The Woman of the World

The person who dreamt of and made WOW Festival a reality — Jude Kelly — shares with Sharada Adhikari what it means to side with those who encouraged her to take risks

She adored theatre as a child. But when Jude Kelly decided to study Drama and Theatre Arts later in her teens, her lecturers at Birmingham University were sceptical about her becoming a theatre director as a woman.  Her dreams were questioned because she was a female.

"When people question your right to have a dream or to be ambitious, it's hard not to instantly assume that it's because they see something in you that’s not worthy," Kelly, the Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, London, England writes in an email interview with The Himalayan Times.

Also the founder of Women of the World (WOW) festival, Kelly at a young age felt, "There was a laziness of thinking in many people, a habit about behaviour and expectation. In other words, they lacked the imagination to perceive potential in others."

Yet she listened to people who gave her encouragement and to people who discouraged her. "I decided I'd be better off siding with those who wanted me to take risks. Those people wanted me to be fully alive, whereas those others made me feel like being docile was the right decision for a girl. I utterly reject that idea," Kelly, who spent her childhood in Liverpool, England stated.

Thus, she achieved her dream, directing over 100 theatrical productions. According to britishcouncil.org.np, she founded Solent People’s Theatre, a touring company, in 1976, and was the Artistic Director of the Battersea Arts Centre from 1980 to 1985. In 1986, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. She became the Founding Director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse from 1990 to 2002, where as Artistic Director and then CEO she established it as an acknowledged centre for excellence. As the Artistic Director, she sat on the UK's National Advisory Committee for Culture, Creativity and Education (NACCCE), that in 1999 wrote the 'All Our Futures' report which led to government investment in young people's creative and cultural education.

Now 62, Kelly is an example of what women can achieve when they aim high.

Leading Southbank Centre

Kelly was appointed the Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, London, in 2006. It is a world-famous arts centre on the South Bank of the Thames.

Leading "one of the largest cultural organisations of the world", be it a male or a female, is not an easy job. And handling this position for more than a decade in a male-dominated society like ours is a challenge in itself.

To this, Kelly replies, “I don't doubt that 50 years ago, even less than that, it would have been virtually impossible for a woman to run an organisation of this scale and public profile.”

But most of her life she has found energy from the excitement of imagining a fair world and an equal world, not just for women, but for everyone. "I've always wanted to be in a place that can influence society for the better, and so I've always been trying to advance my own life with the intention of supporting others too."

This spirit has kept her going and she is in the commanding position today.

Does this mean that people’s perspective on women's artistic creativity has changed for the better?

It’s not completely true. "Recently I have become frustrated with the concept that artistic creativity naturally resides in the male," says Kelly. She adds, "Although historically we've been given that framework, partly through theology, through folk stories and through cultural norms, I know that women artists can speak on behalf of the whole world and not just for women and should be a powerful part of our society. So, we must treasure and champion those women."

Founding the WOW

Eight years ago, when she understood that women’s stories from history are heard less often, given less importance and thought to be of interest only for women, the idea of WOW festival came to her.

"I decided that a festival that told women’s stories of every kind from the traumatic to the triumphant would be a powerful tool for change," comments Kelly.

WOW was launched in 2011. "The WOW festival is about celebrating all that girls and women have done in history and in our current society and challenging the obstacles that prevent them from realising their full potential into the future," she explains.

And she wants the festival to not only share things that are tough, painful and confusing, but also bring happiness, humour and triumph into the story of women’s progress which has been one of great strides and great resilience.

Kelly also wants the festival to make girls and women confident that a gender equal world would be a better world for everyone. "No one has found the answer yet as to how gender equality may truly come to pass but I am sure, in the long march of history, we will eventually succeed in that aim," she points out, further defining gender equality as, "the right of every girl and woman to make her own decision, to fulfil her potential in whatever way she sees fit and not to subscribe to any idea that might limit that potential".

The WOW movement is now in over 20 cities across five continents including Karachi in Pakistan, Finland, New York and Baltimore in the USA, across the UK and Australia and in Hargeysa, Somaliland.

Everything Kelly does in WOW "is about societies learning from each other, women sharing stories, ideas and solutions". And all she has being doing and achieved is probably because of her "courage". She says she feels ashamed if she is not courageous.

"I know that women have fought for their rights in ways that have caused great grief and trauma. Getting the vote was difficult and required great sacrifices. Sometimes women have suffered violence, prejudice, have been ostracised in order to get their rights and this continues in all parts of the world when women assert that they wish to have equality. So, I feel that if I avoid confronting these issues, or speaking out about discrimination, then I am letting down my ancestors as well as future girls and women."

WOW in Kathmandu

Following the success of WOW Karachi in May 2016, the British Council (BC) in partnership with the Southbank Centre is bringing WOW to Kathmandu for the first time on February 18, mentions a press release issued by BC.

"Kathmandu is full of women and men who are passionate to make positive change. They approached me to say that the WOW festival would really accelerate the conversations they were urgently trying to have. Working with our partners, The British Council, we’ve been able to not only respond to Kathmandu’s agenda but also learn things from Kathmandu to take to other WOW festivals around the world," Kelly points out the reason behind organising the festival here.

Informed by a series of brainstorming meetings called Thinkins, local partners are working together to create a festival that will feature speakers and artists from across the South Asia region, the BC press release further adds.

'Thinkins' are done all over the world as a part of WOW process, according to Kelly.

"The issues are same everywhere — violence against women, lack of financial reward for equal work and an overburden of domestic responsibility caring not only for children but also for elderly parents, siblings, et cetera, street harassment, unequal political representation, rape as a weapon of war, discriminatory healthcare practice, and so on."

In such a scenario, how does she view the condition of gender equality in South Asia? "In South Asia, the relationship between women and their right to be self-determining can be very challenging, particularly when the family or extended family, or the tribal cultures or religious powers insist that a woman fulfil a narrow set of possibilities," she opines.

And Kelly knows the key to change is education. "Not just women's education but men’s education, and there are extraordinary and brilliant women in South Asia who have been leading this process of change and have given the western world approaches and ideas that have changed the landscape here too. "