Modern suffragette march that became a living artwork collected together in a book

When thousands of women took to the streets in 2018 to mark the centenary of (some) women getting the vote, they held high a beautiful collection of banners celebrating women around the world.

From a design using Glastonbury wristbands emblazoned with ‘Make Some Noise’ to another featuring Year 7 schoolgirls reimagining themselves as British women of colour activists, the eclectic series of banners were created for Processions, a project created by arts company Artichoke. Now for the first time they have been collected together in a book, with the artist or group for each banner talking about the inspiration behind their design.

The fully illustrated set of images of the 100 banners are introduced by a selection of essays, including by Artichoke’s artistic director Helen Marriage, June Sarpong and Helen Pankhurst, great grand-daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst.

“The ambition of Processions was to create a single unifying moment of celebration and commemoration, when communities could take to the streets creating a glorious portrait of women and girls in the twenty-first century,” writes Marriage.

The procession turned the capital purple, green and white - the colours of the suffragette ribbon - to mark 100 years since the vote was first given to some women, and champion the continued campaign for gender equality.

Women Making History is published by Profile Books

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Tens of thousands march to celebrate 100 years of women's suffrage