Miranda July And Carrie Brownstein Lead An AMAZING Lineup For All About Women 2016

[Update December 14]: Miranda July has now announced an additional show in Melbourne on Monday, March 7. Taking the same name as a series she’s been taking around the US, LOST CHILD! will be part performance, part lecture, and part storytelling about both her work and life.

The session will be presented by The Wheeler Centre and ACMI at the Melbourne Town Hall and tickets are $25-30. Sorry Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and literally everyone else. Melbourne and Sydney win again.

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All About Women has always been very, very good. Having just celebrated its third year in March, the one-day festival discussing and celebrating women’s experiences featured renowned feminist writer Roxane Gay, games critic Anita Sarkeesian, and Australian of the Year Rosie Batty — to name just a few. The organisers of the event even turned Gretel Killeen into a surreal inter-dimensional version of Tony Abbott for you.

But now, with the program for the 2016 festival having just dropped online, they may have outdone themselves.

Firstly, Miranda July will be there. The filmmaker, artist, writer, and person who has recently casually chatted to Rihanna will be presenting an interactive talk on her career to date featuring elements of performance, video, and incredible (though often confusing) July-style wisdom.

Secondly, Carrie motherfucking Brownstein. Already touring the country with Sleater-Kinney at the beginning of the year, the musician, comedian, writer, and person who occasionally officiates strangers weddings is going to drop by to talk about her new memoir Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl before her band performs at the Opera House that night.

However those aren’t the only big drawcards from the world of pop culture. Founder of The Toast and undisputed Queen of the Internet Mallory Ortberg will also be there, as will Piper Kerman: a woman you might know better by the on-screen character she inspired, Piper Chapman. Kerman is the memoirist whose life was the basis for Orange Is The New Black and will be in the country to talk about “making mistakes, the women you meet in a US prison, and her work improving prisoners’ rights”.

As always, the day will have a broader political focus too. Anne-Marie Slaughter, who worked under Hillary Clinton as Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department, will be discussing the idea of “having it all”. Expanding on her TED talk of the same topic, student and activist Hyeonseo Lee will be talking about her experience defecting from North Korea, and journalist and LGBT activist Masha Gessen will be discussing her similar continued opposition to the Russian government.

On the home front, a number of leading local academics will be throwing around ideas on our nation’s domestic violence epidemic and what masculinity means in the modern age. And, in an especially unique session, a young Indigenous woman from Bundjalung country in Australia will be sitting down with an Indigenous woman from Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Canada for a discussion about climate change and industrialisation.

“It is impossible to calculate the value of the books, articles, artworks, awards and more that are shared between the diverse and inspiring women who will gather [here],” says Ann Mossop, Head of Talks and Ideas at the Opera House. And that sounds about right. But with panels simply titled “What Needs To Change” featuring legends like Masha Gessen, Mallory Ortberg, and a pro who closely worked with someone who may be the US’ first female president, it’s certainly worth being in the room to find out.

The full program‘s just gone live.

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All About Women will run on Sunday, March 6 at the Sydney Opera House however some events will also be live-streamed to regional centres in Dubbo, Mackay and Cairns. Tickets start at $27. More info here.