BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//eroding empire - ECPv6.15.14//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:eroding empire X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk X-WR-CALDESC:Events for eroding empire 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:20250330T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20260329T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20261025T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20270328T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20271031T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T213000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260505T022916Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T131554Z UID:6244-1778698800-1778707800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:An Evening of Techno-Negativity with MayDay rooms and Thomas Dekeyser DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening diving into the long histories of technological resistance\, with MayDay rooms and Thomas Dekeyser. \nAt a time when Big Tech grows increasingly enmeshed with authoritarian control\, how do we resist? One path\, the new book\, TECHNO-NEGATIVE: A LONG HISTORY OF REFUSING THE MACHINE argues\, is to look deeply into the archives. From the Luddites to medieval monks banning tools\, seventeenth-century loom burners\, revolutionary lantern smashers\, and computer arsonists\, history is riddled with critical junctures where people have recognised and resisted the machine as a violent\, sometimes deadly force. \nWhich traces in the archives does our current techno-dystopian moment call us to bring back to life? How do we draw energy from radical pasts without romanticising them? An informal panel with the author of the book (Thomas Dekeyser) will explore these questions\, and will be followed by a chance to read through techno-negative archives\, including Mayday Rooms’ own collections. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/an-evening-of-techno-negativity-with-mayday-rooms-and-thomas-dekeyser/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260519T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260519T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260421T023015Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T095330Z UID:6039-1779217200-1779222600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: The Forest Fights Back with Jessica den Outer DESCRIPTION:Join Us For A Discussion Of A Global Movement for the Rights of Nature\nAs the world grapples with the escalating climate crisis\, ecosystems are collapsing\, and the planet’s future hangs in the balance. For centuries\, our legal systems have treated nature as something to be owned and exploited\, but a bold new movement is challenging this paradigm. \nIn The Forest Fights Back\, Jessica den Outer explores a groundbreaking global movement—Rights of Nature—taking on the legal system to recognise the rights of rivers\, forests\, and mountains to exist\, flourish\, and sustain their ecological balance. From the fight for the Whanganui River in New Zealand to the battle for Spain’s Mar Menor lagoon\, den Outer highlights the campaigns led by grassroots communities\, telling stories of determination and legal ingenuity. \nThis movement goes beyond law – it represents a cultural shift that could reshape how we live\, think\, co-exist and advocate for nature. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-forest-fights-back-with-jessica-den-outer/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260520T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260520T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260508T022918Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T131622Z UID:6260-1779303600-1779309000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HAJAR READS DESCRIPTION:‘At this\, the man turned in their direction and smiled; he played not for the dream of success but because this new world necessitated beauty of all kinds. The new world was not just labour\, but labour for the sake of life-making.’\n— Lola Olufemi\, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise \nJoin us for Hajar Reads: Play. In this reading and discussion group\, we’ll reflect on play as a life-affirming practice\, considering how embracing play and playfulness can open us up to more expansive ways of thinking\, creating and living. \nWe’ll use short extracts from selected Hajar Press titles—including Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (Lola Olufemi)\, COOP (Nida Sajid) and Seeing for Ourselves (Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan)—as a starting point for our discussion. \nExtracts will be shared in advance of the session\, but there’s no expectation to have read them all to take part—just come along ready to listen\, think and share! \nThis session\, hosted by Hajar Press\, will be facilitated by Amber Obasi from Hajar Press and Dr Durre Shahwar. \nDr Durre Shahwar is an interdisciplinary writer\, researcher\, and artist. She is the author of One of the Good Ones\, a pamphlet accompanying her solo photo exhibition on archives\, seeking sanctuary\, and documentation\, exhibited and published in 2026 by Ffotogallery\, Cardiff. She is co-editor of Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature (2024) and Just So You Know (2020). Durre has a PhD in autofiction and Pakistani-Welsh identity from Cardiff University and was the recipient of a Future Wales Fellowship. Her work deconstructs established frameworks to present counter-narratives that capture the complexities of lived experiences when situated within social\, cultural\, political and geographical landscapes. Durre divides her time between South London and Cardiff and is currently working on her debut non-fiction book. \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/hajar-reads/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260526T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260526T213000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260501T204126Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084354Z UID:6227-1779822000-1779831000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:The Plot is on Fire with MayDay Rooms and Manuela Zechner DESCRIPTION:Many of the materials from our ecological holdings offer examples of organised attempts to confront ecological crisis through insurgent\, ground-level direct-action. In this spirit\, we invite you to join us in this practical session with Manuela Zechner\, who will share key takes from her new book\, The Plot is on Fire: Care Struggles after Progress\, Plantation and Patriarchy (Pluto 2026) and its chapters on tech and agrarian extractivism\, as well as from the work of the Common Ecologies School on agrarian extractivism and building agroecological counterpower. \nWe’ll be looking towards toxic tech extractivism and the new digital and data frontiers that capitalism is pushing\, and map some of the forms of resistance we see or imagine springing up around us. How might we resist data centres\, microchip factories\, toxic tech assembly lines\, and mines for rare earths? And how do struggles around water and land intersect with struggles against toxic algorithmic and data harvesting regimes? Bring what you know\, along with what you want to learn about these and other contemporary ecological struggles\, and we’ll take time to map it together and orient it toward a shared horizon. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/the-plot-is-on-fire-with-mayday-rooms-and-manuela-zechner/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260527T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260527T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260511T142923Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084237Z UID:6269-1779908400-1779913800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE PLOT IS ON FIRE: Manuela Zechner in conversation with Max Haiven DESCRIPTION:We are delighted to welcome Manuela Zechner to Housmans to talk about her truly original and radical work in postcolonial eco-theory. \nAs myths of progress and modernisation collapse in the relentless polycrisis of our time\, how do we strengthen other plots—in community\, practice and struggle? How do we come together as movements for earthcare? \nThe Plot is on Fire: Care Struggles after Progress\, Plantation and Patriarchy weaves stories\, proposals\, and analyses around a key domain of living reproduction in crisis: agriculture. Looking at peasant\, indigenous\, and transecofeminist practices\, it formulates another plot on how we want to sustain life collectively—beyond progress\, plantation\, and patriarchy. \nRecovering and repurposing old and new technologies\, and breaking down the division between rural and urban\, the ground is made fertile for growing other futures. Alongside writers like Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler\, this work of radical political theory raises critical questions about technology and storytelling\, as matters of care and community. \nManuela will be in conversation with Max Haiven author of Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (Pluto). They will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour followed by a discussion with the audience. