EEWI meets Chapel Cinema

EEWI meets Chapel Cinema

Thank you to everyone who came along to Chapel Cinema last night that EEWI hosted this week as part of Women's History Month. The film is an interesting one taking you on a bit of a rollercoaster. Interesting in that many mainstream films, action movies, have male characters killing dozens of voiceless background actors with no exploration of the grief those deaths might cause and often we don't think twice about it - it never seems to worry the character either. In Thelma and Louise we are following the two friends through their painful exploration of killing Harlan, the hideous rapist, in the car park of a roadside nightclub and how that act, along with the baggage they both drag around with them, sends them on a crime spree that enables them to truly find themselves. If you haven't seen it, see it.

It was really well attended and almost all of the cakes got eaten so that is the main thing. A particular favourite was ......

For more info about Chapel Cinema - the FREE  cinema in the Chapel at St Margaret's House, click here.

And for information about The Insider's Guide, an annual book that celebrates all things Bow and is the product of an amazing journalism course aimed at local people, click here.

We hope to see you at our next meeting on April 19th.

a new year and January meetings

January Meeting Tuesday 19th January 7 for a 7.30pm start St Margaret's House
Usually in January we try to find something uplifting to help us navigate the grey days and post-Christmas blues, so this month we have invited Vicki Amedume to come and talk to us about her life and career in circus performance. Vicki is the founder and artistic director of Upswing based at Rich Mix. Upswing creates aerial and circus performance for a diverse variety of venues as well as having a wide programme of training courses for all levels and running outreach programmes working with hard to reach and vulnerable groups within the community. Vicki will be talking to us about how she got involved with aerial and circus as well as how Upswing came about. As new year fitness plans go aerialism may be a bit extreme but all of their classes are loads of fun and something a little bit different. Please note we won't be having a go at aerialism! Don't worry!

As usual we are at St Margaret's House, Old Ford Road E2 in the hall at the back of the complex - go through the black gates to the left of the Gallery Café and follow the path round to the right to the hall. 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Free for members, £4 for visitors. Refreshments available - donations to this of the edible, drinkable and spendable kind always welcome.
 

Coffee Morning will be  on Friday January 22nd, 10.30am at the Gallery Cafe, St Margaret's House. All women welcome.

Jumble for the Jungle

Niki is organising a jumble sale on Saturday February 13th at St Barnabas Church in Bow from 12pm onwards to raise money for Calais Kitchens, an organisation that cooks food for the refugees in the jungle at Calais. Set up on Friday 12th from about 6.30pm - just for a few hours then setting up more on the Saturday morning from about 10am. Please contact Niki if you would like to donate, bake or help out.

Our Christmas Meeting

EEWI December Meeting - Fruit, Music and Festive Fun Tuesday 15th December 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Meet in the hall at St Margaret;s House, 21 Old Ford Road. Go through the black metal gates to the left of the Gallery Cafe and follow the path round to the hall on the right. Free for members and £4 for visitors. We will be doing the following...

Making pomanders - deliciously scented oranges, - what could be more Christmassy?
Carving fruit - Carve beautiful flowers and birds from everyday fruits and vegetables. ,
Singing - don't worry you don't have to if you don't want to but we are going to have a good old Christmas sing song.
Choosing the WORST Christmas decoration - so please do bring along your worst Christmas dec and this time there will be a proper prize.
We also invite you to bring your Christmas crafts or bakes to sell if you would like - a chance for us all to make some last minute (or if like me you haven't actually started yet) Christmas presents.

MOST importantly, as many of you will be aware every Christmas we ask that when you are thinking about your Christmas shopping you purchase an extra present suitable for a woman for the service used at U-Turn Women's Centre, a charity we have been involved with since we began 8 years ago that supports women who work in and are trying to exit work in prostitution. You can buy pretty much anything but please avoid alcohol and there's no need to worry if you are on a budget - these women have very little and it is more about us saying to them that we are thinking of them and support them. I cannot express the difference this small gesture from us makes. If you are able to buy a little gift bring it along wrapped up and we will stick it under a tree of some sort and representatives from U-turn will be at the meeting to pick them up.

December Coffee Morning - Friday18th December 10.30am. Creatures of habit we are going back to the Geffrye Museum for I think the 7th time. A wonderful museum looking at interior design across the centuries where at Christmas they decorate each room as it would have been decorated at the time from 1600s onwards. 

