Welcome to Storyhouse Childless!

In this opening session, Dawn Llewellyn will welcome you to the weekend and to Storyhouse. You’ll be introduced to the different events and to the focus group, who are on hand to help make sure your Storyhouse Childless experience is memorable. You’ll also hear from Dawn, as she reflects on the wider social, cultural and political contexts that are currently shaping our understandings and experiences of childlessness and pronatalism — in all its forms — and the place that the festival has in these conversations.

As Storyhouse Childless is for sharing stories and building community, and in response to feedback from previous festivals, there will also be an opportunity to meet each other and to begin the weekend, together.   

Dr Dawn Llewellyn (she/her) is Associate Professor of Religion and Gender at the University of Chester and she’s been researching, publishing, and speaking publicly about pronatalism for over 13 years.  She is childfree/childless by choice/not a parent/no kids and, like most people, has a problem with labels. Dawn was part of the team that founded Storyhouse Childless. 

This event is for people who are Childless and Childfree and their supporters. 

This event may feature strong language, mention of abortion, trauma, pregnancy, miscarriage, and suicidal ideation. Please look out for yourself and others and please remember you can come and go from any event.

If you have any access needs for example noise sensitivity, mobility or if there is any other support you need, please add yourself to the access register here. We will get in touch with you before the event to chat about we can support you to have the best experience of the discussions group events