, and hosting discussions around decolonising architecture for RIBA.

She works frequently as a broadcaster at the BBC and her most recent documentary on Radio 4, Estate Music, explores the link between music, immigrant communities in the UK and social housing. Kieran is a regular presenter of the late-night debate show on BBC Asian Network, appears regularly on Front Row, Channel 4 News, and BBC 5Live as a reporter and critic, and in 2016 was nominated for an Asian Media Award for Best Investigation for her documentary Muslim Drag Queens. Her production credits span across Channel 4 to Sky Arts. She was the co-presenter of the award-winning Guardian Music Weekly podcast for a number of years, and most recently, hosted a series of films for Vice.

Kieran also recently contributed to the award-winning book of essays, The Good Immigrant in 2017 about immigrant stories in the UK, where she wrote about ‘Going Home’. Kieran’s debut book about home and the housing crisis titled All The Houses I’ve Lived In, published by Simon and Schuster, is out now.

Please note, WOW events will cover a variety of topics, some that may address sensitive or adult themes. We ask that parents/guardians use their discretion when attending with children under the age of 14.

This performance will be British Sign Language Interpreted.