Our November Meeting

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 17th November when Michael Smythe will join us to talk about Phytology a project which brings artists and botanists together to explore the medicinal properties of plants that are common to derelict urban environments.  It’s a public art project and urban medicinal garden planted within the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve.  Generally regarded as common indigenous weeds, each plant has been selected for its on-going use in phytotherapy  - the study of the use of extracts of natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agent and traditional medicine. Visitors to the garden are invited to explore the Bethnal Green site, harvest and use the plants for medicinal and nutritional purposes. Phytology aims to challenge ideas of use, value, resilience and the function of wildness within our urban ecosystem.

Michael will discuss the process of establishing the Phytology project (locating the site, establishing the meadow, engagement & art program).
www.phytology.org.uk

As usual we will be meeting in the hall at the back of St Margaret's House on Old Ford Road at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. Free for members and £4 for non-members. Refreshments provided and possible even some baking. We appreciate a little donation in the tin if you have a glass of wine of course! We are also inviting people to bring their home made gifts and crafts so don't forget to bring some cash just in case something tickles your fancy.

EXCITING COMPETITION! - This month we will be kicking off our new monthly competition section like that of the Felbridge Women's Instiute of the Surrey Federation's 1976 programme and for starters we are inviting you to bring along your Best and Worst Holiday Souvenirs. Could be from this year, could be from another time gone by it's up to you and there will be a prize of some sort. Everyone welcome to take part (even committee members!)

Look forward to seeing you then

October Meetings and All about Boobs

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this is obviously something that is close to all of our hearts. We have two organisations coming to speak to us and are very excited about both of them.

Our October meeting is on Tuesday 20th October at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. As ever we meet at St Margaret's House on Old Ford Road. Our meeting takes place in the hall at the back of St Margarets which you can access by going through the black gates on Old Ford Road to the left of the gallery Cafe then you follow the path round the garden to the right and you will see the hall. Our meetings are free to members and £4 for visitors. We provide tea, coffee, herbal teas and wine as well as some nibbles and we do welcome donations of the edible or monetary kind.

For details of our other activities this month, check the sidebar, or read the full newsletter here.

September Meetings and 100 years of the WI

At our 15th September meeting we're going to be celebrating 100 years of the Women's Institute.   We would like you to think about the WI past present and future and what it means to you. So please bring along something that represents that - something baked, knitted, embroidered, a poem, something from a book, a photo, an anecdote, a cocktail ANYTHING.  There will be prizes and lots of other celebratory things too.

If you know anyone who might like to join us please bring them, all visitors will be welcomed free for this meeting - as usual, donations are invited for drinks and food etc. As usual we meet at St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL.

Coffee Morning - This month's coffee morning will be on 18th September, 10.30 start, venue to be confirmed. (Check the sidebar).
 
Our Afternoon Teas happen on the first Monday of the month and are at 3.30pm. Like our coffee mornings they are a chance to chat and explore new venues. The upcoming afternoon teas are as follows;
Monday 7 Sept Museum of London Docklands 
Monday 5 Oct The Coffee Room, Mile End

Hope to see you soon.

Welcome to the EEWI August Newsletter

So much to tell you 

As ever the summer weather is sending us on a merry dance from chilly to humid and back again and, as ever, things are busy at EEWI HQ. Well there isn't an actual HQ (I wish there was!) but we are busy all the same. We had a 'great day' at Victoria Park's Great Day Out and made just under £200 selling cakes at what was a really fun event. A big big thank you to all of our bakers and helpers who are always amazing.

EEWI Bursary
We asked you all to have a think about what courses you would like to do and apply for one of the two EEWI £100 bursaries and we pulled two names out of the hat at our July meeting - well we asked our Thames 21 Speaker to pick the names out anyway. Embarrassingly my name was one of them along with Karen Defoe. Each of us have made a commitment to either give a talk at a meeting or write something for the newsletter and website. More on what we are both going to do soon. And please don't worry if you had a course you wanted to do though as there will be at least two bursaries next year too.

EEWI Cook Book
We are still welcoming recipes for our cook book so if you would like to take part please submit your stories, bakes, pots, pies and whatever to this website right here. More info about the book will be coming soon.

Love the Lea event 23rd August 11 til 7
On that note, and following on from our July meeting where Thames21 came to talk to us about the river and how we can help to preserve it, we need bakers and helpers again for our next event which is Love the Lea on Sunday 23rd August on Walthamstow Marshes, behind the ice skating rink on Lea Bridge Road. This is the same site as Countryside Live and is reasonably easy to get to on public transport. More info here. There is also a car park if you prefer to drive and we ask that if you do drive you consider giving someone else on the helper's list a lift. If you are able to help or bake then it would be great if you contact Clare Barnet, one of the EEWI committee, who will be leading on this event. Clare's contact is clare.barnett1511@gmail.com. As usual we welcome all baking and always need more and if you can help even for an hour that would be amazing. It actually looks like it is going to be a really good day, including live music and lots of river themed activities. A good day but a long day so the more helpers we have the better in order to ensure everyone gets breaks etc. If you can help please drop Clare a line.

August Meeting Tuesday 18th August 7pm for a 7.30pm start
This month we will be welcoming Caroline from Growing Concerns to our meeting to talk about gardening - not just in gardens, but on balconies, allotments and window ledges and learning about the independent garden centre's history. It's an oasis of planting on the canal at the north eastern edge of Victoria Park and a garden centre that is rooted (do you see what I did there) in the community having been involved in lots of projects over the years to improve and enhance Tower Hamlets. We are really excited about this one.
As usual we will be meeting in the hall at St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road E2 9PL. Members are free and visitors are £4. You are welcome to come and see what we are all about. There will, as always, be refreshments and nibbles and our donations tin is always on the table for contributions towards the next lot! We look forward to seeing you there.

August Coffee Morning Friday 21st August 10.30am 
This month we are going to go to Chesterfield, a new cafe at the junction of Roman Road and Grove Road next to St Barnabas Church. They say, 'Speciality coffee shop now open. Loose leaf tea, award winning hot chocolate. Cakes, beigels and ciabattas. Dairy and gluten free products. Service with a smile.' So let's go and find out!

Shoreditch Sisters Summer Meeting Tuesday 25th August 7pm 
We are sooo excited as Shoreditch Sisters have invited us and a number of other local WI groups to their August meeting to celebrate the summer. And how are they going to celebrate the summer? By learning how to Charleston! We, EEWI, have been trying to get together with Shoreditch Sisters for a long time to do something together and so if you are free you should definitely come along. They meet at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club on Pollard Row which is really easy to get to on the bus or tube. I will be there and I hope you will come along too.And the best thing of all is that if you are a member of EEWI it is free entry!! How great is that? All non-members can attend for £5.

Afternoon Teas
Our Afternoon teas happen on the first Monday of the month and are at 3.30pm. Like our coffee mornings they are a chance to chat and explore new venues. The upcoming afternoon teas are as follows;
Monday 7th September Museum of London Docklands
Monday 5th October The Coffee Room, Mile End
Monday 2nd November Marks and Spencer's Cafe Westfield, Stratford (not the one on the bridge!)

AND THERE'S MORE....

September Meeting - Celebrating the Centenary Tuesday 15th September
We just wanted to let you know that at our September meeting we will be celebrating 100 years of the WI. The actual centenary is just one day later. We thought we might ask you to thing about the WI past present and future and bring along something that represents that - something baked, something knitted, embroidered, a poem, something from a book, a photo, an anecdote, a cocktail ANYTHING. There will be prizes and lost of other celebratory things but we wanted to give you all time to have a think about it.

Countryside Live Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th September
Don't forget this is our last tea and cake stall of the year and we need LOADS of cakes! More details here.

Target Ovarian Cancer Walk October 17th 
This is the national ovarian cancer charity working to save lives and help women diagnosed with ovarian cancer live their lives to the full. They are holding a fundraising walk and run at Queen Elizabeth Park in October and EEWI are considering entering a team. Entry is £10 per person and they ask that we each raise £100 sponsorship by walking or running 5K or 10K and we don't all have to do the same thing. Also men are welcome to join the team and there is no minimum age limit so everyone can join in! If you are interested in taking part there will be another email about it early in September.

Jack the Ripper Museum
Some of you may already be aware of the kerfuffle around a museum that was supposed to open in Cable Street. I attended the first of a number of protests outside the Jack the Ripper Museum last week - not on behalf of EEWI - and was shocked to learn that the person responsible for the museum told Tower Hamlets Council when seeking permission to change the premises from residential to commercial use that he intended to open, 'the only dedicated resource in the east end to women's history.' And when the scaffold came down last week or the week before it was a Jack the Ripper museum. There is not enough time to go through it all here but there is plenty of information on the internet. I would like to suggest that EEWI gets behind the campaign to boycott this museum but not before we have discussed it and had a chance to debate it. So if you are interested have a look at the articles online and we will discuss this briefly at the next meeting.

Celia Hammond Needs Our Help
The Celia Hammond Animal Trust is currently inundated with cats and kittens seeking homes. They are currently very short of cat/kitten food and toys. Any creative people among you - you can make some catnip mice out of old fabrichttp://www.thepracticalherbalist.com/crafts-for-kids/how-to-sew-a-catnip-mouse/ or you can knit them yourself and perhaps send them to the charity?
For food donations there is a Amazon wishlist
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/2N6NW621HXPZ9/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o

Thanks for reading this far - apologies for any typos and omissions and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Niki
President of EEWI
on behalf of the committee.