Salena Godden – RED for Nasty Women (video premiere)

The inimitable Salena Godden presents her new poem RED, donated to global art movement Nasty Women

Video by The Skinny | 11 Sep 2017

Salena Godden has donated her latest protest poem, RED, to Nasty Women – watch it in the player above, or read the full piece below. Explaining why, Godden say: "RED is a poem about periods. RED is about stigma. This is about women's autonomy over their own bodies and their own choices.

"RED is a protest poem against the tampon tax, anger that sanitary products have been considered a luxury item and therefore taxable. RED is a fury that money from the UK tampon tax is funding anti-abortion charities. We are haemorrhaging away women's rights... women bleed to bleed to bleed. I have great admiration for the work of the Nasty Women's global movement and donate this work as an endorsement.

"We must end all violence against all women in all its forms. We must end the tampon tax. I wish all women to have a bloody safe and bloody healthy period. Period!"

Nasty Women serves to demonstrate solidarity among artists who identify with being a Nasty Woman in the face of threats to roll back women’s rights, individual rights, and abortion rights. With over 40 events across the globe Nasty Women Exhibitions also serve to support organisations defending these rights and to be a platform for organisation and resistance.

The inaugural Nasty Women UK event in London on 22-24 Sep is an art exhibition and weekend of talks, comedy, spoken word, live music and workshops. Salena Godden headlines the weekend's Spoken Word event at Stour Space on 24 Sep, which also features performances from Lisa luxx, Claire Trevien and a host of female poets, musicians and DJs  – tickets available here.

The exhibition includes 2D work, sculpture, sound installations, street art, performance, political baked goods and an immersive art installation where visitors will be able to create their own artwork in virtual reality. The exhibition also includes a VR experience that re-creates instances of sexism and street harassment and aims to give men and women a visceral understanding of what it’s really like to be attacked in the street or on public transport just because you are a woman. All artworks will be for sale, with prices ranging from £5 to £500.

All proceeds will be donated End Violence Against Women, a leading coalition of specialist women’s support services, researchers, activists, survivors and NGOs working to end violence against women and girls in all its forms.

RED by Salena Godden

You should see what I made red
You should see what I made red
You should see my art
Look at my beetroot chutney
Look at me and my red soupy pants
You should see me now
On all fours groaning
Rocking back and forth
On my haunches
Breathing into it
Breathing out of it
Clinging to my hot water bottle like a life raft
Low frequency cramps
Punctuated by knitting needle cramps
With extra kick and prick
Like a scissors jab and snip inside my bloody hole
And the product is blackcurrant jelly
Redcurrant syrup

You should see what I made red
You should see what I made red
You should see my art
The sheets, the sheets, the sheets
I made all the sheets red
All the bed a pool of red heat
In the bath there are floating globs
Chunky bloody marmalade
Black cherry vomit
Farmhouse strawberry jam

I'm having a very heavy time man!

But I won't make too much of a fuss
Just leave me here to bleed to death
The last thing we want is any fuss
Just leave me here to drown in my own blood

You should see what I make red
You should see what I made red
Real red and vivid as black cherry juice
Kidneys in my frying pants
My pyjamas are my butchers apron
I used a whole packet of pads in one day
Remarkable

But if men had periods and I was a man I'd walk into a pub
Throw the empty packet down on the bar and yell
'Hey I am having the biggest one
I used a whole packet in one day!'
And I'd demand free drink
And the pub would all applaud
And the men would slap me on the back for having a big one
In the movie of this month I would be played by Bruce Willis 'Bleed Hard'
Sylvester Stallone 'You drew first blood...'

You should see what I made red
You should see my mess
Have you ever seen such a massive giant period?
Where is it coming from?And when will it ever stop?
All this bleeding bloody blood is mine
I am making it come out somehow

But,
This blood does not come from violence
But my own violent nature
This blood does not come from murder
This blood is not my death
There are no bullets or knives
This is no wound or sickness
This blood is not a weakness
This blood is my moon, my time
This blood is all me

And yet this blood disgusts us the most
More than any blood
More than the blood on the hands of mans bloody war
This blood disgusts us most
This shameful blood, this quiet blood
Shush! Don't mention the lady blood
Shush! Don't mention this discreet blue lady blood
Yet
I must pay tax for this silent blood
Every month we pay tax to bleed
This blood of mine is so very disgusting
Yet also so taxable

And that tax goes to anti abortion charities
We are haemorrhaging women's rights
We are paying to bleed away a woman's choice
That tampon tax goes to battered women's charities
It's blood for blood, bleeding for bloody battered women
We are taxed to bleed to bleed to bleed to bleed...

So fuck you
I'll get my moneys worth
Come see what I paint red
You should see what I made red
Come see, come see what I made red
You should see my mess
The bathroom, the bedroom
Everything is stained with my stink
The whole world I paint it red, red, red
Come see, come see, come look
You should see what I made red
You should see me, see me, see red

Anything you can do I can do bleeding
I can do anything flooding with blood


Poem and film donated to the NASTY WOMEN UK London art show at Stour Space, Hackney Wick, 22-24 September

http://www.nastywomenuk.com