Latest Stories from Georgie
In conversation with #HerGameToo co-founder Lucy Ford
Despite a slight technical hitch 10 minutes in, I was fortunate enough to talk with Lucy Ford, mega-fan of Bristol Rovers FC and co-founder of #HerGameToo, an online campaign tackling sexism in football. (Content warning: mention of abuse, rape, threats, discrimination.) Lucy is one of 12 female football fans who came together in May 2021 to launch #HerGameToo, a response to the onslaught of sexist abuse they have faced online...
Activist and archbishop Desmond Tutu dies at 90
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Rvd. Desmond Tutu, passed on Sunday. On Boxing Day, the world lost racial justice and LGBTQ rights activist, and determined leader of the anti-apartheid movement, Desmond Tutu. Tutu was one of the leading voices speaking against the abuses of the oppressive apartheid regime throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Aligning himself with the liberation struggle in the mid-70s, Tutu was...
Poet turns Malcolm X’s prison cell into ‘freedom library’
The prison cell that was occupied by the civil rights activist has been transformed into the first of 1,000 planned ‘freedom libraries’. Poet and lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts is using his MacArthur ‘genius grant’, worth $625,000 (£471,000) to set up 1,000 micro-libraries in US prisons through his charity, Freedom Reads, starting with Malcolm X’s cell. The first of these ‘freedom libraries’ is located in Norfolk Prison, Massachusetts where Malcolm X was...
Michael Sheen a ‘non-for-profit actor’ funding Homeless World Cup
Welsh actor Michael Sheen revealed that he has ‘essentially turned into a social enterprise’ after selling his home to fund the 2019 Homeless World Cup. In an interview with the Big Issue, Sheen talked about how the World Cup was a ‘turning point’ for him, after he sold two houses to bankroll the project when its £2m funding fell through at the last minute. ‘I had to make a decision-...
Native American history now compulsory in Connecticut schools
The history of Native Americans has often been left out of US school curriculums or portrayed inaccurately. In Connecticut that is about to change. Despite Connecticut getting its name from an Algonquian word (one of the most widespread Native American language groups), there has long been an absence in the state’s taught history that is heavily felt by its native tribes. However, a new law passed this year will make the...
MET Gala opening show is a celebration of designers of colour
Last night’s MET Gala saw the likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Rihanna, and Billie Eilish grace the red carpet in a celebration of American fashion, but it was the opening show that really caught the spotlight. The theme of this year’s MET Gala was In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, and saw actors, singers, politicians, and influencers pay homage to the history of American fashion. Notable outfits include Nikkie de Jager’s (NikkieTutorials)...
The fight to raise awareness for female first responders in 9/11
One of the first women firefighters, Brenda Berkman, has led over a decade-long fight to highlight the role of women as first responders during 9/11. 20 years on, the attack on the Twin Towers still dominates the public memory of the world - but Brenda Berkman is fighting to show that we are remembering wrong. Berkman was off duty when the first tower was hit on September 11th 2001, but raced...
Taylor Wessing Prize for Photography shortlist revealed
The three finalists for the prestigious Taylor Wessing Prize have been announced. Kayta Ilina, David Prichard and Pierre-Elie de Pibrac are the shortlisted nominees for the award that celebrates contemporary portrait photography. The submitted pieces explore adversity, generational trauma, and the fluidity of gender. Although the pictures would usually be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, due to redevelopment work, this year’s submissions will be exhibited at Cromwell Place in South Kensington. The...
Corona launches the world’s first-ever ‘plastic fishing’ competition
The beer company Corona recruited fishermen to take part in the world’s first ‘plastic fishing’ competition in Mexico. The event, which was in collaboration with the agency We Believers, saw 80 fishermen compete to make the biggest ‘catch’ of plastic waste off the coast of Mazatlán, Mexico. Collectively, the fishermen rescued nearly three tons of plastic (about the weight of two cars) with the winner pulling in about 815 pounds and...
Opinion – Rehabilitation must be the way forward for UK prisons
The UK should be looking to the Scandinavian model of reform and rehabilitation for inspiration, not America’s. The use of prisons as a form of punishment and detention dates back over 2,000 years to the Ancient Romans and Greeks, but the system of mass incarceration only became widespread in Europe during the Enlightenment period. The banalisation of this form of punishment was in response to popular resistance to public execution and...
