Tag: walking

Distance Drifts

Walking together apart: Sunday lockdown walks

Sonia is leading Distance Drifts, a series of Sunday morning synchronised walks via Twitter.

#DistanceDrift is a space to walk alone – or in your social bubble – and connect with other walkers. Themed prompts keep the walks playful and interactive. Walks can be followed in any space, indoors or out.

Distance Drift poster
one of many Distance Drift posters made by the generous and talented Katy Whitaker

Distance Drifts started on the first Sunday in April 2020 and continue throughout lockdowns. Themes so far have included dealing from Sonia’s Drift Deck, walking by numbers, exploring islands, investigating Blue Moons, finding faces through pareidolia, vicarious adventures with mascots, walking with Alfred Hitchcock and scavenger hunting.

Synchronised Distance Drifts take place on Sunday mornings at 10am BST. Follow @soniaoverall and #DistanceDrift for live prompts, or follow the thread in your own time.

Streetwalking

a walking women’s manifesto

created by participants at the POW! Thanet festival, 17th March 2019

provocations

We should feel entitled to our own space. We should be walking to ‘look’, not to be looked at. We should walk in our own footsteps and not follow others. We have as much right to take up space as anyone else. (If 17% of the crowd are women, everyone thinks there are as many women as men!)

actions

Take back the joy of walking for its own sake. Be proud – claim the space. Be brave. Be bold. Walk where you want to. Be daring in your gaze. Look at other women. Love people-watching. Smile and say hello to people. You’ll be surprised. Walk smiling. Walk frowning. Walk alone and uninhibited. Walk in new places, exploring. Be a child when walking, totally absorbed in the environment, not caring what others think. Walk happily, free of glancing at a mobile phone. Always night walk at the full moon. Banish the thought of being murdered as you walk. If you don’t want to walk alone, get a dog or borrow one. Do not follow someone else’s footsteps. Follow your own path to create your own dreams, not someone else’s. Walk through life and try to find the strength to share.

needs

Empathy for women’s spaces. Public design of space, managing pavements, restricting cars. No parking on pavements. No racing towards zebra and pelican crossings when someone is crossing. Respect for pedestrians. Better pavement surfaces. Better street lighting. Protection of public toilets to enjoy walking.

wishes

For street homeless women to be safe. To make the environment shine for all women walkers, including those for whom walking is too often imposed.

Texts for a feminist survival kit

readings from the walk & recommendations from participants

  • Ahmed, Sara. Living a Feminist Life
  • Angelou, Maya. I Rise
  • Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
  • Burns, Anna. Milkman
  • Carter, Angela. Wise Children
  • Elkin, Lauren. Flâneuse
  • Fey, Tina. Bossypants
  • Rhys, Jean. Quartet and After Leaving Mr Mackenzie
  • Rich, Adrienne. ‘When We Dead Awaken’
  • Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust
  • Wesley, Mary. The Camomile Lawn
  • Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway

Walking events

Distance Drift  During the Covid-19 pandemic, join Sonia for virtual synchronised walk every Sunday morning – see #DistanceDrift for details

Streetwalking  public walk and research event – tickets available!

Margate, Kent: 17th March 2019
What does literature have to say about women walking in public spaces? 
An interactive walk with texts that encourages women to take up public space and reflect on walking the streets.
created for POW!Thanet Festival

International Women’s Day  synchronised walk

8th March 2019
Women Who Walk Network synchronised solidarity walk. Join in wherever you are: http://women-who-walk.org/walk-in-solidarity-on-8th-march/ 
In collaboration with POW!Thanet Festival