Creating 'A Womens' Guide to Manchester'

Illustrations by the amazing Jen Collins

There has been talk of creating a 'Womens' Guide to Manchester' zine to give out at Freshers Week for a few months and now the ball has finally started rolling! Here's the original information from the Facebook event:

"So a couple of us decided it would be a fun idea to try and create a women's guide to Manchester to hand out at the freshers fair and other places if we like! We talked about how it had taken some of us a while to find spaces that we felt comfortable and happy in as women whilst others had found stuff they loved straight away. Either way it would have been great to be given a guide in our first week filled with women's history, comedy, music, groups, activities and other stuff, as well as signposting of health and emergency services etc. It would also be a way to promote fun stuff that is female fronted in Manchester as it's not always that obvious what is going on in our massive city! 

We also realised however, that we as a small group have a very limited experience of Manchester and what goes on here so would like to invite as many amazing women to contribute as possible :D Here are some examples of what we are looking for: nights out that have amazing music where you don't get hassled, a martial arts class that is especially women friendly, a comedy night full of female comics, a building that has significant history, a service you have used that was exceptionally excellent for women, a spiritual place or group that you feel particularly is particularly supportive, etc etc etc All ideas welcome :) 

We will be having a craft day to try and put this all together into a zine-like format on the 3rd but realise that we can never have a time that is convenient for anyone. If you can't make the crafting or don't want to but still want to contribute please do!!! Just post whatever you want on the event page and we will try and incorporate as much as possible! If it's successful maybe we could start a bi-monthly event for making up to date guides of what's on or something?! Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves! Location to be confirmed nearer the time but it may just be someone's house or the students union! Any questions, just post below :) Looking forward to learning lots more about other people's experiences of Manchester!"

 It would be wonderful if as many people as possibly could contribute to this to ensure that it's as varied and inclusive as possible. It will also be a great way to learn about zine making if you're curious about making your own zines! 

Get involved here if you have Facebook! Alternatively, email us and we'll pass your ideas on to the group. We'll also post the actual meet up details for creating the zine here nearer the time.