We're excited to be partnering with 404 Ink for the second in a series of showcases of their many vast and insightful Inklings, which capture big ideas in small books.
Join us to hear from Adéle Oliver, Heather Parry, layla-roxanne hill and Sam Gonçalves about their Inklings as they delve into topics from UK drill to sex robots, frontline activism to the intimacy of touch, with bitesize talks and a Q&A. See the authors discuss the passion projects and roads that led them to write such thought-provoking books, at the second event in this series.
This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience, as well as a livestream for attendees watching from home. There will be a signing after the event.
In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of one of the four featured Inklings – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book. Livestream vouchers are valid until the day after the event and can be redeemed on our website against a single copy of one of the four featured Inklings.
About Deeping It by Adéle Oliver:
Deeping It shines a critical light on UK drill and its fraught relationship with the British legal system. Intervening on current discourse steeped in anti-Blackness and moral panic, this Inkling ‘deeps’ how the criminalisation of UK drill cannot be disentangled from histories, technologies, and realities of colonialism, consumerism and more.
About Electric Dreams by Heather Parry:
In the future, we’ll all be having sex with robots… won’t we? Roboticists say they’re a distracting science fiction, yet endless books, films and articles are written on the subject. Campaigns are even mounted against them. So why are sex robots such a hot topic? Electric Dreams picks apart the forces that posit sex robots as either the solution to our problems or a real threat to human safety, and looks at what’s being pushed aside for us to obsess about something that will never happen.
About Look, Don't Touch by layla-roxanne hill and Francesca Sobande:
What does the command “look, don’t touch” suggest about the (lack of) freedom to feel in society? hill and Sobande reflect on society’s nurturing and obstructing of emotional expression, physical touch, and connectedness between different species and spaces as Look, Don’t Touch journeys through the music of feeling, “self-help” social media, the power of public signage, and more to call for a move away from the language of “okayness”, and a move towards collectively uplifting forms of anger, agitation, love, solidarity, release, and ultimately, feeling.
About How Does Change Happen? by Sam Gonçalves:
Mass protests and direct action have been familiar tactics against the many crises of the 21st century. Though methods vary, there’s a collective longing for meaningful and transformative action. Some are deemed too weak, others too disruptive: from Instagram tiles to cans of soup thrown on famous paintings. Through conversations with activists and organisers, Sam Gonçalves recounts stories of protest and the fight for change. These narratives reveal the opportunities and challenges that are part of the difficult work of creating change, a wrestling with the question: how does change happen?
Tickets here.