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00 URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-plot-is-on-fire-manuela-zechner-in-conversation-with-max-haiven/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260529T080000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260529T170000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260430T022930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084444Z UID:6197-1780041600-1780074000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES DESCRIPTION:INTRODUCING THE FIRST IN OUR POET’S PROSE SEQUENCE We are delighted to welcome two extremely exciting poets to Housmans for the first installment of our Summer Poetry Series. This season we’re going to be doing something a bit different and focusing instead on the work that poets produce outside of ‘traditional’ lyric modes; focusing instead on prose; novels; novellas; novelettes; essays; criticism; chunks of memoir and ‘hybrid’ lumps. \nOpening the series we have two poets whose work (and dual radiant vibe) need very little introduction (to those who’ve been following literary avant-gardes in Britain for the last decade or so): Kirsty Dunlop and Maria Sledmere. Between them they compose the centripetal force of Glasgow’s celebrated post-internet DIY publishing project SPAM and have produced a truly terrifying volume of exceedingly brilliant poetry collections\, scholarly work and experiments. \nAt Housmans they will be discussing their recent experiments in fiction writing: Kirsty’s Centrefolding and Maria’s The Indigo Hours. \nCentrefolding follows an unnamed protagonist who shifts\, sprints\, swerves and transmorphs through the “Centre!” (exclamation mark required)\, a research institute in some northern British city\, in our current jittery moment. Glitches in reality abound: expect research into alien life that goes nowhere\, an underground hospital\, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence\, and ‘lingerers’ slithering under glass doors (you know\, like a worm). Daisy Lafarge says it is her ‘dream novelette: gossipy\, pacy\, and full of gorgeous swerves of language. With enviable wit and inventiveness’. \nThe Indigo Hours is an immersive\, radiant text that moves between autofiction\, essay\, and poetic prose to document the textures of contemporary longing. Centred around a seasonal arc and filtered through the ambient melancholia of late capitalism\, the work refracts emotional experience through media\, memory\, pop culture\, and shifting landscapes—from Berlin pools to prairie towns\, from night buses to art galleries. Sledmere’s sentences are lush\, recursive\, and sensorily attuned\, sustaining a rhythmic\, diaristic lyricism that continually folds the personal into the atmospheric. What emerges is a powerful reckoning with intimacy\, grief\, and temporality at the edges of digital and embodied life. ‘Maria Sledmere tells a post-Romantic tale of moonlit precarity and passion among pools & thunderstorms & prairies & airports…’ says Poppy Cockburn. \nBoth poets will read from their work\, discuss shared ideas\, themes\, feelings and forms. As always with our poetry series\, we encourage you to byob and the spirit of celebration and conversation. If we have time we might engage in a more general conversation on the nature of poetry\, prose and other aesthetic modes gurgling up thru this current zombied epoch of slow collapse and cultural amnesia. (‘Why do all the poets write novels now\, anyway??’ we might ask.) \nThis is a free event\, but we have limited capacity so please do book ahead using the link below. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/housmans-poetry-series/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260601T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260601T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260527T023019Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260604T163809Z UID:6437-1780340400-1780345800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: Adrift in the South by Xiao Hai DESCRIPTION:When Xiao Hai turned fifteen\, his family paid a vocational-school teacher 1\,200 yuan to find him a factory job in Shenzhen. So began fifteen years spent moving between the garment mills and electronics factories of China’s fast-growing southern cities. \nAdrift in the South is a memoir of life as a migrant labourer in the twenty-first century\, making iPhones and baby clothes\, hand-stitching football shirts and cutting plastic into radios. Here\, Xiao Hai reveals the alienation and tedium of factory life\, the small indignities and indifference of the larger system. And he tells the story of how poetry led him somewhere unexpected: to join a small community of artists living\, working\, and studying together on the outskirts of Beijing. \nThis memoir is a landmark text from China’s migrant worker literature movement\, a grassroots group of writers providing an unvarnished account of what life is like for the 300 million migrant workers powering the world’s second-biggest economy. \nXiao Hai will conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-talk-adrift-in-the-south-by-xiao-hai/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260602T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260602T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260504T022918Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084519Z UID:6240-1780426800-1780432200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: KILL BILLIONAIRE with ANDERS LUSTGARTEN DESCRIPTION:Kill Billionaire: The Riotous Revenge Caper You’ve Been Waiting for Kill Billionaire is the best sort of political thriller: gripping\, revenge fueled and unapologetically radical in its politics\, discussing climate change and the elite. \nWhen her home is destroyed in wildfires\, fourteen-year-old Australian outback genius Kayla Connolly decides to hunt down the culprits of climate change: billionaires. She teams up with Mr P\, a giant ex-soldier from Tuvalu whose home is being flooded by rising sea levels. Together\, they find ingenious ways to kill a property developer building on protected wetlands and a mining company CEO poisoning the earth with toxic chemicals. They also find an unexpected ally in Nancy\, a wealthy elderly woman with a shocking past. \nThe trio’s mission soon develops a life of its own\, taking them first to California to crack billionaire tech bros and then to London for superrich oil executives\, spawning a global movement along the way. In pursuit are the FBI and Detective Sergeant Kate Anderson of Scotland Yard\, but Kate is having doubts about whether Kayla is even in the wrong. Will Kayla be able to stay ahead of the game and pull off one final\, remarkable hit? \nWe are delighted that Anders Lustgarten has chosen Housmans as the launch pad for this propulsive\, daringly political work of thriller fiction! \nHe will conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-kill-billionaire-with-anders-lustgarten/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260504T022919Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084546Z UID:6241-1780686000-1780691400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: 'FLAMBOYANCE' WITH JACK PARLETT DESCRIPTION:JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH AMELIA ABRAHAM Flamboyance is Jack Parlett’s follow up to his acclaimed Fire Island (A Housmans bestseller of 2022). This new book has all the qualities one has come to expect of Jack’s work; big hearted and erudite in equal measure. \nFlamboyance ignites every aspect of our lives\, from art and entertainment to ritual and protest. The word conjures exuberance and unashamed passion; in thought\, expression and dress. Yet historically the term ‘flamboyant’ has been reserved for the over-the-top and the outré\, invoked at times as a pejorative innuendo or worse. \nIn his fascinating new book\, Jack Parlett argues for its value as an empowering and creative force\, illuminating the ways in which flamboyance is a fundamental aspect of human conduct that both marks and transcends difference. \nTaking in an eclectic