BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Housmans Bookshop - ECPv6.15.18//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Housmans Bookshop X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://housmans.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Housmans Bookshop REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20190331T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20191027T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20200329T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20201025T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20210328T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20211031T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20220327T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20221030T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200205T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200205T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200102T155304Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220328T153829Z UID:9232-1580929200-1580934600@housmans.com SUMMARY:Poetry Against Homelessness DESCRIPTION:We’re very excited to welcome back New River Press for an evening of wild and inspiring poetry and music performances by people who have experienced homelessness and the poets who have tutored them.\n\nIt’s in celebration of the project I AM NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM. Since June ‘19 New River Press have teamed up with the novelist Miranda Gold\, who started a writing group at Crisis Skylight. New River became involved and have since been facilitating workshops and one-to-one surgeries with top poets lending their time to spread genius. Out of this New River are editing an anthology of poetry by people who have experienced homelessness due Winter 2020.\n\nTheir events with Crisis so far have been electric. Tighter and richer each time. Watching this most incredible group of poets soar is like nothing else. Not to be missed.\n\nYou can read more about the project here:\nhttp://www.thenewriverpress.com/journal/2019/10/16/i-am-not-who-you-think-i-am\n\nPlease note that tickets are Standard £3 (value redeemable against purchase)\, Unwaged £1 (value redeemable against purchase) and Solidarity £5.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/poetry-against-homelessness/ CATEGORIES:In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/new-river-press.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200212T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200212T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20191211T162040Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200130T114324Z UID:8137-1581534000-1581539400@housmans.com SUMMARY:‘The Clamour of Nationalism: Race and the Nation in Twenty-First Century Britain’ with Sivamohan Valluvan and Gargi Bhattacharyya DESCRIPTION:THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT \nNationalism has reasserted itself today as the political force of our times\, remaking European politics wherever one looks. Britain is no exception\, and in the midst of Brexit\, it has even become a vanguard of nationalism’s confident return to the mainstream. Intellectual attempts to account for nationalism’s resurgence have however floundered. \nDesperately trying to read nationalism through one overarching cause – as capitalist crisis\, as cultural backlash\, or as social media led anti-Establishment politics – these accounts have proven woefully inadequate. This book argues that the only way to understand nationalism is through nationalism itself. To understand it as the key force of modernity that calls upon all existing ideological traditions in asserting its appeal: whether it is liberal\, conservative\, neoliberal or left-wing. This ideological clamour that characterises today’s British nationalism requires both recognition and theorisation. \nA meaningful understanding of new nationalism must reckon with the ideological range animating it and the deeply hostile aversion to different racial minorities that pervades its respective ideologies. Drawing on a variety of cultural and political themes – ranging from Corbyn’s dithering\, the cult of Churchillism\, the neoliberal fixation with a ‘point-system’ immigration policy\, the muscular secularism of Richard Dawkins and friends\, fears that the white working class have ‘become black’\, and even simply the strange appeal of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones – this book provides a dazzling but always detailed study of how nationalism is the politics of today only because it is a politics of everything. \nReview\n‘With a rare intelligence\, The Clamour of Nationalism reopens and re-situates debates over nationalism. Valluvan examines its relation to racism and its shortcomings as a vehicle for progressive or radical reconstruction. Along the way\, he skewers the idiocy of Left nationalisms and enumerates the depressing developments unfolding across Europe. This urgent survey conveys the shocking discovery that the aggressive pathology of Britain’s brexit is not\, in fact\, Britain’s alone.’ —Paul Gilroy\, author of There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack and After Empire \n‘As nationalism rises to a fever pitch across the political spectrum\, Valluvan pulls no punches in arguing against the brutal politics of border walls\, migration raids and retrograde patriotism. His work is a light in dark times.’ —Eleanor Penny\, Senior Editor at Novara Media and Online Editor at Red Pepper Magazine \n‘Amid the nationalist reflux of Europe and North America\, pundits caught unawares have reached for reductive off-the-shelf analyses. They treat nationalism as the mere expression of something more familiar and reassuring: the economy\, class\, or voter stupidity. Sivamohan Valluvan’s astute\, elegantly cussed study takes nationalism seriously. Here\, nationalism is not written off as a reflex\, but treated as a vehicle for the complex demands of diverse constituents assembled across the political spectrum. A vehicle for collective wishing and dreamwork. This\, coupled with its ability to define the non-belonging outsiders against whom the nation can be roused\, is exactly what accounts for its uncanny capaciousness\, its ability to hegemonise the political terrain after a period of relative abeyance. He also warns the Left\, parts of it too easily seduced by the song of nationalism\, or by facile explanations of nationalism as a mere expression of familiar discontents\, against acquiescing in this hegemony.’ —Richard Seymour\, author of Corbyn: The strange rebirth of radical politics \nSpeakers\nSivamohan Valluvan is an Assistant Professor in the department of Sociology at the University of Warwick\, and author of the book under discussion. \nGargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology at the Centre for Migration\, Refugees and Belonging\, University of East London. Her research interests are in the areas of: ‘race’ and racisms; sexualities; global cultures; the ‘War on Terror’\, and\, increasingly austerity and racial capitalism. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/the-clamour-of-nationalism-race-and-the-nation-in-twenty-first-century-britain-with-sivamohan-valluvan/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/are-we-afraid-no.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200219T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200219T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200104T145617Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200116T134601Z UID:9348-1582138800-1582144200@housmans.com SUMMARY:'In and Against the State: Lessons from our recent past' with Rosemary Grennan and Seth Wheeler DESCRIPTION:To mark the 40th anniversary of the influential text ‘In and Against the State’\, this talk will draw on historical material to trace this seemingly contradictory idea as an identifiable tendency in the history of the Left. Through exploring historical relationships between autonomous social movements and their attempts to exert power through institutional and parliamentarian forms we will draw prescient lessons for contemporary practice. \nPublished in 1979 ‘In and Against the State\,’ addresses how revolutionary socialists were able to square the apparent contradiction of remaining revolutionary while working within the constraints of the state’s  ‘disciplinary architectures’. Informed by ‘autonomist’ political  ideas and practices\,  unleashed in the global ruptures of 1968\, ‘In and Against the State’s authors spoke to a generation of activists wrestling with where best to place their energies in recognition of the central place that state provision  played in the social and technical reproduction of the working class. \nRecently this small text has had something of a renaissance\, particularly in the UK. In no small part\, to the political culture and imagination of many activists who currently compose the ecology of Corbynism. In the last few years\, ‘In and Against’ has also come to be used as short-hand for the emergence of new forms of political practice. \nSPEAKERS \nRosemary Grennan co-runs May Day Rooms. \nSeth Wheeler is a co-founder of Labour Transformed. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/in-and-against-the-state-lessons-from-our-recent-past-with-rosemary-grennan-and-seth-wheeler/ LOCATION:Housmans Bookshop\, 5 Caledonian Road\, London\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/In_and_against_the_state.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200226T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200226T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200104T150555Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200125T151546Z UID:9359-1582743600-1582749000@housmans.com SUMMARY:'So We Live: The Novels of Alexander Baron' with Susie Thomas\, Nadia Valman\, and Ken Worpole DESCRIPTION:The novelist Alexander Baron (1917-1999) was born into a working class Jewish home in Hackney\, joined the Communist Party as a young man\, saw the thick of battle in Sicily and Normandy\, and became one of the most admired writers of post-war Britain. His first novel\, From the City\, From the Plough (1948)\, was acclaimed as the definitive novel of the Second World War\, the first of a trilogy including There’s No Home (1950) and The Human Kind (1953). \nThis was followed by a string of novels about working class life in post-war London\, including The Lowlife (1963) a cult novel for many other writers ever since. In recent years his reputation has flourished with many of his fifteen novels back in print. ‘So We Live: The Novels of Alexander Baron’\, published by Five Leaves in 2019\, is the first detailed study of the man and his work. \nOur guests\, literary critic Susie Thomas\, historian Nadia Valman\, and social historian Ken Worpole\, will each take a distinctive approach to the work of Baron and consider why his reputation and his work are currently enjoying such a serious revival. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/so-we-live-the-novels-of-alexander-baron-with-susie-thomas-nadia-valman-and-ken-warpole/ LOCATION:Housmans Bookshop\, 5 Caledonian Road\, London\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Baron.