Red Tents by Mary Ann Clements and Aisha Hannibal

Red Tents: Unravelling our Past and Weaving a Shared Future is a must-read.

From Womancraft Publishing, the book includes a foreword by Alisa Starkweather, founder of the Red Tent Temple Movement.

Each Red Tent is a unique reflection of the community of women who create it. But these varied spaces share something in common.

• The longing for connection and belonging.
• The sharing of how we are feeling and who we are in our lives.
• The nourishment of ourselves and each other.
• The slowing down, the rest, the replenishment.
• The simple act of sharing time and space with a group of women.
• The opportunity to let go of the other responsibilities in our lives

When women come together, magic happens. We know this to be true from our own experience. And we have also seen that something else happens too when these communities grow: they can become a beacon to others.

Red Tents weaves together the voices and experiences of many women to create a shared story about the role Red Tents can play in our lives. We document our shared hope, vision and dream – Red Tents as liberatory community spaces for women around the world.

Full of inspiration and practical learning, along with questions and practices to support and stimulate discussion about some of the challenges Red Tents face. Red Tents is written by the founders of the Red Tent Directory, including interviews with over seventy women from diverse backgrounds who run Red Tents, this book provides the practical support women need to establish and sustain a Red Tent in their own community.

• Common challenges and how to overcome them
• Building Red Tent spaces that are liberatory and challenge oppression
• Leading together and making your tent sustainable

This book provides you with inspiring, grounded, tried and tested advice for creating a safer and more inclusive space.

Aisha Hannibal has worked for over twenty years in the charity sector from working in front-line services with people experiencing domestic violence to training teachers in intercultural learning in schools. Creating resilient communities has been an essential part of her work. She learnt a lot about leadership by being a trustee for 7 years for an NGO supporting campaigns led by conservation organisations in Russia and Eastern Europe as well as being involved in housing cooperatives in the UK. As a campaigner she set up international projects to educate and empower global and active citizens to promote peace through cross cultural re-flection. She currently supports people to establish grassroots groups in the UK to make cities and towns more accessible for walking and cycling. Her commitment to work with women threads through all of her ventures including managing the website for Women in Power UK which runs an initiation programme for women. Her passion for sustainable networks of support underpins her dedication to the Red Tent Directory which she co-founded with Mary Ann 8 years ago.

Mary Ann Clements is a Feminist Writer, Facilitator, Activist & Coach. She worked with Aisha to launch the Red Tent Directory in 2012 and they have run it together since. She believes in the power for women’s circles and community to help create change in our world. Mary Ann helps people and organisations explore how the injustice they stand against shows up in them. In so doing she helps them create more space to be part of imagining a radically different future. Healing Solidarity, an online annual conference and hub that she initiated, and now runs it together with a multi-racial Advisory Circle, has engaged well over 3000 people in conversations about re-imagining inter-national development and addressing racism within it since 2018. It builds on her two decades experience in the sector, including seven years as the Director of an INGO. She takes an intersectional feminist approach to all her work which has had a particular focus on disability, mental health and women’s rights, She is also a Shadow Work Coach, Action Learning Facilitator, TedX Speaker & Movement Practitioner. She’s co-host of the podcast, Change Making Women and is active in the Women in Power UK Community. She also has many years’ experience as a Board Member including as Chair of a Women’s Refuge in South London.