On a late September evening, a crowd gathered inside Nun’s Island Theatre, drawn not only by the promise of a free performance, but by the allure of exploring the rich philosophies and social dynamics of dance and DJ culture. At the centre of it all was Kate Butler (radio producer, DJ, filmmaker, writer and cultural instigator) whose latest project for Culture Night 2025, The Outside Voice, takes an intersectional and inclusive approach. Spanning artists across genres, ethnicities, and sexual identities the project celebrates the empowerment of the female voice. Discover more here..
When Kate Butler was invited to present at Galway Arts Centre's Culture Night 2024, she didn’t expect the invitation to spark such a transformative journey, not only for herself, but for the many voices she’s helped amplify along the way. “That was the first time I’d been asked to do anything by Galway Arts Centre,” Kate reflects. “It was just such a joy. Megs and her team are lovely people, really focused on good work and supporting it. They gave me this amazing opportunity to present all of my research… and also include a lot of the people that I’ve been collaborating with over the past few years.”
above: Photo from Wanna See You Werk, by Ciarán MacChoncarraige
That event, titled Wanna See You Werk, explored accessibility in DJ technology and gave space to voices too often left out of the conversation. It brought together artists like Natasha Lydon (DJ Vixen) from Galway Arts Alive and Renn Miano (founder of Origins Eile, a Black Queer community collective), who has been working alongside Kate on a radio documentary for RTÉ 2FM. “I interviewed the two of them about accessibility to DJ technology,” Kate says. “There’s this perception that DJing is only for certain kinds of people. But Gash Collective and what Lolz has been doing with Arts Alive is really key to activating that idea of DJing being something for everyone.”
Kate’s long-running initiative Atomic has provided real-world proof of this. Founded alongside the rise of Gash Collective, Atomic was born from her desire to give young women and gender minorities hands-on experience in radio and DJing. “I joined Dublin Digital Radio (DDR) in 2017, and one of the first things I wanted to do was to invite young teenage girls and gender minorities to DJ on the show with me,” she says. “Since I started, at least 60 young people have come through and a lot of them have gone on to be DJs.”
This year’s Culture Night event, The Outside Voice, might be Kate’s most ambitious undertaking yet. Developed with Galway Arts Centre and backed by The Arts Council as one of the key national supporters of Culture Night, The Outside Voice turns the spotlight onto something more intimate: the human voice itself.
Inspired in part by her upcoming 2FM documentary Control, which explores women's work in music production and the myths that women “aren’t good with technology,” Kate began to examine an even deeper cultural bias. “There’s a really strong idea in the music industry that women are voices only - as singers.” she explains. That belief creates real consequences in how people view women using technology. Another side effect is that women have earned serious power as singers, and this runs into conflict with the idea that men dominate the public arena: “This idea that the public voice is the male voice is still really strong in our society today.”
above: photo courtesy of Kate Butler
It’s a topic that Mary Beard talks about brilliantly in Women & Power. Her book, which traces the roots of gendered speech politics back to ancient Greece, became a framework for The Outside Voice. The show, co-presented with Renn, will be a multimedia event combining audio interviews, music, and performance, including a powerful exploration of keening, the Irish ritual of mourning traditionally performed by women. “It’s very ritualised, and it was stamped out by the church and state in the 1800s,” says Kate. “So we have a direct connection in this country to the experience of women's voices being suppressed.”
But for all its depth and academic roots, The Outside Voice is primarily a celebration of sound, presence, and performance. The line-up speaks volumes: CAMIII, a Dublin-based rapper with a chilled, vibey energy; Katie Kim and Ellie Myler from the supergroup ØXN; and the audio-visual artist Alyxis (Sal Stapleton), who brings a fully immersive performance experience. “There’s a plurality of voices - women, non-binary artists, and different styles,” Kate says. “When we say women, we include transwomen and genderqueer folk, and that was really important to me.”
above: Photo from Wanna See You Werk, by Ciarán MacChoncarraige
Though based in Dublin, Kate’s ties to Galway run deep, not least through her connection with Lolz and Arts Alive, but also because Galway Arts Centre has become a vital node in what Kate sees as a powerful national network of grassroots collectives and platforms, from Gash Collective and Open Ear Festival to Dublin Digital Radio.
The Outside Voice takes place on Culture Night, Friday 19th September, at Galway Arts Centre’s Nun’s Island Theatre - a layered, lyrical, and radical meditation on our domestic voice and our outside voice; on who gets to speak, and who gets to be heard. For more information, visit www.galwayartscentre.ie and follow Kate on Instagram @dj_softskills.
Main image from Culture Night 2024, by Ciarán MacChoncarraige.
Below photo by Malcolm McGettigan, Cover Image for This is Galway August/September Magazine 2025.
