Trailblazing Writer - Aphra Behn - to get Statue
Two charities launch a fundraising campaign this Thursday 24th June 2021 to get a statue of Aphra Behn – the first professional female writer in the English language – erected in Canterbury, Kent.
BACKGROUND
Aphra Behn (1640-1689) was a playwright, poet, novelist and spy. She was born in the Canterbury area and lived in and around the city for at least the first sixteen years of her life.
Aphra Behn was the first ever woman to make her living as a professional writer.
THE CAMPAIGN
Local charity A is for Aphra is working on this joint project alongside the Canterbury Commemoration Society. They are encouraging donations small and large via the website www.aisforaphra.org
The campaign launches on Thursday 24th June 2021 with two education packs on Aphra Behn being made freely available to schools (via the website), an online vote for people’s preferred location for the statue and with an online auction for a pair of Wimbledon Ladies’ Final Tickets on Saturday 10th July. The prize includes a Champagne Wimbledon Afternoon Tea for Two. The link to the online auction for the Wimbledon Tickets is also on the campaign website. Bidding ends next week at 9pm on Wednesday 30th June.
CELEBRITY SUPPORT
The campaign is backed by celebrities and politicians.
One of the best-known Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Actors, Alexandra Gilbreath is joined by local Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield, Behn biographer and academic Janet Todd, historian and HistFest founder Rebecca Rideal and Screenwriter Jessica Lambert, calling for Aphra Behn to - at last - be celebrated and memorialised by her home city.
HOW THE CAMPAIGN BEGAN
The current Canterbury Poet of the Year, Charlotte Cornell, is Chair of A is for Aphra. She says:
‘I’d been a teacher of English in Canterbury for ten years (including teaching Aphra Behn’s plays) and when I was talking to my 9-year-old daughter, Evelyn, about how amazing Aphra was, she asked why there wasn’t a statue of her seeing as Aphra had grown up here. It was a lightbulb moment really. My daughter loves writing, and theatre and I wanted her (and everyone else) to know Canterbury as a truly literary city, of Chaucer and Marlowe AND Behn and that we celebrate the ground-breaking achievements of our women, just as much as we celebrate those of our men.’
Alexandra Gilbreath says:
"It boggles my mind that this extraordinary playwright and poet, this iconoclast and original punk-rocker, has no permanent legacy. For goodness sake, she had more plays performed than Congreve."
Rosie Duffield MP says:
"Canterbury is a city full of treasures; we have our cathedral and Christopher Marlowe and we are steeped in the history of pilgrimage that Chaucer immortalised...yet even among all of that, Aphra Behn remains special. She was a pioneer for all women: she broke down boundaries, earning her own living off her own talents and remains a world-class feminist, writer and inspiration for many. She deserves a statue in our wonderful city."