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200227T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200227T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200109T181356Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200109T181356Z UID:9687-1582830000-1582835400@housmans.com SUMMARY:Autonomy Now presents: 'Occult Features of Anarchism' with Erica Lagalisse and Carl Levy DESCRIPTION:In the nineteenth century anarchists were accused of conspiracy by governments afraid of revolution\, but in the current century various “conspiracy theories” suggest that anarchists are controlled by government itself. The Illuminati were a network of intellectuals who argued for self-government and against private property\, yet the public is now often told that they were (and are) the very group that controls governments and defends private property around the world. Intervening in such misinformation\, Lagalisse works with primary and secondary sources in multiple languages to set straight the history of the Left and illustrate the actual relationship between revolutionism\, pantheistic occult philosophy\, and the clandestine fraternity. \nExploring hidden correspondences between anarchism\, Renaissance magic\, and New Age movements\, Lagalisse also advances critical scholarship regarding leftist attachments to secular politics. Inspired by anthropological fieldwork within today’s anarchist movements\, her essay challenges anarchist atheism insofar as it poses practical challenges for coalition politics in today’s world. \nStudying anarchism as a historical object\, Occult Features of Anarchism (PM Press\, 2019) also shows how the development of leftist theory and practice within clandestine masculine public spheres continues to inform contemporary anarchist understandings of the “political\,” in which men’s oppression by the state becomes the prototype for power in general. Readers behold how gender and religion become privatized in radical counterculture\, a historical process intimately linked to the privatization of gender and religion by the modern nation-state. \nPraise: \n“This is surely the most creative and exciting\, and possibly the most important\, work to come out on either anarchism or occultism in many a year. It should give rise to a whole new field of intellectual study.”\n—David Graeber\, professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science\, author of Debt: The First 5\,000 Years \n“Erica Lagalisse’s Occult Features of Anarchism is a wonderful and learned provocation. Taking the concept of modern politics as a form of theology and magical ritual\, she traces some aspects of the origins of socialist and anarchist politics and performance to the Hermetic tradition which influenced the Radical Enlightenment and its originators\, in for example\, the work of Spinoza. But she also argues that this ‘magical’ or Hermetic tradition rested on a masculinist coup against women’s knowledge\, especially in the transformation of women healers into malevolent witches.”\n—Carl Levy\, professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Goldsmiths\, University of London \nAbout the Speakers: \nErica Lagalisse is an anthropologist and writer. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science\, where she is conducting a research project on dynamics surrounding the “conspiracy theory” in social movement spaces. \nCarl Levy is professor of politics at Goldsmith’s College\, University of London. He is a specialist in the history of modern Italy and the theory and history of anarchism. His recent plublsihed work includes The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism with Matthew S Adams\, The Anarchist Imagination with Saul Newman and Colin Ward: Life\, Times and Thought. \nEntry to this event is free and unticketed. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/autonomy-now-presents-occult-features-of-anarchism-with-erica-lagalisse-and-carl-levy/ LOCATION:Housmans Bookshop\, 5 Caledonian Road\, London\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Occult-Features.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200228T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200228T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200224T182220Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200224T182220Z UID:11389-1582916400-1582921800@housmans.com SUMMARY:Stormlight Book Launch with Jan Woolf DESCRIPTION:Riversmeet Press invites you to the Housmans launch of Stormlight by Jan Woolf \nStories – short and long- setting ordinary people against big themes; love\, war\, loss\, contemporary politics and the search for fulfilment. Like the author’s first collection Fugues on a Funny Bone they are funny\, witty and acerbic as well as serious. \nStormlight includes her Royal Court short play You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know examining the Blair legacy. Stories range from a Rambler’s Christmas day walk\, a childless senior sneaking into a mothers’ and babies’ only film\, a bitter family argument over the EU referendum\, management consultant wonkery\, and the down but not quite out of homeless street life. All are rooted in experience and activism. \nThe evenings readings will include Jan’s short play ‘You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know’ first performed at the Royal Court. Guest actors will include Alan Franks. \nWine included. Cash sales only of Stormlight on the night. \n***FREE EVENT*** \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/stormlight-book-launch-with-jan-woolf/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,In Store,Literary Event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/jan-woolf.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200304T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200304T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200117T164932Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200117T164932Z UID:10047-1583348400-1583353800@housmans.com SUMMARY:'Feminism for the 99%' with Sara Farris and Susan Pashkoff. DESCRIPTION:Discussion on a feminism that is anticapitalist\, eco-socialist and antiracist\, introduced by Sara Farris and Susan Pashkoff. \nFree entry but please register via Eventbrite. \nmakes a simple but powerful case: feminism shouldn’t start—or stop—with the drive to have women represented at the top of their professions. It must focus on those at the bottom\, and fight for the world they deserve. And that means targeting capitalism. Feminism must be anticapitalist\, eco-socialist and antiracist. \nSara Farris is a Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths University of London. She has written on racism\, nationalism\, gender and migration. She is the author of In the Name of Women’s Rights. The Rise of Femonationalism (Duke UP 2017). \nSusan Pashkoff is writes for Socialist Resistance. \nFeminism for the 99%\, published by Verso Books\, has been translated in 20 languages. \nMeeting hosted by Socialist Resistance\, a feminist\, ecosocialist and internationalist network. www.socialistresistance.org; contact@socialistresistance.org. To receive the e-newsletter from SR\, click here. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/feminism-for-the-99-with-sara-farris-and-susan-pashkoff/ CATEGORIES:In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Fem99.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200306T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200306T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200215T170532Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200215T170532Z UID:11017-1583521200-1583526600@housmans.com SUMMARY:'A Nuclear Refrain: emotion\, empire and the democratic potential of protest' with Kelvin Mason\, Philip Johnstone and Lotte Reimer DESCRIPTION:In 2020\, the hands of the Doomsday Clock moved closer than ever to global destruction: humanity has just 100 seconds left to take action. While climate change and cyber-warfare grab more headlines\, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists forcibly reminded us that the nuclear arms race is also running out of control. \nA Nuclear Refrain enlivens the discourse on nuclear deterrence\, mutually assured destruction (MAD) and Trident replacement. The debate on nuclear weapons in the UK is entrenched: perpetual strategic\, moral and economic arguments clash like bloodied heads banging against brick walls. But how is everyday life emotionally shaped by nuclear weapons\, the specter and menace of the mushroom cloud? Why\, deep down\, is the UK determined to remain one of only a handful of official nuclear weapons states? What might politics look like if we stepped out of the cold\, dark shadow of nuclear deterrence? \nA Nuclear Refrain was conceived through scholar-activist participation in a Trident Ploughshares campaign of direct action against nuclear weapons in the UK. During an academic seminar blockade at AWE Burghfield in 2017\, the authors were viscerally struck by the emotional\, political and cultural constraints imposed by living in a nuclear weapons state. Honouring the art and social justice commitment of Charles Dickens\, and casting a fresh light on the issues for informed readers as well as newcomers to the MAD world\, A Nuclear Refrain is presented in the dramaticform of A Christmas Carol. Pro-Trident MP the Right Honourable Roger C. Bezeeneos is confronted by the atomic ghosts of the past\, present and future on a tempestuous journey that will change his mind and all of our lives forever. Or will it? \nBook launch with\nKelvin Mason\, para-academic\nPhilip Johnstone\, University of Sussex\nLotte Reimer\, Campaign Choirs Network \nFREE ENTRY \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/a-nuclear-refrain-emotion-empire-and-the-democratic-potential-of-protest-with-kelvin-mason-philip-johnstone-and-lotte-reimer/ LOCATION:Housmans Bookshop\, 5 Caledonian Road\, London\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Book Launch ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/191002nuclearrefrain-cover-web-front.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200318T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200318T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200116T131656Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200313T182853Z UID:9966-1584558000-1584563400@housmans.com SUMMARY:A Kingdom of Love: Rachel Mann in conversation with Roz Kaveney ***CANCELLED*** DESCRIPTION:***We’re really sorry to hear that our speaker Rachel Mann is presenting symptoms and is self-isolating. This event is now therefore cancelled. Tickets will be refunded. We hope Rachel feels better soon*** \nWe are very excited to announce a poetry event at Housmans in collaboration with Carcanet Press\, one of the outstanding independent literary publishers of classical and modern poetry of our time. \nAnglican priest\, poet\, writer and broadcaster Rachel Mann will be reading from her highly praised A Kingdom of Love\, a lyrical interrogation of the place of the sacred and profane in a demythologised world. Whilst framed within the language of Christianity\, Mann interrogates the dominant linguistic and mythic inheritances of religious discourse. Furthermore\, she writes of connection and of faith in a way that will resonate with non-religious readers. A meditation also on the spiritual vs. the material\, Mann eschews didacticism in A Kingdom of Love and urges us through her verses to reflect on the ways in which we can connect with one another and move forward in these difficult times. \nAfter a reading from A Kingdom of Love\, Rachel will be in conversation with writer\, critic\, and poet the brilliant Roz Kaveney about all things sacred and profane. \nReviews \nThis book has a great deal to offer those who don’t believe in a god; strength\, connection\, the time taken to slow down and reflect on how we relate to others\, and how we can continue to move forward on both difficult days and joyous ones… These are poems to sit with\, to linger over.’ \nDianne Mulholland \n‘This collection by Anglican priest and poet Rachel Mann is richly lyrical and textured … These poems are certainly food for thought\, but they neither pontificate nor patronise … wry and poignant and reflective by turns’\nSarah Law\, Stride magazine: ‘Liturgy\, Litany and Lyric’ \n‘A Kingdom of Love is a stirring set of poems\, vibrant\, gentle\, yet at times has the ability to make the reader aware of their surroundings\, a mild shaking of sorts’\nThe Bobsphere\n \n‘This is a beautiful\, incantatory free verse that sparkles with alliteration and allusions’\nBookishBeck\n \n‘A Kingdom of Love is a hard-won book of wonders. Poem after poem works at the edge of what language can describe or explore – the nature of belief\, the presence and absence of God\, the rituals and reality of death\, suffering and above all\, love. It is a mesmerising debut.’\nMichael Symmons Roberts \nSpeakers \nRachel Mann is an Anglican parish priest and writer. She was Poet-in-Residence at Manchester Cathedral between 2009 and 2017 and is the author of five books\, including Fierce Imaginings: The Great War\, Ritual\, Memory and God (DLT 2017). She is Visiting Fellow in Creative Writing and English at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her poetry was anthologised in Carcanet’s New Poetries VII (2018). \nIn addition she writes on music\, particularly prog\, folk and metal. She was Metal/Rock reviewer for manchestermusic.co.uk. She works freelance for magazines like Prog Magazine and The Quietus. \nRoz Kaveney is a poet\, novelist and critic living in London. Her novel of trans street life in the 70s TINY PIECES OF SKULL won a Lambda in 2016\, her versions of Catullus have been widely praised. \n**Please note that tickets are Standard £3 (value redeemable against purchase)\, Unwaged £1 (value redeemable against purchase) and Solidarity £5. Housmans Bookshop is a not-for-profit organisation. Your support is greatly appreciated** \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/a-kingdom-of-love-rachel-mann-in-conversation-with-roz-kaveney/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/kingdom-of-love.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200326T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200326T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200228T115619Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200318T143347Z UID:11504-1585249200-1585254600@housmans.com SUMMARY:AUTONOMY NOW! presents: 'Dead White Anarchists' performed by Paul Case ***RELOCATED*** DESCRIPTION:**This event is no longer taking place at Housmans but the organisers hope to host it at an alternative venue – please visit the Autonomy Now website for updates** \nParis\, 1892. If you’re not rich\, things looks bleak. Exploitation\, starvation and disease are daily realities for many. Police crackdowns and political bombings tear the city apart. Out of this chaos emerges Emile Henry\, a young anarchist preparing for his war against the State. But when he hears strange rumblings from the future\, madness beckons… \nPaul Case’s Dead White Anarchists is a Molotov cocktail of storytelling\, theatre\, radical history lesson\, sci crime thriller and revolutionary psychedelic death trip. It is a reflection on a bloody past and a chaotic present\, but always holding hope for tomorrow. \nWritten and performed by Paul Case\nDirected by Emily Ingram \nBIOS \nPaul Case is an Edinburgh-based spoken word performer\, actor and writer. He has performed his poems\, stories\, songs and monologues all over the UK and internationally since 2008. His writing has been published by Influx Press\, Class War and The Erotic Review amongst many others. He is currently touring his solo theatre show Dead White Anarchists throughout 2020. \nEmily Ingram is an emerging director and writer\, specialising in primarily in prop work and productions that tread the line between theatre and storytelling. She is a member of Birds Of Paradise’s Young Artists scheme and the creator of Some Kind of Theatre’s Theatre On The Sofa project\, a scheme which brings theatre to non-traditional venues. Recent credits include the widely praised The Grandmothers Grimm (Buxton Festival Fringe\, Southwark Playhouse\, Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and The Sprite In The Dolls House (Assembly Roxy\, The Palace of Holyroodhouse) \nPRAISE \n[Paul] is at times drily humourous\, then again petulent or dramatic. The audience are rapt\, enlisted for the cause” – allthesenewrelations.com \n“You wouldn’t believe the passion. Put a big smile on my face and that’s no mean feat. Blinding!” – Steve Ignorant\, CRASS/Slice of Life \n“An amazing performer” Kev McLean\, Loud Poets \n“Funny and poignant” – Pete ‘The Temp’ Bearder\, author of Stage Invasion \n“Paul Case is a supremely talented writer and performer carrying on the rich tradition of radical poetry in the UK” – The Repeat Beat Poet \n“One of the best of a new generation” – Attila The Stockbroker \nFacebook: facebook.com/paulcasespeaks \nWebsite: http://www.paulcasespeaks.co.uk \nTwitter: https://twitter.com/captainrant \nStorytelling show Dead White Anarchists: facebook.com/deadwhiteanarchists \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/autonomy-now-presents-dead-white-anarchists-performed-by-paul-case/ CATEGORIES:In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DeadWhiteAnarchists.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200328T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200328T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200218T155614Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200317T170008Z UID:11118-1585422000-1585427400@housmans.com SUMMARY:'Spain's Revolution Against Franco: The Great Betrayal' with Alan Woods ***CANCELLED*** DESCRIPTION:The story of the Spanish revolution of the 1930s is quite well known to most people on the left\, but there is a surprising level of ignorance concerning the events that occurred subsequently. History did not cease with the victory of Franco in 1939. And the story of how the Franco dictatorship was eventually brought down by the revolutionary movement of the Spanish workers is an inspiring one. \nUnder the most difficult and dangerous conditions\, Spanish workers launched a strike wave\, which\, in its intensity and duration\, has no parallel anywhere. There was nothing remotely like this in Hitler’s Germany\, Mussolini’s Italy or Salazar’s Portugal. This was a genuine revolution\, which could and should have gone far further than it did. If it did not finally succeed\, that was no fault of the working class. The Spanish revolution of the 1970s was shamefully betrayed by the leaders of the communist and socialist parties\, who entered into an agreement with former fascists in order halt the movement in its tracks. \nAlan Woods participated personally in the last phase of this struggle and was a witness to some of its most decisive moments. Using a wealth of documentary material from the time and also new interviews with key participants in the events\, he tears away the thick veil of lies\, myths and half-truths to reveal what actually occurred. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/spains-revolution-against-franco-the-great-betrayal-with-alan-woods/ LOCATION:Housmans Bookshop\, 5 Caledonian Road\, London\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Spanish_transition_great_betrayal.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200331T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200331T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200228T114945Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200318T143200Z UID:11496-1585681200-1585686600@housmans.com SUMMARY:AUTONOMY NOW! presents: 'Stopping the Poll Tax: 30 Years On' with Martin Lux and Alex Hodson ***RELOCATED*** DESCRIPTION:**This event is no longer taking place at Housmans but the organisers hope to host it at an alternative venue – please visit the Autonomy Now website for updates** \n  \nJoin us on the 30th anniversary of the Poll Tax riot which helped drive out Margaret Thatcher from power.\nFind out about the crucial local level campaigning work that led up to the crunch point of the riot\, and how a combination of Police provocation and government incompetence helped turn a popular mass demonstration into a full-scale battle which spilled out across the West End\, leading to the downfall of one of the UK’s longest-serving and most authoritarian Prime Ministers. \nSpeakers include Martin Lux of Red and Black TV\, Alex Hodson of Past Tense\, plus another guest tba. Martin and Alex observed the tumultuous day close-up. Alex was also involved with the Trafalgar Square Defendants Campaign and the Poll Tax prisoners group. \nFREE ENTRY \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/autonomy-now-presents-stopping-the-poll-tax-30-years-on-with-martin-lux-and-alex-hodson/ LOCATION:Housmans Bookshop\, 5 Caledonian Road\, London\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PollTax.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200401T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200401T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200218T165236Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200317T165622Z UID:11132-1585767600-1585773000@housmans.com SUMMARY:'Split: Class Divides Uncovered' with Ben Tippet ***CANCELLED*** DESCRIPTION:‘More than a decade after the financial crisis\, Split is a timely reminder of the most important divide that runs through the global economy\, and how working people can organise to take back control of their lives. Clearly-argued\, incisive and accessible\, this book should be required reading for activists everywhere’\n– Grace Blakeley\, author of ‘Stolen: How to Save the World from Financialisation’ \n‘This book is essential reading for making sense of society\, digging into the realities of class for young people today. It shows how deeply Britain is shaped by class\, while also charting out ways people can collectively change this’\n– Jamie Woodcock\, co-author of ‘The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction’ \n‘Neoliberal ideology hinges on the claim that class no longer matters – but as inequalities rise to unprecedented extremes\, class divisions are now more prominent than ever. Split is packed with fresh insights into how class structures our world\, and what we can do to build a fairer economy’\n– Jason Hickel\, author of ‘The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets’ \n‘Split is an essential introduction to the dimensions of class division that have shaped the modern world. If you want to understand why society has become ever more polarised\, and how we might go about fixing it\, read this book’\n– Laurie Macfarlane\, Economics Editor at openDemocracy and co-author of ‘Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing’ \n‘Intelligent\, lucid and engaging from beginning to end\, Tippet’s book is a must-read for those who want to learn the root cause of pervasive inequality that defines our world’\n– Brett Scott\, author of ‘The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money’ \n  \nBen Tippet is an educator\, activist\, and writer. He is currently doing a PhD at the University of Greenwich\, researching the causes of wealth inequality in the UK. He is a researcher for The Transnational Institute and has written for Novara\, Stike! and Economy. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/split-class-divides-uncovered-with-ben-tippet/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SPLIT.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20200406T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20200406T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200316T105047Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200317T170135Z UID:11997-1586199600-1586205000@housmans.com SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: On Relationships ***POSTPONED*** DESCRIPTION:  \nRelationships are important. Whether they are with others or ourselves\, they shape us\, they move us\, they empower us and they break our hearts. 3 of Cups Press launches their latest anthology\, On Relationships\, a collection of prose\, poetry and art which explores the importance and power of all relationships. \nJoin us on the 6 of April to launch On Relationships with readings from Vanessa Pelz-Sharpe\, Melissa Gitari and Isha Karki. \n\n\nFounded in 2017\, 3 of Cups Press is a small press\, focusing on inclusive publishing. We share a vision for a more equal\, more peaceful\, more inclusive world and we are dedicated to providing a platform for voices otherwise unheard in the mainstream. We are a team of women and non-binary folk\, and are disability-led. \nOur first project is a series of anthologies\, starting with On Anxiety\, published in January 2018\, and On Bodies\, published in October 2018. Our third\, On Relationships\, published February 2020. These anthologies provide a platform for writers and artists and a starting point on how to tackle issues such as mental health\, our relationships with our bodies\, political activism and more. \nWe believe that art and literature can be activism. In pursuit of a more fair\, more equal world\, all of our contributors are paid for their work. \n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-on-relationships/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,In Store ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ONRELATION.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201013T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201013T200000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20200914T114016Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201020T153842Z UID:14304-1602615600-1602619200@housmans.com SUMMARY:Settling the World: M. John Harrison in conversation with Gary Budden (online event) DESCRIPTION:Housmans is pleased to welcome sci-fi supremo M. John Harrison to our first digital event in collaboration with indie publishers Comma Press and Influx Press. \nConsidered one of the most important stylists of modern fantasy and science fiction working today\, and a pioneer of the New Wave\, award-winning author M. John Harrison can count amongst his fans the likes of Neil Gaiman\, Iain Banks and Robert Macfarlane. \nThroughout his career\, M. John’s writing has defied categorisation\, building worlds both unreal and all-too real\, overlapping and interlocking with each other. His stories are replete with fissures and portals into parallel dimensions\, unidentified countries and lost lands. \nHis latest collection\, Settling the World\, is a selection of stories\, drawn from 50 years of writing (1979-2020)\, follows backstreet occultists\, amateur philosophers\, down-and-outs or refugees\, and explores our relationship with ‘the other’ in microscopic detail. What the characters have in common is they share in Harrison’s rejection of the idea that the world\, or our understanding of it\, could ever be settled. \nWe have 50 signed copies of Settling the World which will be allocated to ticket holders on a first come first served basis. \nAttendees will be emailed the zoom link the morning of the event: please check your spam folder. If you have not received the link\, please contact shop[at]housmans[dot]com  \nTHE SPEAKERS \nM. John Harrison is the author of eleven novels (including In Viriconium\, The Course of the Heart and Light)\, as well as four previous short story collections\, two graphic novels\, and collaborations with Jane Johnson\, writing as Gabriel King. He won the Boardman Tasker Award for Climbers (1989)\, the James Tiptree Jr Award for Light (2002) and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Nova Swing (2007). He reviews fiction for The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement\, and lives in Shropshire. \nGary Budden is a writer\, editor and co-founder of the award winning Influx Press. He is the author of the books Hollow Shores\, Judderman (as D.A. Northwood)\, and The White Heron Beneath the Reactor with artist Maxim Griffin. London Incognita is forthcoming in 2020. \n*If you are unable to pay the entry price\, please email Housmans Bookshop* \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/settling-the-world-m-john-harrison-in-conversation-with-gary-budden-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Literary Event,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/9781912697281.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201111T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201111T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201019T152300Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201105T151229Z UID:15017-1605121200-1605126600@housmans.com SUMMARY:Online Book Launch: "The People’s Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State" with Robb Johnson and Louise Regan DESCRIPTION:COVID has dramatically confirmed that the current condition of state education is not fit for purpose. Join educators and organizers Robb Johnson and Louise Regan to discuss how 30 years of “education reform” have created a dysfunctional mass education system that ruthlessly prioritises the agenda of the neo-liberal state over the needs of children. Robb Johnson’s book The People’s Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State is part memoir and polemic and a celebration of children’s innate desire to learn\, share\, cooperate\, and play\, as well as a critique of bureaucratic interference. The book lays out how to create democratic spaces where kids can grow\, not up\, not old\, but as individuals. \nAbout The People’s Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State \nThere once was a time when teachers and communities were able to exercise democratic control over their schools. Now that power has been taken away\, both centralised and privatised\, under the guise of “reform.” There is a forgotten history of the time before reform\, and within it a bright horizon is visible\, reachable only if educators and society at large can learn the lessons of the past. \nRobb Johnson entered the classroom as a new teacher in the 1980s and has spent a lifetime alongside his pupils encouraging both creativity and a healthy distrust of authority. Johnson details how we ended up with the contemporary mass education systems and why they continually fail to give children what they need. Combining practical experience as a teacher with detailed pedagogical knowledge\, and a characteristic playful style\, Johnson is both court chronicler and jester\, imparting information and creatively admonishing the self-important figureheads of the reform agenda. \nThis book considers how schools and education relate to the wider society in which they are located and how they relate to the particular needs and abilities of the people who experience them. It shows that schools and education are contested spaces that need to be reclaimed from the state\, and turned into places where people can grow\, not up\, not old\, but as individuals. It offers alternative ways of running classrooms\, schools\, and perhaps even society. \nPraise: \n“I have rarely seen a book that is so embedded in what education is for and that then directs the reader to how to pursue the goals\, in practice and at all levels of school infrastructure so that the way schools are structured adds to the goodness of society.”\n—Marcelo Staricoff\, author of Start Thinking\, fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching\, and former headteacher \n“The People’s Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State by Robb Johnson shows the stark reality of the current situation for education. Education is at a crossroads\, and this book comes at an important time raising awareness and exposing the flaws in our current system. Read this\, and then join the campaign to fight for a fairer\, fully funded\, comprehensive education system!”\n—Louise Regan\, ex-president of National Education Union (UK) \n“The goals of the school systems in most countries have generally not had nothing to do with producing happy\, creative\, self-confident\, autonomous children who will grow up to become happy\, creative\, self-confident\, autonomous adults. But since schooling become mandatory in industrialized societies like the UK and the US\, the schools have been an ideological battleground between those who want to produce obedient workers and soldiers\, and those\, like Robb Johnson\, who would prefer to see a liberated humanity consisting of whole people\, who are treated as such from birth\, by their parents\, by the schools\, and all other social\, political\, and economic institutions. This book is a brilliant crash course in the roots of the problem\, the devastation that has been done since the post-Thatcher/Reagan austerity budgets and a return to Victorian (‘family‘) values\, and how we might address all of these complex challenges. And it is as captivating a read as any good memoir\, because that’s exactly what it is. Robb Johnson lived through\, and taught through\, the backlash\, working as a school teacher from 1980 until very recently.”