array of examples\, from Gothic architecture to the orange flowers of Dungeness\, and populated by figures such as Oscar Wilde\, James Baldwin\, Elton John\, Amy Winehouse\, Lil Nas X and Chappell Roan\, this is a book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance. And having both aspired to it and rejected it\, Jack recounts his personal relationship to flamboyance while also finding new meanings of the word\, exploring its surprises and contradictions\, and reconnecting with its radical power. \nJack will be joined in conversation with Amelia Abraham. They with be in conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-flamboyance-with-jack-parlett/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260602T022916Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260604T163815Z UID:6511-1780686000-1780691400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: 'FLAMBOYANCE' WITH JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER SCALPELLO DESCRIPTION:JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER SCALPELLO \nFlamboyance is Jack Parlett’s follow up to his acclaimed Fire Island (A Housmans bestseller of 2022). This new book has all the qualities one has come to expect of Jack’s work; big hearted and erudite in equal measure. \nFlamboyance ignites every aspect of our lives\, from art and entertainment to ritual and protest. The word conjures exuberance and unashamed passion; in thought\, expression and dress. Yet historically the term ‘flamboyant’ has been reserved for the over-the-top and the outré\, invoked at times as a pejorative innuendo or worse. \nIn his fascinating new book\, Jack Parlett argues for its value as an empowering and creative force\, illuminating the ways in which flamboyance is a fundamental aspect of human conduct that both marks and transcends difference. \nTaking in an eclectic array of examples\, from Gothic architecture to the orange flowers of Dungeness\, and populated by figures such as Oscar Wilde\, James Baldwin\, Elton John\, Amy Winehouse\, Lil Nas X and Chappell Roan\, this is a book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance. And having both aspired to it and rejected it\, Jack recounts his personal relationship to flamboyance while also finding new meanings of the word\, exploring its surprises and contradictions\, and reconnecting with its radical power. \nOUR SPEAKERS: \nJack Parlettis the author of three books: The Poetics of Cruising: Queer Visual Culture from Whitman to Grindr (a monograph with University of Minnesota Press)\, Same Blue\, Different You (a poetry pamphlet with Broken Sleep Books)\, and Fire Island: A Queer History (Granta)\, which was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2023. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker\, Document Journal\, BBC Culture\, Boston Review\, Literary Hub and Poetry London. \nPeter Scalpello is a writer and psychotherapist from Glasgow\, based in London. Their second book\, Mirrorstage\, was published this year with Cipher Press. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-flamboyance-with-jack-parlett-in-conversation-with-peter-scalpello/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260610T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260610T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260528T022927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260610T142916Z UID:6450-1781118000-1781123400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Privatising humanity by Kate Bayliss DESCRIPTION:Kate Bayliss in conversation with Adrienne Buller PRIVATISING HUMANITY is a powerful exposé of how finance turns our basic human needs into assets. \nWe have entered a new era of turbo-charged financial extraction. Having amassed huge reserves\, global finance capital is seeking out fresh areas for profitable investments. Virtually all aspects of our lives are now targeted by someone seeking to make a profit. \nKate Bayliss shows how wealthy investors\, including asset managers\, target our essential services. When it comes to investments in these sectors\, shareholder profits are funded by us\, the end-users and tax-payers who simply wish to meet our basic human needs for water\, warmth and shelter. We have no alternative but to pay into these structures that often generate massive returns for investors and dysfunctional systems for society. \nUnpacking the details of these processes in three sectors in the UK – water\, energy and housing – Bayliss exposes the harmful consequences of this model\, which is contributing to deepening inequality. \nKate will be joined in conversation by Adrienne Buller\, author of The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-privatising-humanity-by-kate-bayliss/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260613T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260613T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260520T023117Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260613T142940Z UID:6357-1781377200-1781382600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:The Word in Others' Mouths: Susan Rudy and Shelly Harder in conversation DESCRIPTION:The Word in Others’ Mouths: Susan Rudy and Shelly Harder in conversation Susan Rudy and Shelly Harder come together to launch new chapbooks from Ottawa’s above/ground press.  \nRudy’s Consequences gathers a thousand sentences — from feminist theorists\, queer poets\, songs\, private conversations\, and decades of notebooks — stripping them of hierarchy and ownership\, letting Brossard and Bronski Beat and Butler sit side by side\, voices refracting across queer and trans thought\, motherhood\, desire\, and the ongoing problem of telling the truth about a body.  \nHarder’s pinion begins in the 2020 lockdowns. Alternating between narrative and lyric\, this collection explores isolation\, fragility\, and interconnection with humour and yearning. \nBoth books know that language was not built for us\, and both find forms that work anyway. This evening brings their authors into conversation about writing queerly\, playing at the edges of genre and gender\, and what it means to claim a word that began in someone else’s mouth. \nTHIS IS A FREE EVENT BUT PLEASE RSVP BELOW. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/the-word-in-others-mouths-susan-rudy-and-shelly-harder-in-conversation/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260615T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260615T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260521T022922Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T142955Z UID:6367-1781550000-1781555400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: Absolute Ethical Life: Michael Lazarus in conversation with Bruno Leipold DESCRIPTION:Aristotle\, Hegel and Marx: Michael Lazarus In Conversation with Bruno Leipold Karl Marx gave us not just a critique of the political economy of capital but a way of confronting the impoverished ethical quality of life we face under capitalism. Interpreting Marx anew as an ethical thinker\, Absolute Ethical Life provides crucial resources for understanding how freedom and rational agency are impacted by a social world formed by value under capitalism\, with consequences for philosophy today. \nMichael Lazarus situates Marx within a shared tradition of ethical inquiry\, placing him in close dialogue with Aristotle and Hegel. Lazarus traces the ethical and political dimensions of Marx’s work missed by Hannah Arendt and Alasdair MacIntyre\, two of the most profound critics of modern politics and ethics. Ultimately\, the book claims that Marx’s value-form theory is both a continuation of Aristotelian and Hegelian themes and at the same time his most distinctive theoretical achievement. \nIn this normative interpretation of Marx\, Lazarus integrates recent moral philosophy with a historically specific analysis of capitalism as a social form of life. He challenges contemporary political and economic theory to insist that any conception of modern life needs to account for capitalism. With a robust critique of capitalism derived from the determinations of what Marx calls the “form of value\,” Lazarus argues for an ethical life beyond capital. \nMichael Lazarus will be joined in conversation with Bruno Leipold. We expect the conversation to last from around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by an open discussion with the audience. \nOur Speakers: \nMichael Lazarus is Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. Before coming to King’s\, he was Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University and Deakin University Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute. He holds a PhD in Politics from Monash University. His research covers major themes and thinkers in political theory\, political economy and moral philosophy.Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle\, Hegel and Marx\, published by Stanford University Press\, is his first book. He is currently working on a second book project related to the ideas of labour\, money and colonialism in Adam Smith and G.W.F. Hegel. In addition to his many scholarly publications\, he regularly writes for non-academic venues. \nBruno Leipold teaches at the London School of Economics. He works on the thought of Karl Marx\, the republican political tradition\, democratic theory and nineteenth-century political thought. He is the author of Citizen Marx (Princeton University Press\, 2024) and the co-editor of Radical Republicanism (Oxford University Press\, 2020). Before coming to the LSE\, he held post-doctoral positions at The New Institute\, the European University Institute and the Goethe University Frankfurt\, and he received his DPhil from the University of Oxford. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-talk-absolute-ethical-life-michael-lazarus-in-conversation-with-bruno-leipold/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260520T023118Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260610T142924Z UID:6358-1781636400-1781641800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE NEXT FIX by KOJO KARAM DESCRIPTION:The question is no longer if we should legalise drugs. It’s: what happens when we do? \nThe future of drugs is here\, and it’s dangerously unequal. Over the last decade\, the status quo around drugs has collapsed. Drugs once sold as safe cures have been revealed as ineffective or dangerous\, while substances criminalised for generations are being reborn as breakthrough mental health treatments\, wellness supplements\, Silicon productivity tools and billion-dollar investment opportunities. How did this reversal happen — and who stands to benefit? \nJoin us as we welcome the brilliant Kojo Karam to Housmans to celebrate the launch of his essential\, brilliant and harrowing new book. In The Next Fix\, award-winning author Koram travels from Scotland to Colombia\, Ghana to the United States\, to uncover the forces reshaping the global drug landscape. Moving between glossy corporate cannabis expos to grassroots activist campaigns and the question of reparations\, he traces the growing tension between movements fighting for justice after decades of prohibition and the finance-world race to profit from a newly legal frontier. Will drug reform finally undo the racial violence\, environmental destruction and public health failures of the War on Drugs? Or will it simply open a new chapter in global capitalism\, creating a smooth transition from cartel barons to Wall Street oligopolies? \nUrgent\, moving and deeply reported\, The Next Fix asks whether the War on Drugs is really over – or merely changing its chemical formula. \n‘Brilliantly arranged and rich with fresh insights‘ Akala \n‘A radical\, beautifully written understanding of our history‘ Owen Jones \nKojo Koram is a Professor of Law\, author and investigative journalist. This year he co-founded a new global research centre at Loughborough University which will examine how drug markets are changing. Born in Ghana and raised on Merseyside\, he is now based in London. In addition to his academic work\, he regularly contributes to the Guardian and Novara Media and has also written for the New Statesman and NYT. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth (2022) which won the English PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize\, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing and was a Guardian book of the year. \nKojo will read from the book\, followed by a discussion that should last for around 45 minutes. We will then have a q&a. The shop has limited space\, so please book ahead to avoid disappointment. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-next-fix-by-kojo-karam/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260611T022956Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260616T142920Z UID:6959-1781636400-1781641800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE NEXT FIX by KOJO KORAM DESCRIPTION:The question is no longer if we should legalise drugs. It’s: what happens when we do? \nThe future of drugs is here\, and it’s dangerously unequal. Over the last decade\, the status quo around drugs has collapsed. Drugs once sold as safe cures have been revealed as ineffective or dangerous\, while substances criminalised for generations are being reborn as breakthrough mental health treatments\, wellness supplements\, Silicon productivity tools and billion-dollar investment opportunities. How did this reversal happen — and who stands to benefit? \nJoin us as we welcome the brilliant Kojo Koram to Housmans to celebrate the launch of his essential\, brilliant and harrowing new book. In The Next Fix\, award-winning author Koram travels from Scotland to Colombia\, Ghana to the United States\, to uncover the forces reshaping the global drug landscape. Moving between glossy corporate cannabis expos to grassroots activist campaigns and the question of reparations\, he traces the growing tension between movements fighting for justice after decades of prohibition and the finance-world race to profit from a newly legal frontier. Will drug reform finally undo the racial violence\, environmental destruction and public health failures of the War on Drugs? Or will it simply open a new chapter in global capitalism\, creating a smooth transition from cartel barons to Wall Street oligopolies? \nUrgent\, moving and deeply reported\, The Next Fix asks whether the War on Drugs is really over – or merely changing its chemical formula. \n‘Brilliantly arranged and rich with fresh insights‘ Akala \n‘A radical\, beautifully written understanding of our history‘ Owen Jones \nKojo Koram is a Professor of Law\, author and investigative journalist. This year he co-founded a new global research centre at Loughborough University which will examine how drug markets are changing. Born in Ghana and raised on Merseyside\, he is now based in London. In addition to his academic work\, he regularly contributes to the Guardian and Novara Media and has also written for the New Statesman and NYT. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth (2022) which won the English PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize\, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing and was a Guardian book of the year. \nKojo will read from the book\, followed by a discussion that should last for around 45 minutes. We will then have a q&a. The shop has limited space\, so please book ahead to avoid disappointment. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-next-fix-by-kojo-koram/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260617T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260617T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260520T023118Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260617T150623Z UID:6359-1781722800-1781728200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: TURNING AWAY by BENJAMIN A. SALTZMAN DESCRIPTION:A sweeping account of how we are at our most human when we turn away from the pains of the world. This is a work of breathtaking scholarship. We are delighted to welcome its author\, Benjamin A Saltzman\, to Housmans for its UK launch. He will be in conversation with Revd Dr Ayla Lepine. Why do we look away from the suffering of others? Why do we cover our faces in shame? Why do we lower our heads in grief? Few gestures are as universal as the averted gaze. Fewer still are as ambivalent and inscrutable. In this incisive study\, Benjamin A. Saltzman reveals how the kaleidoscopic appearance of these gestures in art\, poetry\, and philosophy has turned them into an essential language for our uncomfortable engagements with the world\, challenging us to reflect on the ways we fundamentally relate to others. \nInto the horizon of contemporary discourse\, Turning Away sets out from five influential scenes in which figures avert their gaze: Timanthes’s Sacrifice of Iphigenia\, Plato’s Republic\, Augustine’s Confessions\, Christ’s Crucifixion\, and the Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve. The gestures of aversion in these scenes refract across visual media\, through philosophy and politics\, into modernity and the present day\, having been reimagined along the way by thinkers like Hannah Arendt\, artists like Marc Chagall and Salvador Dalí\, poets like Langston Hughes\, and many others. Saltzman offers a timely critique of the privilege of turning away and of the too-easy condemnation of our tendencies to do so. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-turning-away-by-benjamin-a-saltzman/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260618T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260618T220000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260601T023023Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260618T150652Z UID:6498-1781809200-1781820000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Anarcho-Punk Launch with Seth Wheeler and Dunstan Bruce of Chumbawamba DESCRIPTION:Thursday\, June 18th\, 7pm onwards\, MayDay Rooms \n  \nMayDay Rooms is pleased to launch its new Anarcho-Punk archive — a growing collection tracing how anarcho-punk helped reignite anarchism in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s. \nAt a moment when anarchism appeared politically marginal and disconnected from everyday life\, anarcho-punk transformed it into a lived\, participatory culture rooted in DIY organisation\, direct action and collective experimentation. Through gigs\, zines\, benefit shows\, squats\, tape trading and self-organised networks\, a generation of young people translated anarchist ideas into something tangible\, immediate and accessible — building radical infrastructures that extended far beyond music itself. \nDrawing on flyers\, posters\, correspondence\, recordings\, zines and ephemera\, the archive explores how bands and activists created new forms of political participation outside traditional institutions\, mobilising around anti-fascism\, animal liberation\, anti-war organising\, squatting and mutual aid. Music became a conduit for political action — reconnecting culture\, friendship and everyday survival to collective struggle. \nTo mark the launch\, researcher Seth Wheeler will be joined by Dunstan Bruce of Chumbawamba for a conversation exploring punk’s impact on anarchist organising and radical politics during this period. The evening will also include archival material on display alongside a listening session of anarcho-punk recordings\, examining how these songs articulated political ideas\, built networks of solidarity and helped mobilise political support for a range of social movements. \nTickets here URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/anarcho-punk-launch-with-seth-wheeler-and-dunstan-bruce-of-chumbawamba/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/anarcho-launch-announce.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260624T150000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260624T200000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260601T023025Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030622Z UID:6500-1782313200-1782331200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Reclaim the City of London: MayDay Rooms and Rebel Tours workshop and walking tour DESCRIPTION:Join MayDay Rooms and Rebel Tours for a critical exploration of London’s financial district\, examining the banks and insurance companies complicit in financing weapons\, fossil fuels\, border violence and genocide\, while reflecting on the long histories of resistance to corporate power in the City. \nThe event will take place in two parts: an afternoon workshop and an evening walking tour. \nDuring the workshop (3–5 pm)\, we will delve into archival materials documenting struggles against privatisation\, financial power and the corporate takeover of public space in central London\, including Reclaim the Streets’ reissues of Financial Crimes\, produced around the mobilisation against the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Summit in Prague in September 2000\, and Evading Standards\, created for the 1999 “June 18th” Carnival Against Capital in the City of London. Together\, these materials offer a window into traditions of direct action\, counter-mapping and anti-capitalist organising that sought to disrupt the infrastructures of global finance. \nTickets for the workshop (3-5pm) here \nOn the walking tour (6–8 pm)\, we will trace the histories of financial institutions embedded in the City of London — many of which are deeply connected to the British Empire\, colonial extraction\, and enduring systems of global inequality. Moving through the banking district\, we will examine how contemporary finance continues to shape political violence\, ecological collapse and policed migration regimes across the world. With an eye to the archival workshop\, we will discuss the possibilities for resistance today. \nTickets for the walking tour (6-8 pm) here URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/reclaim-the-city-of-london-mayday-rooms-and-rebel-tours-workshop-and-walking-tour/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Gatherings,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260624T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260624T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260611T023004Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030622Z UID:6962-1782327600-1782333000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:MAGAZINE LAUNCH: WEEKEND DESCRIPTION:COME AND CELEBRATE THE LAUNCH OF A BOLD NEW POETRY MAGAZINE AT HOUSMANS. FEATURING LUKE ROBERTS\, HARRIET ROSE AND OTHERS. \nThis is a free event\, please book your tickets below. Feel free to BYOB. 🙂 \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/magazine-launch-weekend/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260626T180000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260626T180000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260609T022946Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030624Z UID:6860-1782496800-1782496800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Research is Poetry DESCRIPTION:Research is Poetry: Knots presents our first night of Research is Poetry\, hosted at Pelican House on June 26th from 6-9 pm.  This will be fundraising for our Co-op registering fee\, so we are able to do more noise nights\, develop long form productions\, and host community workshops\, from an art-workers led perspective. If you’re interested in learning more about the Knots Co-operative\, please email us! Research is Poetry is a peer-to-peer learning event inviting Knots collaborators\, alumn\, and audiences to bring in essays\, slides\, poetry\, photography\, and other creative forms of research. We invite you to discuss history\, current events\, politics\, art\, and culture through a class-conscious lens using lived experience\, theory\, and research.  In an era of AI summaries and digital slop\, let’s remember that research is poetry\, and needs us to contextualise it.  Lineup to be released. Submit your presentation here: https://forms.gle/u3RpfkGELYPFkg1k8 Ticket link: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/36941/research-is-poetry URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/research-is-poetry/ LOCATION:Pelican House\, 144 Cambridge Heath Road\, E1 5QJ CATEGORIES:Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/6860_image_finalrip_0.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260626T183000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260626T183000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260603T142930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260604T170723Z UID:6530-1782498600-1782498600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Club Commons x Feminist Library Book Launch DESCRIPTION:Join us for an intergenerational queer conversation weaving together archival memory\, nightlife history\, and collective futures.  \nThis evening brings together three icons who shaped London’s lesbian and queer scenes from the 1980s and 90s to today: Katherine Griffiths\, DJ and researcher who participated in grassroots lesbian nightlife in London through the 80s and 90s; Yvonne Taylor of Sistermatic\, the pioneering Black lesbian sound system; and Gin of Nite Dykez\, DJ\, promoter\, and event producer\, all of whom feature in the book Club Commons: Moving Bodies to Grow Movements in Queer Nightlife and Beyond by Anjali Prashar-Savoie\, out now with Velocity Press. \nAlongside the talk\, the naked souls oracle will be present to invoke queer clairvoyants of the past to help us resist gentrification of the heart and mind in the present. Drawing on histories unearthed from the 56A Infoshop and Southwark Archives\, Naked Souls is a deck of oracle cards/fortunes/spells\, that invokes obscure queer histories\, to chart alternative maps for our futures. It is playful and sometimes frivolous\, existing in a makeshift between poetry and instruction. \nOriginal archival flyers from the 1980s and 90s will be on display throughout the evening. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/club-commons-x-feminist-library-book-launch-14/ LOCATION:The Feminist Library\, 161 Sumner Road\, SE15 6JL CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/6454_image_1_89.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260626T183000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260626T210000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260611T023007Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030625Z UID:6964-1782498600-1782507600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:POETRY READING: ELLEN RENTON LAUNCHES 'YOU AND YOURS' DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening of poetry to mark the launch of Ellen Renton’s new pamphlet. You and Yours: \nSwinging across timelines and from the mundane to the surreal\, You and Yours is a study in grief: how it exists beyond seismic losses in the stories we inherit\, in shifting friendships\, and in uncertain landscapes. These poems celebrate the self as a malleable entity under the influence of all the lives it encounters\, and balance the pain that characterises the loss of a profound connection with the wonder of having it in the first place. \nAbout Ellen Renton: \nEllen Renton is a writer from Edinburgh. Her work has been published in journals including Poetry London\, Gutter\, and Magma\, and she released her debut pamphlet An Eye For An Eye For An Eye with Stewed Rhubarb Press. Her work in theatre has included the one-woman show Within Sight (2020)\, Disciples (2023)\, and PALS (in development in 2026). She has released an EP and the album My Noise is Nothing with electronic musician Lord of the Isles. She holds an MA in Creative Writing: Poetry from the University of East Anglia. \nPlease note this is an externally organised event. Any inquires should be made to: ellenmrenton@hotmail.co.uk \nTICKETS: \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/poetry-reading-ellen-renton-launches-you-and-yours/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260704T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260704T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260604T142920Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260604T170923Z UID:6591-1783191600-1783197000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:DREAMS AND GHOSTS WITH DOMINIC PETTMAN & EVERYDAY ANALYSIS DESCRIPTION:Join us for a conversation between two of the most exciting theorists of the digital realm\, Dominic Pettman and Alfie Bown \nWe are delighted to welcome our friends Everyday Analysis back to Housmans for what promises to be another stimulating reflection on the agonies and aporias of contemporary culture. \nThis time we have Dominic Pettman joining us\, to talk about some of the recurrent ideas that animate\,\nhis recent publications\, The Forgetting of Dreams: Selected Oneiric Residues (published by Everyday Analysis) and Ghosting: On Disappearance (Polity\, 2025). \nDominic is emerging as one of our major theorists of the digital world. His work is especially accomplished at interrogating modes of disconnection\, loneliness and alienation that could only really exist now; in an epoch almost entirely mediated through a digital reflection of itself. \nblurbs: \nThe Forgetting of Dreams: Selected Oneiric Residues \nWe process our lives through riddles\, mysteries\, ciphers\, and enigmas – but we hesitate to share these with friends and family. In times gone by\, as for Freud\, dreams were considered a key to cosmic secrets. Today\, in all sorts of ways – both subtle and not – we are discouraged from sharing the content of our dreams\, unless we happen to be indulging in that most anachronistic ritual: lying prostrate on the psychoanalyst’s couch. Anywhere else\, an anecdote that begins\, “Last night I dreamed . . .” is usually met with a sigh and a defensive glazing of the eyes. In our over-burdened world\, any sharing of dreams is always already perceived as over-sharing. Contrary to this\, Pettman argues – the more we share tales of our isolated nocturnal journeys\, the better chance we have to understand the topography of our collective conundrum.  \nGhosting: On Disappearance \nAbandonment is as old as time\, but ghosting is a modern twist on this ancient experience. It translates this age-old phenomenon into our modern world of screens\, delete buttons and blocking options. Ghosting is not only an unpleasant experience\, or cowardly act\, but a symptom of our increasingly spectral – that is\, mediated and virtual – relationship to the world. The overabundance of new modes of communication has invited an almost infinite number of contacts and conversations. At the same time\, it has also offered an unprecedented opportunity for ignoring messages from others. And just as we invented the car crash when we invented automobiles\, we also encouraged ghosting when we created the internet. \nGhosting creates an empty space in our minds: a space faithfully tracing the silhouette of the one who ghosted us. But unlike traditional ghosts\, today’s ghosters simply disappear\, leaving behind a form of haunting that is closer to mourning: mourning for someone who is not in fact dead. In putting a kind of preemptive mourning into our everyday affairs\, ghosting tells us much about the current human relationship – or non-relationship – to a shared sense of mortality\, purpose\, and spirit. \nThis book – the first sustained analysis of ghosting – traces the source of this vexed experience to\, and through\, our current media ecology\, technological networks\, political landscape\, collective psychology\, romantic mantras\, and deep sense of social neglect. \nDominic will be joined by the brilliant Alfie Bown\, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Culture and Technology at King’s College London. Alfie is the author of numerous brilliant interventions into the worlds of digital studies\, Marxism and psychoanalysis. His most recent books are Alfie Bown\, Post-Comedy (Polity\, 2024) and Dream Lovers: Capitalism and the Gamification of Relationships (London: Pluto\, 2022). \nThis is a free event\, but you can reserve copies of the books through our ticket portal. \nShare this: \nShare on X (Opens in new window) \nX\nShare on Facebook (Opens in new window) \nFacebook\nShare on Insta (Opens in new window) \nInsta \nLike this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/dreams-and-ghosts-with-dominic-pettman-everyday-analysis/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260711T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260711T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260602T022924Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030644Z UID:6518-1783796400-1783801800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: KILL BILLIONAIRE with ANDERS LUSTGARTEN DESCRIPTION:Kill Billionaire: The Riotous Revenge Caper You’ve Been Waiting for Kill Billionaire is the best sort of political thriller: gripping\, revenge fueled and unapologetically radical in its politics\, discussing climate change and the elite. \nWhen her home is destroyed in wildfires\, fourteen-year-old Australian outback genius Kayla Connolly decides to hunt down the culprits of climate change: billionaires. She teams up with Mr P\, a giant ex-soldier from Tuvalu whose home is being flooded by rising sea levels. Together\, they find ingenious ways to kill a property developer building on protected wetlands and a mining company CEO poisoning the earth with toxic chemicals. They also find an unexpected ally in Nancy\, a wealthy elderly woman with a shocking past. \nThe trio’s mission soon develops a life of its own\, taking them first to California to crack billionaire tech bros and then to London for superrich oil executives\, spawning a global movement along the way. In pursuit are the FBI and Detective Sergeant Kate Anderson of Scotland Yard\, but Kate is having doubts about whether Kayla is even in the wrong. Will Kayla be able to stay ahead of the game and pull off one final\, remarkable hit? \nWe are delighted that Anders Lustgarten has chosen Housmans as the launch pad for this propulsive\, daringly political work of thriller fiction! \nHe will conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-kill-billionaire-with-anders-lustgarten-2/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260718T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260718T210000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260604T022926Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030649Z UID:6585-1784401200-1784408400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HOUSING READING SERIES: HUW LEMMEY IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIET JACQUES DESCRIPTION:Aren’t you just SICK of gay fiction about nice boys just trying their best? BOREDof the sort of cosy political satire that makes Alistair Campbell chuckle? \nFINALLY! After years of waiting\, Huw Lemmey’s cult classics are back in print::CHUBZ: The Demonization of My Working Arse and RED TORY: My Corbyn Chemsex Hell\,two novels of terrifying predictive force and eye-watering sexual potency\, an antidoteto the grimly worthy bourgeois queer novels and tedious political fiction of our time.Lemmey’s novels depict the loopy political world of the past decade with the powerof a vicious Cassandra\, imagining a world of Brexit and Trump\, PM’s Boris and Nigel\,years before they came to pass. Set within a London gripped between authoritarianismand a genuine rupture in the healthy sexual order of things\, CHUBZ and RED TORYremain the sleeper hits of our time\, quietly seeding disquiet and insurrection into theover-stimulated lizard brain and under-stimulated rectal ampulla of the GREAT British Public. \nObscene? Potentially. Criminal? Maybe. Sick? Probably. But worth buying? UNDENIABLY! \nJoin the author LIVE and IN FULL FLESHY PERSONHOOD at Housmans\, in conversationwith the esteemed political-cultural powerhouse Juliet Jacques\, to discuss these arse-warping\,mind-bending SATIRES FOR OUR TIME. Run\, don’t walk! \nThis is a free event\, but if you would like to reserve a copy of the book(s)\, you can saw so through the ticket portal \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/housing-reading-series-huw-lemmey-in-conversation-with-juliet-jacques/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260721T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260721T210000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260618T030725Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030651Z UID:7387-1784660400-1784667600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES: JD HOWSE DESCRIPTION:It starts with the Buggery Act of 1533. Or perhaps the arrest of Eleanor Rykener. Or perhaps the execution of James Pratt and John Smith. The truism goes that queer people have always been here\, but for as long as there have been written records of us those records have dealt with our suppression\, criminalisation\, and punishment. How can we construct a sense of our own history when its wilful erasure has been violently enacted time and time again across the centuries?  \nComposed over a ten year period\, Noises Again is a hugely ambitious and staggeringly complex literary collage that blurs the lines between literature and visual art. Stringing together scraps of text from history books and pornographic novels\, newspaper clippings and love letters\, drunk sexts and court records\, JD Howse explores the buried\, obscure ephemera of gay history and returns with a text by turns violent\, tragic\, erotic\, and confounding. This is a truly singular book\, defying characterisation\, description\, and logic.  \nOUR POETS JD Howse is a writer who works across poetry\, prose\, and collage. His debut collection Just Meat Not God was published in 2022 and he has published a number of pamphlets and artist’s books. He has a BA in English and an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway\, University of London\, and is the curator of Permeable Barrier.  \nAzad Ashim Sharma is the director of the87press and Editor at Philosophy and Global Affairs\, the CLR James Journal\, and The Hythe Review. He is a PhD Candidate in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College\, University of London. He is the author of three poetry collections\, most recently\, Boiled Owls (Nightboat Books / Out-Spoken Press\, 2024) which was shortlisted for the Jhalak Poetry Prize. His second collection Ergastulum: Vignettes of Lost Time (Broken Sleep Books\, 2022) was the recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Guillén Award. In July 2025\, Azad was inaugurated as the Poet Laureate of the Caribbean Philosophical Association. He lives in South London. \nCalliope Michail is a poet and translator\, currently undertaking a PhD at King’s College\, London. She is the Poetry Editor of Stillpoint Journal\, and her work has appeared in various publications. \nVJ René is the author of two pamphlets of poetry\, Scavengers (Salo Press\, 2021) and HYDRA (Marble Poetry\, 2020). Recent critical and creative works appear in Victorian Popular Fictions Journal\, Forum Journal and the Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies.​ \nOliver Zarandi is a writer and filmmaker. His debut\, Soft Fruit In The Sun (Hexus Press)\, was described as being like ‘getting a hug from David Cronenberg.’ His follow-up\, Body Horror\, was shortlisted for the Prototype Prize in 2024. He is currently in development on his first film\, Skinny Boy. \nThis is a free event but please RSVP below. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/housmans-poetry-series-jd-howse/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260722T184500 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260722T210000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260605T022958Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030653Z UID:6660-1784745900-1784754000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: FLOYDS GONE by Jacob A. Smith DESCRIPTION:Come celebrate the launch of a brilliant and daring new short story collection published by eidolon ink \nJacob A. Smith is launching his debut story collection\, Floyds Gone\, at Housmans Bookshop! Please join us on July 22nd to celebrate the release of his book. All author and publisher profits from the evening go to Medical Aid for Palestinians and Lifeshare. Free entry + doors open at 6:45pm \n“When you have them pixelated\, magic occurs. You become the imagination of the technology. Like you’re watching the technology dream.” \n‘A man plans to disappear after his partner becomes pregnant. Films play on loop in a countryside home filled with waste. A violent video appears on an online server where people plot and rate hoaxes. An employee stalks his boss to protect her from a threatening man. Pictures of a burning building are nominated for a major prize. An empty boat returns to shore and the photographer on board has disappeared. \nThese are some of the unsettling\, vivid images that accumulate throughout Floyds Gone\, Jacob A. Smith’s debut story collection. Inhabiting the uncertain space between images\, dreams and reality\, Smith’s stories probe the strange data of our mediated lives. Built around moments of arrival\, departure\, and change\, and a recurring name that may refer to more than one man\, the stories of Floyds Gone are all powerful screenshots of life lived in a world of multiplying images and vanishing selfhood.’ \nPlease note this is an externally organised event. Any inquiries should be made to ‘hello@eidolon.ink’ \nBook a free ticket below\, or reserve a copy of the book. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-floyds-gone-by-jacob-a-smith/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260723T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260723T210000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260613T022936Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030654Z UID:7034-1784833200-1784840400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES: JAMES BYRNE DESCRIPTION:Join us for another evening of cutting edge poetry. \nFor this instalment\, we are delighted to welcome the legendary James Byrne to the shop to launch his latest collection The Banality of Power (Broken Sleep Books\, 2026) Joining him we have the incredible Ziba Karbassi and are delight to welcome back long time friend of Housmans Stephen Watts. \nOur Poets: \nZiba Karbassi—born in Tabriz\, northwestern Iran in 1969—began writing poems from an early age. Her first book in Persian was published in her twenties and\, since then\, she has published regularly\, with more than twelve books now available\, both in her mother tongue and internationally. Forced to leave Iran in the early 1980s with her mother and younger sisters\, she has since lived most of her life in London. She is widely regarded as one of the leading poets currently writing in Persian and\, to date\, her work has been translated into more than fifteen languages. Karbassi’s densely revolutionary lyrical writing achieves an intensity of space that is almost unique in contemporary poetry\, melting the valencies of breath into the depths of meaning. She has performed her work widely across Europe and America. She was Chairperson of the Association of Iranian Writers in Exile\, 2002 to 2004 and in 2009 she was awarded the Golden Apple Poetry Prize (Azerbaijan) and served as chair of Exiled Writers Ink from 2012 to 2014 and\, in 2012\, was chosen by the Contemporary Poetics Research Centre (CPRC\, Birkbeck\, University of London) as one of fifteen revolutionary poets in a worldwide survey of published writings from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. From 2019 to 2021\, Karbassi was a director of the Iranian PEN Centre in Exile\, and she continues to work as a committee member and editor with Exiled Writers Ink in London\, always passionately and actively committing her life and work for poetry. \nStephen Watts was born in 1952. His father came from Stoke-on-Trent and his mother’s family from villages high in the Italian and Swiss Alps. He spent very vital time—in place of university—in northern Scotland\, especially the island of North Uist but\, since 1977\, has lived mainly in the richly multilingual communities of Whitechapel in East London. Geographies and location (as also their negative theologies) are urgent to his life and work. Recent books include Ancient Sunlight (Enitharmon\, 2014; reprinted 2020) and Republic of Dogs / Republic of Birds (Test Centre\, 2016; Prototype\, 2020). A 16mm\, 70-minute experimental film—The Republics—was made from the latter by Huw Wahl\, 2019. A collected Journeys Across Breath: Poems 1975-2005 was published by Prototype Publishing in 2022 (reprinted 2025) and A Book of Drawn Poems came out with Joe Hales’s Sylvia imprint in 2025. Watts is also a translator\, working closely with exiled poets and—inter alia—has co-translated Pages from the Biography of an Exile by the Iraqi poet Adnan al-Sayegh (Arc Publications\, 2014)\, Syrian poet Golan Haji’s A Tree Whose Name I Don’t Know (A Midsummer Night’s Press\, 2017) and Reza Baraheni’s Lilith (Tenement Press\, 2023).  His translation research has been the subject of two exhibitions: Swirl Of Words / Swirl Of Worlds\, PEER Gallery (Hoxton\, London)\, and for which he edited a book of that title\, and Explosion Of Words with the Swiss artist Hannes Schüpbach\, which celebrated his 2000 page Bibliography of Modern Poetry in English Translation\, at the Straühof Gallery (Zurich) and Nunnery Gallery (Bow\, London)\, in 2021 and 2022 respectively. \nPoet\, editor and translator\, James Byrne was born near London in 1977. His most recent poetry collection is The Banality of Power\, which received a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.  Other recent books include Nightsongs for Gaia: New and Selected Poems Arc Publications\, 2025) and The Overmind (Broken Sleep Books\, 2024). He has co-translated and co-edited Bones Will Crow\, the first anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry to be published in English (Arc\, 2012) and I am a Rohingya\, the first book of Rohingya refugee poems in English (Arc 2019) after spending some time at Cox’s Bazar refugee camp. His publications in translation include working with Libyan poet Ashur Etwebi (Five Scenes from a Failed Revolution\, 2022)\, and Rohingya poet Ro Mehrooz (Poems Written Through Barbed-Wire Fences\, 2024). Forrest Gander writes that his poetry is ‘like gulping fire-water shots of the world’. The Banality of Power\, launched at this event\, speaks back to aggressors\, corporate power\, beginning with Nazi Adolf Einchmann on trial in a glass cage\, asking: who are the Eichmanns now and how we find a way to move forward in a fractured society and form community.    \nThis is a free event\, but please RSVP below. Feel free to BYOB. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/housmans-poetry-series-james-byrne/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260729T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260729T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260604T022927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030659Z UID:6586-1785351600-1785357000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: INTERNATIONAL FREAK ROBIN FARQUHARSON AND THE DREAM OF PSYCHEDELIC REVOLT DESCRIPTION:M. SYD ROSEN AND OWEN HATHERLEY DISCUSS THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF COUNTERCULTURAL ICON ROBIN FARQUHARSON \n‘Rosen is an intergenerational talent. That is\, he seems to move effortlessly across decades\, from dark matter to illumination; gleaning\, recovering\, challenging\, making new.’ \n Iain Sinclair \nBorn in 1930 into a privileged South African family\, Robin Farquharson was part of a new wave of intellectuals tasked with reimagining society in the wake of World War II—until a phone call from God brought everything crashing down. \nUnder the gaze of the secret police and his own mounting paranoia\, Farquharson fled to Swinging London and tried to reinvent himself as a countercultural guru. Along the way\, he helped to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games\, authored an unclassifiable memoir of queer street life\, and climbed to the top of the mysterious White Panther Party. Then\, just days after founding the pioneering Mental Patients Union\, flames ripped through his home and Farquharson was gone. \nDrawing on meticulous archival research and extensive new interviews\, International Freak marshals an extraordinary cast of characters in order to tell Farquharson’s story for the first time. Equal parts experimental biography\, social history\, and psychedelic true crime\, this is a portrait of a singular man and the world he sought desperately to transform. \nWe are delighted to welcome M. Syd Rosen (author of this utterly compelling biography) and Owen Hatherley to Housmans to discuss the life of this truly remarkable hero of counter cultural Britain. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-international-freak-robin-farquharson-and-the-dream-of-psychedelic-revolt/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260818T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260818T203000 DTSTAMP:20260623T041929 CREATED:20260605T023004Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260623T030706Z UID:6663-1787079600-1787085000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:'FLAMBOYANCE' WITH JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER SCALPELLO DESCRIPTION:JACK PARLETT AND CELEBRATED POET PETER SCALPELLO DISCUSS ‘FLAMBOYANCE’ AND HOW IT IGNITES EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES\, FROM ART AND ENTERTAINMENT TO RITUAL AND PROTEST. \nFlamboyance is Jack Parlett’s follow up to his acclaimed Fire Island (A Housmans bestseller of 2022). This new book has all the qualities one has come to expect of Jack’s work; big hearted and erudite in equal measure. \nFlamboyance ignites every aspect of our lives\, from art and entertainment to ritual and protest. The word conjures exuberance and unashamed passion; in thought\, expression and dress. Yet historically the term ‘flamboyant’ has been reserved for the over-the-top and the outré\, invoked at times as a pejorative innuendo or worse. \nIn his fascinating new book\, Jack Parlett argues for its value as an empowering and creative force\, illuminating the ways in which flamboyance is a fundamental aspect of human conduct that both marks and transcends difference. \nTaking in an eclectic array of examples\, from Gothic architecture to the orange flowers of Dungeness\, and populated by figures such as Oscar Wilde\, James Baldwin\, Elton John\, Amy Winehouse\, Lil Nas X and Chappell Roan\, this is a book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance. And having both aspired to it and rejected it\, Jack recounts his personal relationship to flamboyance while also finding new meanings of the word\, exploring its surprises and contradictions\, and reconnecting with its radical power. \nOUR SPEAKERS: \nJack Parlettis the author of three books: The Poetics of Cruising: Queer Visual Culture from Whitman to Grindr (a monograph with University of Minnesota Press)\, Same Blue\, Different You (a poetry pamphlet with Broken Sleep Books)\, and Fire Island: A Queer History (Granta)\, which was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2023. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker\, Document Journal\, BBC Culture\, Boston Review\, Literary Hub and Poetry London. \nPeter Scalpello is a writer and psychotherapist from Glasgow\, based in London. Their second book\, Mirrorstage\, was published this year with Cipher Press. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nShare this: \n Share on X (Opens in new window) \n X Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) \n Facebook Share on Insta (Opens in new window) \n Insta \n Like this:Like Loading… URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/flamboyance-with-jack-parlett-in-conversation-with-peter-scalpello/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR