Launch of the Xenia Trailblazing Women of Hackney Map on 9th March 2024

Xenia Participants and some of the Trailblazing women featured on the map outside Newington Green Meeting House

Over 70 people attended Xenia’s public launch of our Trailblazing Women map of Hackney. The event was held at the historic Newington Green Meeting House, number 1 of 20 stops on this unique heritage trail, created by Xenia participants, highlighting a selection of women nominated by the community in Hackney.

The event was the culmination of an Untold Stories project funded by the GLA. Xenia participants decided to redress the lack of diversity in the public sphere by recognising the contribution of underrepresented women. We also wanted to bring local communities in Hackney together by curating a trail which fully reflects the super-diverse demographic and creating a highly participatory experience, including an audio trail available on Spotify and SoundCloud.

During the project Xenia participants developed their skills and knowledge by researching stories of women in partnership with Hackney Museum, Hackney Archives and Newington Green Meeting House. They helped design the map with illustrator-as-historian Kremena Dimitrova, recorded the stories and developed their confidence to speak publicly at the launch event.

The launch was a celebratory event where we heard speeches from nominators, nominees and Xenia women before holding our largest Xenia session yet, where we found out about each other and our relationship with the map.

You can pick up a map at one of our partner organisations or download it here, where you will also find the audio trail: https://www.xenia.org.uk/trailblazing-women-trail