Poetry & Pavlova on International Women’s Day
SMP director Ted Gooda reflects on the project’s celebrations for International Women’s Day 2026.
Sunday 8th March 2026 was International Women’s Day and the Shelley Memorial Project celebrated it at the Women’s Hall in Billinghurst. Our Poetry & Pavlova event was hosted by poets Liz Barnes and Ted Gooda and headlined by the magnificent Booming Lovelies.
The Women’s Hall was built more than 100 years ago by two extraordinary women, the Misses Beck, who conceived of it as a space for women to meet at a time when those spaces were extremely limited. They were suffragettes who stood up for what they believed in and harboured hunger strikers on release from prison. Indeed, Edith Beck herself was arrested on Black Friday when women marched on parliament. The Beck sisters were radical thinkers who weren’t afraid to act; qualities which Shelley would, no doubt, have endorsed. We can’t think of a better place to celebrate International Women’s Day, and suspect that Edith and Ellen would approve.
The Booming Lovelies are a trio of fantastic performance poets from Surrey — Sharron Green, Trish Broomfield and Heather Moulson.
They describe themselves as ‘ladies of a certain age’ who are ‘unafraid to share their wealth of life experience with anyone brave enough to listen and curious to hear.’ Their set gave us a nostalgic look at some of the lost things from the last century as well as the complexities of modern life. With quite a lot of references to gin and menopause along the way.
The Booming Lovelies: Sharron Green, Heather Moulson and Trisha Broomfield
After as much pavlova as we could eat, it was time for the open mic. There were ten fanatastic readers, including some Poetry & Pints regulars, as well as poets from poets from further afield. As well as original poems on the theme of inspirational women, there were some ‘covers’ of old favourites, including Carol Ann Duffy and Maya Angelou. It was moving, inspiring, celebratory: exactly what we knew it would be.
Open mic readers with the Booming Lovelies
We’re extremely grateful to everyone who helped out on the day, who came along to support, who performed, who pavlova-ed, and who promoted the event.
Happy International Women’s Day from the Shelley Memorial Project!