\n—David Rovics\, musician and author of Sing for Your Supper: A DIY Guide to Playing Music\, Writing Songs\, and Booking Your Own Gigs \nAbout the Speakers: \nRobb Johnson was born in 1955\, studied English lit at Sussex University\, trained as a teacher\, and then did an MA in English literature at Manchester University. He has worked as a classroom teacher by day and a songwriter by night since 1980. As a songwriter\, he has received widespread critical acclaim. Robb has written songbooks; edited a book of stories\, Journeys Down Denbigh Road\, for use with young children in school assemblies; edited A Navigator’s Tale\, a book collecting his father’s World War II memoir and poetry; and contributed regularly to the music magazine RNR. \nLouise Regan is the ex-president of National Education Union (UK). \nPlease note that this event will be held online via Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom invitation on the day of the event.  \n**Please email the shop if you are unable to pay the entry price** \n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/book-launch-the-peoples-republic-of-neverland-the-child-versus-the-state-with-robb-johnson-and-louise-regan/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Peoples-Republic-of-Neverland-cover.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201125T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201125T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201110T105926Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201116T164908Z UID:15118-1606330800-1606336200@housmans.com SUMMARY:"Travelling While Black" with Nanjala Nyabola in conversation with Dickens Olewe [online event] DESCRIPTION:ONLINE EVENT 7pm UTC \nHousmans are pleased to welcome writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola to discuss her latest book Travelling While Black. What does it feel like to move through a world designed to limit and exclude you? What are the joys and pains of holidays for people of colour\, when guidebooks are never written with them in mind? How are black lives today impacted by the othering legacy of colonial cultures and policies? What can travel tell us about our sense of self\, of home\, of belonging and identity? Why has the world order become hostile to human mobility\, as old as humanity itself\, when more people are on the move than ever? \nNanjala Nyabola is constantly exploring the world\, working with migrants and confronting complex realities challenging common assumptions – both hers and others’. From Nepal to Botswana\, Sicily to Haiti\, New York to Nairobi\, her sharp\, humane essays ask tough questions and offer surprising\, deeply shocking and sometimes funny answers. It is time we saw the world through her eyes. \n**Please note this is an online event. You will be emailed an invitation link on the morning of the event. Please check your spam folder and email us if you have not received the invitation link by the afternoon** \nAbout the speakers \n \nNanjala Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi\, Kenya. Her work focuses on the intersection between technology and politics\, as well as migration and human mobility. A constant traveller\, at the time of writing she has visited over seventy countries across four continents. \nDickens Olewe is a Kenyan journalist working for the BBC\, and a 2015 John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University. His interest is in using new technology for storytelling and integrating the public in the news reporting process. \nHe was part of the team of journalists chosen by Deutsche Welle Academy to develop a manifesto on how to use digital technology to promote freedom of expression in the global south. \nHe’s been a speaker on several media subjects including: drone journalism\, digital publishing platforms\, media trends\, mobile journalism\, social media for news\, user engagement and crowdsourcing news\, at several journalism conferences around the world including: SxSw\, re:publica\, ONA and the World News Media Congress. He also runs The Dickens Olewe podcast where he interviews guests on media\, politics and technology in Africa. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/travelling-while-black-with-nanjala-nyabola/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/travel.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201203T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201203T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201110T113649Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201125T131720Z UID:15019-1607022000-1607027400@housmans.com SUMMARY:"Red Metropolis: Socialism and The Government of London" with Owen Hatherley and Hilary Wainwright [online event] DESCRIPTION:ONLINE EVENT \nA polemical history of municipal socialism in London and an argument for turning this capitalist capital red again. \nLondon is conventionally seen as merely a combination of the financial centre in the City and the centre of governmental power in Westminster\, a uniquely capitalist capital city. This book is about the third London a – social democratic twentieth-century metropolis\, a pioneer in council housing\, public enterprise\, socialist design\, radical local democracy and multiculturalism. \nThis book charts the development of this municipal power base under leaders from Herbert Morrison to Ken Livingstone\, and its destruction in 1986\, leaving a gap which has been only very inadequately filled by the Greater London Authority under Livingstone\, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan. \nOpposing currently fashionable drivel about an imaginary ”metropolitan elite”\, this book makes a case for London pride on the left\, and makes an argument for using that pride as a weapon against a government of suburban landlords that ruthlessly exploits Londoners. \n**Please note this is an online event. You will be emailed an invitation link on the morning of the event. Please check your spam folder and email us if you have not received the invitation link by the afternoon**  \n\n\n\nPRAISE \n“No one else writes so clearly yet with such elegiac intensity about the symbiosis that exists between history and the built environment\, or the lives that are caught\, mangled and realised in its midst.” – Lynsey Hanley\, author of Estates: An Intimate History \n“Hatherley is a hugely knowledgeable and passionate advocate for architecture and planning\, a cracking writer\, and an undervalued figure of the left. For anyone daring to tackle social issues\, Red Metropolis should be compulsory reading.” — Emma Dent Coad\, Labour councillor for Golborne Ward and MP for Kensington\, 2017-2019 \n“This book captures\, like no other\, the way London local government has been a tumultuous political battle ground and the breeding ground of radical political ideas and social movements. It stands as an excellent basis from which to launch the next wave of radical thinking about the future of the capital.” — John McDonnell\, Deputy Leader and Chair of Finance of the Greater London Council\, 1981-85\, and Shadow Chancellor\, 2015-2020 \nABOUT THE SPEAKERS \n\nOwen Hatherley writes regularly on aesthetics and politics for the Architectural Review\, The Calvert Journal\, Dezeen\, the Guardian\, Jacobin and the London Review of Books. He is the author of several books\, most recently Landscapes of Communism\, The Ministry of Nostalgia and The Chaplin Machine. \nHilary Wainwright is editor of Red Pepper and Fellow of the Transnational Institute. Her most recent book is A New Politics From the Left (Polity 2018. Hilary was Coordinator of the GLC’s Popular Planning unit from 1982 until its abolition in 1986. \n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/red-metropolis-socialism-and-the-government-of-london-with-owen-hatherley-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Owen-Red-moetropolis.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20201210T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20201210T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201202T151531Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201202T162232Z UID:26255-1607626800-1607632200@housmans.com SUMMARY:After the Fact?: The Truth About Fake News with Marcus Gilroy-Ware in conversation with Aurelien Mondon [online event] DESCRIPTION:Join Marcus Gilroy-Ware and Aurelien Mondon to explore the causes of our current political malaise\, and whether the era of “Fake News” and the populist far-right is over. \nMany rightfully breathed a sigh of relief with the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November\, as it signalled the end of the racist and misogynist Donald Trump’s term as US president. But does the end of Trump mean the end of “Trumpism” in its essence — the proliferation of lies\, mis- and disinformation\, and an insurgent populist far-right on the march? \nMarcus Gilroy-Ware\, author of the recently published After the Fact: The Truth about Fake News and Aurelien Mondon\, co-author of Reactionary Democracy: populism\, liberal and illiberal racisms\, the far right and the lack of political imagination explore this question\, tackling the deeper causes of “Fake News” and the rising tide of far-right nationalism\, in the hope that we’re able to combat it more effectively. \n**This is an online event. You will be emailed an invitation on the day of the event. If you haven’t received your invitation by 5pm\, check your spam folder or email the shop and we will resend it to you** \nAbout the speakers \nMarcus Gilroy-Ware is a writer\, researcher and teacher who works at the intersection of politics\, culture and communication. He is the author of Filling the Void: Emotion\, Capitalism and Social Media and After the Fact?: The Truth About Fake News. \nAurelien Mondon researches and teaches at the University of Bath. He is the author of The Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right in France and Australia: A Populist Hegemony?\, the co-editor of After Charlie Hebdo: Terror\, Racism and Free Speech and the co-author of the recently published Reactionary Democracy:  populism\, liberal and illiberal racisms\, the far right and the lack of political imagination with Aaron Winter. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/after-the-fact-the-truth-about-fake-news-with-marcus-gilroy-ware-in-conversation-with-aurelien-mondon-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CoverFinal2020-2-640x1010-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210114T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210114T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201219T151141Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210323T115932Z UID:27094-1610650800-1610656200@housmans.com SUMMARY:Book Launch - Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures of Mark Fisher with Matt Colquhoun and James Butler [online event] DESCRIPTION:Join Matt Colquhoun and James Butler as they examine the crucial legacy of Mark Fisher\, to celebrate the publication of Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures of Mark Fisher\, edited by Colquhoun.\n\nWhen we lost Mark Fisher in 2017\, we lost one of our most exciting and vital critics of contemporary politics and culture. Providing lucid and excoriating critiques on subjects ranging from Dido to Drake; The Fall to James Blake; Breaking Bad to Benefits Street\, he was moved by the emancipatory possibilities of popular culture. In publishing\, he worked to spread radical ideas and provide a generation of new writers with a platform. Blogging as ‘k-punk’\, he analysed everyday experiences of precarity\, depression\, and cultural malaise as profoundly political — and therefore changeable. Mark tirelessly sought alternatives to the world that we’ve been given\, away from the destructive individualism of the present and towards a practical communitarian future.\n\nFor the first time\, Postcapitalist Desire reveals Mark Fisher in his element — the classroom — outlining a project that Fisher’s death left so bittersweetly unfinished.\n\nBeginning with that most fundamental of questions — “Do we really want what we say we want?” — Fisher explores the relationship between desire and capitalism\, and wonders what new forms of desire we might still excavate from the past\, present\, and future. From the emergence and failure of the counterculture in the 1970s to the continued development of his left-accelerationist line of thinking\, this volume charts a tragically interrupted course for thinking about the raising of a new kind of consciousness\, and the cultural and political implications of doing so.\n\nFor Fisher\, this process of consciousness raising was always\, fundamentally\, psychedelic — just not in the way that we might think…\n\nSpeakers\n\nMatt Colquhoun is a writer and photographer from Hull\, East Yorkshire. He is the author of Egress: On Mourning\, Melancholy and Mark Fisher and blogs at xenogothic.com.\n\nJames Butler is the co-founded Novara Media and presents Novara FM on Resonance 104.4\, as well as being a contributor to the LRB and others.\n\nPlease read:\n\nIf you purchase a “book plus entry ticket”\, please email shop@housmans.com with a UK address. Postcapitalist Desire is published on 12 Jan 2021.\n\nAn invitation to this online event will be emailed to you on the day of the event. We will use the email address used to purchase the ticket. Please check your spam folder and if you have not received the invitation by 5pm\, email us and we will resend it. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/postcapitalist-desire-the-final-lectures-of-mark-fisher-with-matt-colquhoun-and-james-butler/ CATEGORIES:Book Launch,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/post-cap.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210120T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210120T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201222T172109Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220328T153757Z UID:27209-1611169200-1611174600@housmans.com SUMMARY:The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes\, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution with Dan Hicks [online event] DESCRIPTION:Housmans welcomes Dan Hicks to discuss his book The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes\, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution at this free online event. Simply register below to attend. Alternatively\, if you wish to support Housmans\, please choose the solidarity ticket option.\n\nBrutish Museums is a call for western museums to wash their hands of colonial blood.\n\nWalk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified\, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name\, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.\n\nFew artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes – a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City\, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897\, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria\, the British Museum and countless private collections.\n\nThe story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution\, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums\, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects\, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.\n\nTo buy a copy of Dan’s book\, click here\n\nAbout the Speaker\n\nDan Hicks is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum. His award-winning research focuses on the restitution of African cultural heritage from Euro-American collections\, focusing on the place of ideas of cultural whiteness in ongoing histories of colonial violence.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/the-brutish-museums-the-benin-bronzes-colonial-violence-and-cultural-restitution-with-dan-hicks-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Brutish-Museums.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210127T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210127T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201222T173257Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210122T115731Z UID:27217-1611774000-1611779400@housmans.com SUMMARY:The Truth About Modern Slavery with Emily Kenway in conversation with Dawn Foster [online event] DESCRIPTION:Emily Kenway and Dawn Foster join us online to discuss the issue of modern slavery in the UK. This event is free\, simply register below to attend. \nIn 2019\, over 10\,000 possible victims of slavery were found in the UK. From men working in Sports Direct warehouses for no pay\, to teenaged Vietnamese girls trafficked into small town nail bars\, we’re told that modern slavery is all around us\, operating in plain sight. \nBut is this really slavery\, and is it even a new phenomenon? Why has the British Conservative Party called it ‘one of the great human rights issues of our time’\, when they usually ignore the exploitation of those at the bottom of the economic pile? The Truth About Modern Slavery reveals how modern slavery has been created as a political tool by those in power. It shows how anti-slavery action acts as a moral cloak\, hiding the harms of the ‘hostile environment’ towards migrants\, legitimising big brands’ exploitation of the poorest workers and oppressing sex workers. \nBlaming the media’s complicity\, rich philanthropists’ opportunism and our collective failure to realise the lies we’re being told\, The Truth About Modern Slavery provides a vital challenge to conventional narratives on modern slavery. \nTo buy a copy of Emily’s book\, click here. \nSpeakers \nEmily Kenway is a writer and activist. As a former advisor to the UK’s first Anti-Slavery Commissioner she was at the heart of modern slavery action. She has written for a variety of publications including the Guardian and TLS. \nDawn Foster is a British journalist\, broadcaster and author. She is a staff writer for Jacobin magazine. She also contributes to the London Review of Books\, Times Literary Supplement\, The Independent\, The Nation\, Tribune\, and Dissent in the United States. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/the-truth-about-modern-slavery-with-emily-kenway-in-conversation-with-dawn-foster-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Modern-slavery.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210129T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210129T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201210T171259Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210323T114118Z UID:26658-1611946800-1611952200@housmans.com SUMMARY:**RESCHEDULED** In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-Binary Life with Jamie Windust in conversation with Gina Martin [online event] DESCRIPTION:‘There is no one way to be non-binary\, and that’s truthfully one of the best things about it. It’s an identity that is yours to shape.’\n\n**Please note the new date of this event is Friday 29th of January at 7pm**\n\nHousmans and JKP are delighted to present Jamie Windust\, award-winning non-binary writer\, public speaker and model\, an author of In Their Shoes: Navigating Non-Binary Life. Jamie will be in conversation with activist Gina Martin. \n\n\nCombining light-hearted anecdotes with their own hard-won wisdom\, Jamie explores everything from fashion\, dating\, relationships and family\, through to mental health\, work and future key debates. From trying on clothes in secret to iconic looks\, first dates to polyamorous liaisons\, passports to pronouns\, Jamie shows you how to navigate the world and your evolving identity in every type of situation. In Their Shoes is a call to arms for non-binary self-acceptance\, self-appreciation and self-celebration.\n\n‘Beautiful\, heart-breaking and hilarious.’ – Scarlett Curtis\n\n‘A love-letter to our non-binary siblings.’ – Paula Akpan\n\nPlease read:\n\nIf you purchase a “book plus entry ticket”\, please email shop@housmans.com to let us know whether you would like Jamie’s book posted or if you would like to collect it from the shop. Please supply a UK address if the book is to be posted out. \n\nAn invitation to this online event will be emailed to you on the day of the event. We will use the email address used to purchase the ticket. Please check your spam folder and if you have not received the invitation by 5pm\, email us and we will resend it.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/in-their-shoes-navigating-non-binary-life-with-jamie-windust-plus-special-guest-to-be-announced-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/jamie-windust.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210204T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210204T200000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20210201T144504Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210201T144504Z UID:25965-1612465200-1612468800@housmans.com SUMMARY:We Played With Fire Book Launch with Catherine Barter and Fen Coles DESCRIPTION:Thursday 4th February 2021\, 7pm-8pm\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\nJoin us for the launch of We Played With Fire by Housmans co-manager Catherine Barter. Catherine will be in conversation with Fen Coles\, co-director of radical children’s bookseller Letterbox Library. The event will take place over Zoom.\n\n \n\nWe Played With Fire (Andersen Press) is a YA novel inspired by the true story of the Fox sisters\, who rattled the bones of nineteenth century America and kick-started the Spiritualist movement with their apparent ability to communicate with the dead. Fen and Catherine will be discussing the radical history of Spiritualism and the rise of political fiction for young adults.\n\n\n\n\n\nRegister + Order Signed Copy\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRegistration OnlySubmitting form\n\n\n\n\n \n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\nCatherine Barter grew up in Warwickshire\, and then lived in Norwich for ten years. After gaining a PhD in American literature\, she ditched academia for the lucrative world of independent bookselling. She now lives in London and is one of the co-managers at Housmans Bookshop. With Letterbox Library\, she also helps to co-ordinate the Little Rebels Children’s Book Award for radical children’s fiction. We Played With Fire is her second novel.\n\n \n\n \n\n\n\n \n\nFen Coles is co-director of Letterbox Library\, a 32-year-old children’s booksellers and workers’ cooperative\, specialising in inclusive children’s books. Fen has worked at Letterbox Library since 2005. Prior to this she worked in the LGBT and women’s charitable sector\, and taught Lesbian Cultural Studies to adult returners (while completing her PhD in lesbian horror films.) Fen is also co-founder and coordinator of the Little Rebels Children’s Book Award.