Between a Rock, a Hard Place and a Dystopia
NDA Podcast Episodes
Women vs. The State
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Women vs. The State

When The State is The Perpetrator

Panel discussion with lawyer Gail Hadfield Grainger whose partner was unlawfully murdered in an extra judicial killing by Greater Manchester Police, Mags McNally, her law partner, their client Zayna and journalist Samantha Asumadu. Discussing travesties of justice, including Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection and the unlawful and egregious actions of the agencies meant to protect us, not harm us.

Content warning: there is detailed discussion of rape, self-harming and police abuse.

On Sunday I participated in the most incredible panel. It was hosted by The View Magazine - a grass-roots social enterprise and campaigning platform working with survivors of abuse and violence, state inflicted oppression and trauma, care-leavers, asylum seekers and formerly incarcerated women, that gives voice to women in the justice system, provides an outlet for creativity and builds financial independence.

Someone’s Daughter is their exhibition highlighting how women prisoners are seen and understood.

It was part of Photo North Festival 2022, an exhibition of documentary photographers from all over the UK.

It included a very striking collection on homelessness, which was also covered in the Big Issue.

Photographer Marc Davenant’s spent six-years taking stark and poignant portraits of people experiencing homelessness in Britain to document the human impact of the housing crisis.

I was truly honoured to part of the panel and grateful to see the exhibition.

The platform, advocacy work and support the View Magazine provide to women in and out of the carceral justice system is necessary. Donate 20 quid for their photography book filled with women in and out of prison who fight for justice, shot by acclaimed photographers. The intention is that the donation will support production and get the books into the hands of MPs and those who need to see it.

The work that Gail Hadfield-Grainger and her partner Mags McNally are doing is awe inspiring. And it was no easy route to them setting up a law practice as you'll hear from the recording.

Mags McNally, Zayna, Gail Hadfield-Grainger, Samantha Asumadu

If I was still filmmaking I would make a documentary about them. They remind me of the brilliant pioneering women in Kim Longinotto's film Sisters in Law, except they are based in Bolton rather than Cameroon!

I hope philanthropists will fund their work because I would worry for women seeking justice against the state in the UK if they were not around.


Looking forward to giving my first workshop of 2022 on Saturday and will also be doing workshops at King’s College London and London School of Economics in June. Please get in touch if you’d like to book training or a workshop.

I'll be speaking at the Black British Book Festival on the 4th June and the Hammersmith and Fulham Writers Festival on 20th August. More details TBA.

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Have a great day

Sam

P.S I know there is going to be some non-black women and /or middle class women who try to take my experiences and use them as their own. Trust me, I will hunt you down if you do and you will catch these hands.

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