Walking Forest Coventry

FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER

Dawn 7.31am

8.30am Spencer Park near the footbridge an ancient route to the city known as Anarchy Bridge.

9am Underpass Grosvenor Road The lost pear and a lament UK’s tree of the year felled near Coventry in 2020.

9.30-10.30am Greyfriars Green. Love, Gratitude, Grief Children lead an intergenerational exchange.

10.40am Coventry City Council building, Friargate The suffragette pine Walking Forest story. 

12.15-13.15pm Shelton Square Climate Cafe: what you have noticed and how are you feeling about changes in the weather locally and globally? Lunch for all provided.

15.15-15.45pm Magistrates Court Law Making or Law Breaking ? Witness statements from women who have been standing up for the natural world locally.

16.00-16.50pm The Council  House Speakers Corner - A Tree Has Fallen A chance for women of all ages to find their voice. Listen and join in.

17pm Walking with Fire procession to the Old Cathedral.

17.15-18.11pm (dusk) Old Cathedral Laying the Tree Down  

paying respects through song, spoken word and listening.

18.11pm (dusk) - 19.00 Old Cathedral Spend time with the tree with warm food and drink.

19-21pm Vigil with the tree.

SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER

Dawn 7.33am

8.30-9am Old Cathedral Social Dreaming Listen to overnight dreams emerging from the tree carriers and walkers.

9.30-10.30am Priory Gardens Observation and Connection with nature through the felled tree.

11am Millennium Square ‘Courage calls to Courage’ Coventry’s suffragette past and what inspires each of us to act.

11.30-12.15pm Lady Herbert’s Gardens Under the Tall Trees sharing the importance of urban green spaces.

12.40- 1.55pm Volgograd Place How can Coventry feed itself? A celebration and exchange of local food and home grown produce with lunch for all provided.

14.25-15.15pm Belgrade Square Dancing Earth Join in weaving connections across cultures through dance and song.  

15.45-16.45pm Spon End-Grapevine The Lady of the Woods Time to rest together.

17.15-18.08pm (dusk) Sherbourne Valley Allotments, Arches Industrial Estate  entrance.  Seedlings. We mark and celebrate the end of the Coventry journey with fire, poetry, pear cake and gratitude. No late entry. 

Walking Forest is a ten year project to plant a woodland to honour Earth Defenders from around the world. It looks back to the collective actions of the campaigners for women’s suffrage who stood for radical democratic change and looks forward to the next 100 years when articulating and standing up together for the well-being of Earth is key to planetary survival. We take inspiration from the story of the last surviving ‘Suffragette Tree’ from an arboretum in Batheaston planted by women activists in the early 20th century. We are inspired by the hidden networks of the forest which reveal that individual trees live in a vibrant community connected via superfine threads of fungi that span the forest underground.

Walking Forest Coventry is commissioned by Coventry City of Culture Trust as part of the Green Futures Programme. This began with a woodland camp where 28 Coventry women explored forest networks, creativity and activism to unearth stories of female activism in Coventry. This performance action emerged from the camp through the imagination and vision of all of those who took part. The route, choreography, costume and props have all been designed together. Since October, Walking Forest has grown to include up to many other women who are tree carrying and walking with us.

Following its time in Coventry, the tree will make its way to Glasgow for the COP 26 climate talks where it will continue its role as a gathering and convening space for women's voices to be heard and hidden stories to be shared. 

On 12 December Walking Forest invites you to a tree planting event to plant young saplings from the 'Suffragette Tree’ at Floyds Field, Tile Hill. This land was gifted to the city by local suffragette Lettice Floyd.

I want to demonstrate that actions speak louder than words. What we are producing is something that is visible to people - offscreen and on the street’

Martina, tree carrier

Walking Forest Anchor Women:

Martina Irwin, Sanaa Cheruvallili, Alice Khimasia, Heather Parker, Birgit Kehrer, Gemma Musgreaves, Lisa Franklin, Becky Taylor, Gayatri Pasricha, Leah Gowing, Jana Aizupe, Sherrie Edgar, Sam Loughrey Black, Jane Clarke, Loraine Masiya Mponela, Sabz Qazi, Amber Jones, Sonani Mhlanga, Mel Smith, Melissa Smith, Amanda Haran

Walking Forest camp attendees:

Jasmine Wang, Lakshmi Srinivasan, Victoria Lindsell, Sara Estecha Querol.

Food provided by Langar Aid, Change Kitchen and other local providers

Soundscape created by Mira Calix, Sonum Vocis Magnum Parvo.

Costumes and props co-created with Walking Forest Coventry and Fablab, The Cuttlefish Collective and Jo Jo Wood.

Production materials are wherever possible natural, recycled, found, borrowed or repurposed.

Walking Forest artists Ruth Ben-Tovim, Shelley Castle, Anne-Marie Culhane and  Lucy Neal. walkingforest.co.uk