\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/we-played-with-fire-book-launch-with-catherine-barter-and-fen-coles/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210209T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210209T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201207T162837Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210209T132233Z UID:26278-1612897200-1612902600@housmans.com SUMMARY:Protest: Stories of Resistance with Christopher Eccleston\, Martyn Bedford and David Waddington DESCRIPTION:Housmans Bookshop and Comma Press are delighted to host two online events with renowned British actors Christopher Eccleston and Maxine Peake reading from protest-inspired stories published in Comma’s History-into-Fiction series\, Protest. \nThe two events will take place on two consecutive dates\, with Christopher reading on the 9th of February and Maxine on the 10th. Both readings will be followed by a conversation between authors and historians discussing the events depicted in the stories read by Christopher and Maxine. \nChristopher will be reading ‘Withen’ by Martyn Bedford\, a story about the Battle of Orgreave\, during the 1984-85 miners’ strike. The reading will be followed by a discussion with author Martyn Bedford and academic David Waddington who has published widely on Britain’s mining communities. \n\nPlease read: \nIf you purchase a “book plus entry ticket”\, please email shop@housmans.com stating which book you prefer (Protest or Resist) and let us know whether you would like the book posted or if you would like to collect it from the shop. Please supply a UK address if the book is to be posted out.  \nAn invitation to this online event will be emailed to you on the day of the event. We will use the email address used to purchase the ticket. Please check your spam folder and if you have not received the invitation by 5pm\, email us and we will resend it.  \n\nMore info on Comma’s History-into-Fiction series\, Protest and Resist: \nAt a time of great political disarray – government corruption and incompetence\, the COVID pandemic\, Brexit and new austerity measures looming – we look back to the past to remember the times the people have called it out\, stood up\, resisted! \n\nFor a nation that brought the world Chartism\, the Suffragettes\, the Tolpuddle Martyrs\, and so many other grassroots social movements\, Britain rarely celebrates its long\, great tradition of people power. Both Protest and Resist are collections of fictions and essays that explore and commemorate key moments of British protest and defiance over the last two millenia. \nWritten in close consultation with historians\, sociologists and eyewitnesses – who also contribute afterwords – these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles\, offering a street level perspective on the noble art of resistance. Authors re-imagine campaigns to change unjust laws\, protests against unlawful acts\, uprisings successful and unsuccessful – from Boudica to Blair Peach\, from the Battle of Cable Street to the tragedy of Grenfell Tower\, from the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. \nIn the age of fake news and post-truth politics this book fights fiction with (well researched\, historically accurate) fiction. Britain might not be famous for its revolutionary spirit\, but its people know when to draw the line\, and say very clearly\, ‘¡No pasarán!’ \nSpeakers \nMartyn Bedford is the author of five novels for adults: Acts of Revision\, which won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award\, Exit\, Orange & Red\, The Houdini Girl\, Black Cat\, and The Island of Lost Souls. He is also the author of two novels for young adults: Flip (shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award\, and winner of the Sheffield Children’s Book Award\, the Calderdale Book of the Year Award\, the Bay Book Award and the Immanuel College Book Award) and Never Ending (2014). His first collection of short stories\, Letters Home\, is published by Comma Press. \nDavid Waddington is Professor of Communications and Co-Director of the Cultural\, Communication and Computing Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University\, where he started out as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in March 1983. Since being appointed\, he has continued to publish widely on the policing of public order\, industrial relations in the coalfields\, and the sociology of Britain’s mining communities. His latest book\, Pit-folk and Peers: The Remarkable History of the People of Fryston\, Volume 1 – Echoes of Fryston Hall (1809-1908)\, has just been published by Route (Pontefract). \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/protest-and-resist-stories-of-resistance-and-uprising-with-christopher-eccleston/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Chris-Protest-FB.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210210T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210210T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201207T162933Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210209T133251Z UID:26294-1612983600-1612989000@housmans.com SUMMARY:Protest: Stories of Resistance with Maxine Peake\, Maggie Gee and Sally Alexander [online event] DESCRIPTION:Housmans Bookshop and Comma Press are delighted to host two online events with renowned British actors Christopher Eccleston and Maxine Peake reading from protest-inspired stories published in Comma’s History-into-Fiction series\, Protest and Resist. \nThe two events will take place on two consecutive dates\, with Christopher reading on the 9th of February and Maxine on the 10th. Both readings will be followed by a conversation between authors and historians discussing the events depicted in the stories read by Christopher and Maxine. \nMaxine will be reading the story ‘Night Cleaners’ Strike’ by Maggie Gee from the Protest anthology. \nPlease read: \nIf you purchase a “book plus entry ticket”\, please email shop@housmans.com stating which book you prefer (Protest or Resist) and let us know whether you would like the book posted or if you would like to collect it from the shop. Please supply a UK address if the book is to be posted out.  \nAn invitation to this online event will be emailed to you on the day of the event. We will use the email address used to purchase the ticket. Please check your spam folder and if you have not received the invitation by 5pm\, email us and we will resend it.  \nMore info on Comma’s History-into-Fiction series\, Protest and Resist: \nAt a time of great political disarray – government corruption and incompetence\, the COVID pandemic\, Brexit and new austerity measures looming – we look back to the past to remember the times the people have called it out\, stood up\, resisted! \nFor a nation that brought the world Chartism\, the Suffragettes\, the Tolpuddle Martyrs\, and so many other grassroots social movements\, Britain rarely celebrates its long\, great tradition of people power. Both Protest and Resist are collections of fictions and essays that explore and commemorate key moments of British protest and defiance over the last two millenia. \nWritten in close consultation with historians\, sociologists and eyewitnesses – who also contribute afterwords – these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles\, offering a street level perspective on the noble art of resistance. Authors re-imagine campaigns to change unjust laws\, protests against unlawful acts\, uprisings successful and unsuccessful – from Boudica to Blair Peach\, from the Battle of Cable Street to the tragedy of Grenfell Tower\, from the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. \nSpeakers \nSally Alexander is Emeritus Professor of Modern History at Goldsmiths University of London. Her books include Becoming a Woman: and other essays in 19th and 20th century feminist history (1994)\, and most recently History and Psyche: Culture\, Psychoanalysis\, and the Past\, edited with Barbara Taylor (2012). She was an organiser of the first national UK Women’s Liberation Movement conference held at Ruskin College\, Oxford in 1970\, was a member of several groups in the London Women’s Liberation Workshop\, and among other protests participated in the 1970 Miss World Demonstration. \nMaggie Gee has published 15 books\, including The Ice People\, My Cleaner\, The White Family\, shortlisted for the International Impac and Orange (now Women’s) Prize\, The Blue (stories)\, Virginia Woolf in Manhattan and most recently Blood (2019) which was on the Sunday Times’s ‘Best Literary Novels 2019’ list as well as their ‘Best Summer Reading 2019’ list\,  a black comedy-thriller about angry pre-Brexit Britain. Hilary Mantel described Blood as ‘An astonishing book. Funny and fierce\, written with style and dash\, without fear.’ Maggie has been translated into 15 languages. She has been warning against climate change in her fiction since Where Are the Snows (1991). She is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. The Red Children is forthcoming from Saqi in January 2022. \n  \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/protest-and-resist-stories-of-uprising-and-resistance-with-maxine-peake/ CATEGORIES:Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Maxine-Protest.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210217T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210217T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20210121T160549Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210217T185000Z UID:28921-1613588400-1613593800@housmans.com SUMMARY:Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited\, Exhausted and Alone\, with Sarah Jaffe [online event] DESCRIPTION:When you love your job so much that you’ll work for next to nothing\, then nothing is exactly what you’ll get. \nWe’re very pleased to welcome Sarah Jaffe to Housmans to discuss the ‘labour of love’ myth: the idea that certain work is not really work\, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than pay. Whether it’s working for free in exchange for ‘experience’\, enduring poor treatment in the name of being ‘part of the family’\, or clocking serious overtime for a good cause\, more and more of us are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do work we enjoy. \nWork Won’t Love You Back examines the lives and experiences of various workers—from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher\, to the nonprofit employee\, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete—this compelling book reveals how we’ve all been tricked into a new tyranny of work and argues that understanding the labour of love trap will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. \nFor this event\, Sarah will be in conversation with Ray Malone and Kate O’Shea\, two of the workers she interviews in Work Won’t Love You Back. \nPlease join us to take part in this essential conversation on a type of labour which is also very prevalent within radical communities: simply register below for free access or\, if you wish to support Housmans\, you can purchase a solidarity ticket. \nSpeakers \nSarah Jaffe is a Type Media Center fellow and an independent journalist covering the politics of power\, from the workplace to the streets. The author of Necessary Trouble\, she has written for The New York Times\, The Guardian\, The Nation and many other outlets. She tweets as @sarahljaffe. \nRay Malone is a creative producer\, theatre director and photographer\, working under the banner of her own theatre and arts collective: Heads Bodies Legs. Her previous experience is varied\, alongside her work as a theatre maker\, she has also worked as a chambermaid\, an ice cream seller\, a barmaid in a strip club\, a governess for wealthy Russians\, a terrible singer and badass single mum. As an activist\, she’s made performances with a number of collectives\, including Act Up London\, Beautiful Trouble\, the NHS Anti-Swindle Team\, and the Fallout Club. In theatre\, she has directed and dramaturged a range of new-writing and site-specific performances\, devising shows with professional and non-professional actors. Ray is currently leading the community arts project: the Molly’s Masquerade at St Margaret’s House in Bethnal Green. \nKate O’Shea is an artist with a social practice which includes printmaking\, the production of social spaces\, collective cooking and publishing. From setting up a social space in the south west of Ireland in 2009 to co-producing SPARE ROOM Art Architecture Activism (www.spareroomproject.ie) with Eve Olney in Cork in 2019\, Kate’s collaborative practice is based on building spaces of solidarity and dialogue in order to explore alternatives to the social relations of capitalism. Kate is currently The Just City Counter Narrative Neighbourhood Residency Awardee with Common Ground\, Dublin 8. Kate’s project How Much is Enough? includes collaborators from all around the world exploring ideas and practices around spatial injustices in multiple cities. This includes an upcoming collaborative exhibition entitled ‘Half Way To Falling’. Along with Victoria Brunetta\, Kate is co-founder of Durty Books (2018 – present) which is a publishing house that has produced two books to date\, providing a critical space for voices who challenge and build alternatives to capitalist hegemony. Kate is developing The People’s Kitchen which is being funded by Arts Council Ireland Artist in Community Scheme\, managed by CREATE. She is consulting artist on We Only Want The Earth 2020 working with A4 Sounds\, Create & MASI. Kate is a member of The Living Commons\, Ireland. \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/work-wont-love-you-back-how-devotion-to-our-jobs-keeps-us-exploited-exhausted-and-alone-with-sarah-jaffe-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/sarah-jaffe-book-cover.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210219T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210219T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20201225T144655Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210219T190228Z UID:27221-1613761200-1613766600@housmans.com SUMMARY:Introduction to Degrowth with Vincent Liegey\, Anitra Nelson and Derek Wall [online event] DESCRIPTION:Vincent Liegey\, Anitra Nelson and Derek Wall join us online at Housmans to provide an accessible introduction to the degrowth movement. \nThis is a free event. To attend simply RSVP below. Alternatively\, if you would like to support Housmans you can buy a solidarity ticket. \nA sense of urgency pervades global environmentalism\, and the degrowth movement is bursting into the mainstream. As climate catastrophe looms closer\, people are eager to learn what degrowth is about\, and whether we can save the planet by changing how we live. \nAs politicians and corporations obsess over growth objectives\, the degrowth movement demands that we must slow down the economy by transforming our economies\, our politics and our cultures to live within the Earth’s limits. \nVincent\, Anitra and Derek will cover the practice and strategies of the movement\, its strengths and weaknesses and will also look at horizontal democracy\, local economies and the reduction of work\, arguing that degrowth is a compelling and realistic project. \nTo buy Exploring Degrowth by Vincent Liegey and Anitra Nelson (published by Pluto Press)\, click here \nSpeakers \nVincent Liegey is an engineer\, interdisciplinary researcher\, spokesperson for the French degrowth movement and co-author of Un Projet de Décroissance\,  Utopia\, 2013). He is also the coordinator of Cargonomia — a centre for research and experimentation on degrowth\, a social cooperative for sustainable logistical solutions and local food distribution using cargo-bikes in Budapest. \nAnitra Nelson is Honorary Principal Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne\, Australia. She is the author of Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet (Pluto\, 2018) and is co-editor of Food for Degrowth (Routledge\, 2020) with Ferne Edwards. \nDerek Wall is the author of numerous books including Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals (Pluto\, 2017)\, Economics After Capitalism (Pluto\, 2015)\, The Rise of the Green Left (Pluto\, 2010) and The Sustainable Economics of Elinor Ostrom (Routledge\, 2014). He teaches Political Economy at Goldsmiths College\, University of London and was International Co-ordinator of the Green Party of England and Wales. \n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/introduction-to-degrowth-with-anitra-nelson-and-derek-wall-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/degrowth.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210309T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210309T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20210202T130318Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210219T162534Z UID:28937-1615316400-1615321800@housmans.com SUMMARY:The Care Crisis: Emma Dowling in conversation with Helen Hester [online event] DESCRIPTION:Valuing care and care work does not simply mean attributing care work more monetary value. To really achieve change\, we must go so much further. \nWe are pleased to welcome author Emma Dowling to Housmans to discuss her new book\, The Care Crisis\, in which she analyses the multi-faceted nature of care in the modern world\, from the mantras of self-care and what they tell us about our anxieties\, to the state of the social care system. \nEmma and Helen will discuss the continued off-loading of the cost of care onto the shoulders of underpaid and unpaid realms of society\, untangling how this off-loading combines with commodification\, marketisation and financialisation to produce the mess we are living in. \nSpeakers \nEmma Dowling has lived and worked in London and Birmingham and currently teaches sociology at the University of Vienna. Her writing has appeared in Red Pepper\, New Humanist\, Financial Times\, Open Democracy and Tribune. \nHelen Hester is Associate Professor of Media and Communications at the University of West London. Her research interests include technology\, social reproduction\, and the future of work\, and she is a member of the international feminist working group Laboria Cuboniks. Her books include Beyond Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex (SUNY Press\, 2014)\, Xenofeminism (Polity\, 2018)\, and After Work: The Politics of Free Time (Verso\, forthcoming\, with Nick Srnicek). \n\n\nHOW TO ACCESS THIS ONLINE EVENT\n\n\n\nAn invitation to this online event will be emailed to you on the day of the event. We will use the email address used to purchase the ticket. Confirmation emails and invitation links sometimes end up in spam folders\, so please check there before emailing the shop. Thank you. \n\n\n\nTICKET INFORMATION\n\n\n\nThere are three available tickets for this event: book plus event entry\, solidarity ticket and free access. Please choose from below: \n\n\n\n\nBook plus entry ticket £16.99\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/the-care-crisis-emma-dowling-in-conversation-with-helen-hester-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/care-crisis.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20210317T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20210317T203000 DTSTAMP:20260403T225235 CREATED:20210212T142216Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210317T181807Z UID:29610-1616007600-1616013000@housmans.com SUMMARY:Bread and Roses: Gender and Class Under Capitalism\, with Andrea D'Atri [online event] DESCRIPTION:Is it possible to develop a radical socialist feminism that fights for the emancipation of women and of all humankind? \nHousmans is proud to welcome Andrea D’Atri to discuss her new publication with Pluto Press\, Bread and Roses: Gender and Class Under Capitalism. Join us for a passionate journey through the history of feminism. \nUsing the concrete struggles of women\, Andrea traces the history of the women’s and workers’ movement from the French Revolution to queer theory. She analyses the divergent paths feminists have woven for their liberation from oppression and uncovers where they have hit dead ends. \nWith the global working class made up of a disproportionate number of women\, women are central in leading the charge for the next revolution and laying down blueprints for an alternative future. D’Atri makes a fiery plea for dismantling capitalist patriarchy. \nThis is an online event in Spanish\, interpreting into English provided. \nSpeakers \nAndrea D’Atri is founder of the Women’s organisation\, ‘Pan Y Rosas’ (Bread and Roses) in Argentina. She is an activist\, author\, psychologist and specialist in women’s studies. Pan y Rosas is now one of the largest socialist women’s organizations in the world\, with thousands of activists in various Latin American and European countries. D’Atri is also a leading figure in the Ni Una Menos movement against macho violence and supporting the right to abortion. \nInterpreting into English by Isabel Ros López. Isabel was born a migrant and has been writing poetry and songs since childhood. An anti-imperialist feminist activist since adolescence. She wants to change the world with others\, with you. Peace with social justice. Together. She performs\, does community workshops\, publishes and records when she can; mostly works full time to end violence against women and girls. She says that intersectional feminism rocks! \n\n\nHOW TO ACCESS THIS ONLINE EVENT\n\n\n\nAn invitation to this online event will be emailed to you on the day of the event. We will use the email address used to register for this event. Confirmation emails and invitation links sometimes end up in spam folders\, so please check there before emailing the shop. Thank you. \n\n\n\nTICKET INFORMATION\n\n\n\nThere are two available tickets for this event: book + event entry and a free access ticket for students and unwaged. \n\n\n\nPlease choose a ticket from below: \n\n\n\n\nBook plus entry ticket £16.99\n\n\n\n\n\nShare this:\n Share on X (Opens in new window)\n X\n \n Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)\n Facebook\n \n Share on Insta (Opens in new window)\n Insta\n Like this:Like Loading... URL:https://housmans.com/event/bread-and-roses-gender-and-class-under-capitalism-with-andrea-datri-online-event/ CATEGORIES:Book Talk,Online event ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://housmans.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Andrea.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR