A programme of recent music videos, followed by an extended panel discussion.

From Lily Allen’s ‘Hard out here’ to  Beyonce’s ‘Flawless’, an

intersectional debate about contemporary feminism(s) has reached the

mainstream. Beyond the ongoing debate about representations of women’s

sexual agency in the male dominated music industry, where a woman’s body has become a lucrative commodity, is a more complex debate about the

line between the cross pollinating effects of a shared love of music and deeply problematic cultural appropriation. Historically a

battleground over the female body, the world of the music video is being reclaimed by a wave of artists who are using it as a medium to to defy

categorisation and convention. Whether it is the most politest of

subversions from Beyonce, the afro-futurist aesthetics of FKA Twigs and

Janelle Monae, the blatant and inciting weaponising of the female body

from Nicki Minaj or the confrontation on expectations of gender from

Planningtorock and Gazelle Twin, we will ask is there is a new

self-determination apparent in the way that artists are defying

expectation by presenting themselves and their differences?

The Panel:

Aimee Cliff

Aimee Cliff is a freelance music and culture journalist based in London. A

regular contributor to Dazed and The Fader, her insightful pieces have

directly addressed female identity politics in popular music, tackling

issues such as intersectional feminism in music videos and the

limitations of the mainstream music press in understanding new work by

those who fall outside the conventions usually assigned to female or

non-white artists.

Emma Dabiri

Emma Dabiri is a writer and commentator. She is a PhD Researcher in the

Sociology Department at Goldsmiths. Her research explores the multiple

ways in which mixedness has come to be gendered. She is a teaching

fellow in the Africa Department at SOAS and her major passions include,

African and African Diasporian performative and literary cultures,

critical race studies, feminism and folklore.

Grace Ladoja

Grace Ladoja is photographer and filmmaker based in London. Working across

culture and commerce, she has collaborated on a number of visual

projects with artists such as FKA Twigs.

This event is curated

by Jemma Desai (I am Dora) who will also lead the discussion. Jemma

Desai is a curator and writer based in London. She is a programmer for

the London Film Festival and the Independent Cinema Office and is the

founder of I am Dora.

I am Dora is a curatorial initiative that explores how women relate to one another through the medium of film.

www.iamdora.co.uk