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A weekend of liberation via lactivism! Join us for daylight and twilight performances, workshops, discussions, installations and an after party, as we dive into the societal pressures, insane mixed messaging and unconditional love surrounding infant feeding. Both healing balm and urgent battle cry. Expect to see milk, tears and confetti.
Saturday 28th February:
7:30 – 8:30pm- Performance of Niplash by Karla Shacklock featuring BYOB Choir
9pm – 12am - After Party with DJ Fly Fox (founder of Femmes on Decks)
From 6pm - Infant feeding installation by Amy Thornley Heard and Maternal art exhibition by Amy Copeland
Feeding paraphernalia donation bank open all day
NOTE: babes in arms welcome at all Saturday events
Performance is ticketed but all other events are drop in and free / donation based
Sunday 1st March:
11am – 12:30pm Coffee Morning with art, journalling, discussion and feeding support, with Lucy Webber (Lactation Consultant), Lizzy Humber (Matrescence Festival), Emma Lee (Therapeutic Counsellor), Linde van Vliet (Twin Mum Circle)
1pm – 2pm - Performance of Niplash by Karla Shacklock and featuring BYOB Choir
2pm – 3pm - Post Show Discussion
NOTE: children aged 0 – 2 years welcome at all Sunday events
Performance is ticketed but all other events are drop in and free / donation based
A dance theatre solo conceived, laboured and birthed by Karla Shacklock
Developed on Complicité’s Mudlarks International Residency
Highly physical and visual, hilariously raw and heartbreakingly real, Niplash blows open the multifaceted world of infant feeding; from the cultural expectations and taboos, to the lack of support and understanding. Through humour, honesty, and vulnerability, Karla opens a space where our stories are given a voice, and we are powerfully reminded that they matter. That we matter.
Karla shares her experience of feeding three children and weaves into the show stories and feeding paraphernalia kindly donated by dozens of m/others across the country. Niplash is for the mum who was spat at for bottle feeding her baby in the street, the mum told to put her tits away in a café, the mum scorned for feeding a baby with different skin colour to her own, the mum who only dare pump for her baby with the curtains closed at home. For all the m/others. For all of us.
*Infant Feeding - Niplash is a show that explores how we feed our children, this includes breast, chest and formula milk feeding. The show does not place one form of feeding above another and seeks to acknowledge the myriad of experiences and complex journeys.
*Niplash contains partial nudity and themes of infant feeding experiences. There is a semi loud bang at the end.
Previous performances have taught us that by the end of the show some audience members have a desire to let go, to release, to celebrate, and so following tonight’s performance we invite you to join us for a post show party. In each city we visit, we work with local m/other DJs to create a space where we can come together in our Lactivist spirit and have a collective boogie. See you on the dance floor! Tonight’s DJ is the incredible Fly Fox (founder of Femmes on Decks).
Join us for a relaxed coffee morning, art exhibition and optional space to get creative with a journalling prompt, open to all parents. This is a supportive space for discussion, laughter, tears and connection with other parents. Children welcome too. With Lucy Webber (Lactation Consultant), Lizzy Humber (Matrescence Festival), Emma Lee (Therapeutic Counsellor), Linde van Vliet (Twin Mum Circle).
Feel free just to drop in for some solidarity and a cuppa and/or join Lizzy at the journalling table to explore a long held feminist practice. Journalling can provide an outlet for some of the feelings and challenges you might experience both physically and emotionally as a parent feeding a baby, but is also a colourful and playful way to hold stories and memories. Art Materials provided, but you are welcome to bring pictures, text, journals too.
A parent-accessible matinee offers a relaxed show, adult centred, but where children under 2 are welcome too. We have reduced amplification and dimmed lights to support little ears. You are free to move about during the performance, come and go as you need, we expect babies and toddlers to make noise. We also have some children’s ear defenders on offer or you may prefer to bring your own.
On arrival you will be supported to park your buggy and find an emergency cup of tea or something stronger from the café bar. We encourage you to arrive a bit early to meet other sleep-deprived parents, we’re all in it together. Please feel empowered to breast, chest or bottle-feed. The café-bar can also provide hot water behind the bar if you need to warm bottles.
Following the Sunday performance there will be an informal and warmly facilitated post-show activity hosted by Lizzy Humber (Matrescence Festival).
Visual artist Amy Thornley Heard will be creating an art installation exploring matrescence, motherhood and infant feeding in the Mount Without’s Crypt, using some of her own art and also working with the feeding paraphernalia donated by m/others across the country.
Artist Amy Copeland will be exhibiting some of her beautiful paintings which celebrate motherhood, infant feeding, self love and body positivity. Canvas, prints and greeting cards will be available to buy.
If you have any unwanted feeding equipment (bottles, pumps, teats, pads, bras etc) that you would like to add to the tapestry of Niplash, then please do bring them along and place them in the donation bank – they may get used directly in a future performance, installation or woven into our huge Lactivist flag that we will be flying proudly around the country. Thank you.
