Motherline: an event from Mothers who Make

Join us to celebrate new work from over 50 women in the community alongside professional artists all responding to the theme of our Motherlines. Expect an array of imaginative, moving and creative responses from visual arts to live performance and workshops that mark the end of our 10 month ACE funded project.

The Motherline celebration will joyfully share the experiences, art work and performances created within a community of 20 women who have been meeting over 10 months to explore creativity, collaboration and connection whilst responding to the word Motherline.

Each session the group have been guided by industry practitioners to play, explore and experiment as a means to later express what resonated with them in the different art forms. The lead practitioners are Alice Robinson from The Performers' Playground and Jolene Sheehan from Joy Ethic CIC and the guest practitioners have been Musician Becky Wilkie, Visual artist Lynda Sterling and Playwright Linda Brogan.

In addition to the community group we have commissioned mother artists from our network and beyond to showcase extracts of new work in their art forms during this event. There will also be creative workshops for you to sign up to on the day including dance, art and creative discussion. The abundance of creative responses is incredibly inspiring and moving and we cannot wait to share it with audiences.

Performances

The Black Dog (and other tales of motherhood) by Sophia Hatfield

Motherhood is no fairy tale. Folklore tells of The Barghest, a terrifying black dog that haunts lonely travellers. When a new mother senses a frightening presence, she is urged to look away. But what if the shadows that follow us are trying to guide us? 
Through punchy storytelling and original songs, Sophia Hatfield attempts to reframe the narrative and look the beast in the eye. 
 
Sophia Hatfield is a performer and theatre maker. Her extensive career as an actor-musician and storyteller has seen her perform over the country. Throughout 2024 she was Storyteller in Residence at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. 
Sophia is co-director of Yarnbird Arts, specialising in touring arts experiences with storytelling at their heart. Her theatre making work includes ‘I Am No Bird’ (Stephen Joseph Theatre and UK Tour), Cardboard Cosmos (UK Tour), The Telephone Theatre (New Perspectives) and GRIT (Urban Wilderness). 
  
Optional Extra Info/Trigger Warning: 
This performance is aimed at adults, however children and young people are welcome to attend. Please be aware, whilst the piece does not feature inappropriate language or content, it is an honest account of postnatal mental health challenges including anxiety and depression. 

Invisible Impact by Lisa Whiteside  

Two mothers’ lives collide in a hospital waiting room after a tragic accident involving a teenage boy and an elderly woman. As secrets unravel and emotions run high, they confront the pressures of modern motherhood, grief, and guilt—discovering unexpected strength and connection in the chaos of everyday life. 
Lisa Whiteside is a passionate Northern creative and proud mum of three with over 20 years’ experience in TV and theatre. As an actor, writer, and producer, I am driven by storytelling. Through my company ACT on Oldham’, I nurture and inspire young talent in the arts as an acting coach. 

Renée C-Williams

A young mum, a toilet and a list. What could go wrong?  
Renée is an actor, director, theatre and filmmaker from Manchester. Her previous own work includes short film ‘Femi’s Wrath’ and one woman play ‘Hot Pepper Sauce’. She also recently starred as Naomi in short film ‘On The Ropes’, and was AD for play ‘Bloods Thicker 2’. 
 
Instagram @reneecwill

Seren Marimba and Elizabeth Kwant

Combining movement, gesture, voice and film, they will explore the MOTHERLINE as a cord being wound through nature. Connecting the human to the earth, the mother to the ancestors and the mother to her child. 
Seren is a mother to her 7 month old little boy. She is a Mancunian interdisciplinary performance artist, director and curator. Seren uses culture to enrich her works, reflecting the bold and beautiful characters she meets. Specifically among the marginalised or alternative communities she connects with.

Elizabeth, a Manchester-based British artist and mother of two, explores migration, colonialism, and identity through film, performance, and archival research, amplifying marginalized voices. Her work is shaped by cross-cultural experiences and includes collaborations with survivors of modern slavery and refugees. 
 
Seren: @serenmarimba 
Elizabeth: @elizabethkwantstudio 

Elements by Alice Robinson and Claire Northey  

Joyfully provoking each other and taking turns to lead Claire and Alice improvise with invented, inherited and imagined dances and tunes passed down the line. They create dances that rise and fall, music that stomps and soothes and together they wrestle with what is left when the dust settles, the dance is done and we let silence fall. 
 
Alice Robinson is a playful movement practitioner, theatre maker and producer. She is the co founder of The Performers Playground - a theatre school, she lecturers movement and clown at various drama schools and runs Mothers who Make Manchester at HOME MCR for the many and marvellous mother artists of Manchester. Alice is passionate about connection, collaboration and experimentation. 

@alicerobinsonmoves 
 
Claire Northey is a violinist and composer who has worked in various theatre projects in Manchester and Bristol in the past 10 years. Recent projects were Motherkind in partnership with MWM. She creates soundtracks live with a violin and a loop pedal. Expect atmospheric string layers with soft beats and a 360C use of the violin's body. 

Event schedule

Slot 1 (11.30-2.30pm)

Throughout the event all artwork will be on display from the Motherline community group and commissioned artists.   There will be optional workshops to sign up for upon arrival and the following live performances.  We will provide tea and cake for the party!

Performances 12.15-1.15pm 

The Black Dog (and other tales of motherhood) by Sophia Hatfield 
 
Invisible Impact by Lisa Whiteside  

Renée C-Williams

Slot 2 - (2.30pm - 5.30pm)

Performances: 3.15pm -4.15pm

Seren Marimba and Elizabeth Kwant

The Black Dog (and other tales of motherhood) by Sophia Hatfield

Invisible Impact by Lisa Whiteside  

Slot 3 - 5.30pm-7.45pm 

Performances 6.15-7.15pm

Elements by Alice Robinson and Claire Northey  

We mark the end of the celebration event with live and original music from songwriters Becky Wilkie and Ruby - Ann Patterson.  

Artwork on display during the event

Artwork, music and writing by The Motherline Community group  

Ade Oduntan, Charlotte Wright, Cj O’Neil, Cristina Rubio, Danielle Lowy, Elizabeth Cameron, Federica Buemi, Ann Carney, Ghana Soliman, Karen Whittick, Lesley Sharrock, Lucy Tomlinson, Majella Whittaker, Natalie Mason, Natalie Winrow, Rebecca Lattin, Rebecca Lupton, Ruby-Ann Patterson, Sam Rhodes, Sarah Byrne, Tina Langdon-Brown, Trish Kelly 
 
Plus archives from The Make Space new mums group facilitated by The Birdbox CIC and artwork from the following commissioned artists.  

Cj O’Neill 

An Líne Mháthartha -This work honours the women of the Motherline project, each portrayed standing in her chosen doorway, carrying inherited ancestral knowledge. 

Louisa Mayman

For this commission, Louisa explores the UK’s declining birth rate through portraits of people who are childfree by choice. The work reflects on shifting attitudes toward parenting and considers how ideas of family, care, and community are being reshaped in contemporary society.

Lucy Tomlinson

Lucy's The Room Project draws on Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own to investigate domestic space as both site and symbol of creativity. Through participatory interviews and shared reflection, the project examines how the rooms we inhabit embody memory, identity and transformation.

Rebecca Lattin

The Threads That Hold Us is a community cyanotype project by Manchester photographer Rebecca Lattin, inspired by the shared washing lines of her terraced neighbourhood. Working with neighbours’ objects and memories reflecting their motherlines, she’s created a collective washing line of cyanotype prints celebrating the women and ancestral threads that bind her community together.

Lisa Peasey 

This work challenges conventional ideas of motherhood through a creative response to the realities of infertility. Exploring hidden shame, isolation, social exclusions and grief. The quiet weight of lost experiences and unfulfilled hopes, inviting reflection on the unseen narratives that define the other, often unspoken and silent space where motherhood’s absence is equally defining.

Huma Arshad Khaliq

The Womb of Memory is a layered mixed media work exploring how motherhood is carried through memory, struggle, and resilience. Using gold foil as kintsugi, Huma transforms fractures into light, weaving ancestral whispers, erased words, and gestures of healing that honour the unbroken thread between mothers, daughters, and children.