Left to right: Dilar Dirik, Jac Sm Kee, Nidhi Goyal, NIDA Mushtaq, Shilo shiv Suleman, Coumba Toure, Lolita Chavez , Claudia Corredor
This article is part of 50.50's in-depth coverage of the 2016 AWID Forum being held on 8th -11th September in Bahia, Brazil.
The final morning plenary transcended all expectations. In contrast with the flashing lights and lively music which greeted our arrival on the first two mornings, this event was shrouded in darkness. Intentionally. Because the darkness was going to be lit up with the poetic re-imaginings of eight intergenerational women who took the Yoruba proverb ‘It takes a village…’ to imagine what a feminist village of the future would look like. The direction of travel imagined would involve being released from fear into hope and revolution. Shilo Shiv Suleman, one of the members of Fearless Collective, a global network of young activists and artists, and co-coordinator of the session with Nida Mushtaq, began with a poem about fear and how it had consumed her:
