eroding empire

ARTIFICIAL GO + NO PEELING
2026-05-13 19:30 (Europe/London) | New River Studios, 199 Eade Road, N1 4DN
Upset The Rhythm presents…
ARTIFICIAL GO
NO PEELING
Wednesday 13 May
New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN
7.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/P1af2a986141
ARTIFICIAL GO hail from Cincinnati, USA, and bring the beat to life with their New / No / Whatever Wave weirdness! Last year they released ‘Musical Chairs’, building on 2024’s ‘Hopscotch Fever’, an album of ten existential post-punk chamber pop tracks. Recorded at Lambda Research and the haunted attic of the band’s house, the core trio of Angie Willcutt, Micah Wu, and Cole Gilfilen have traded the sparse jangle of their debut for a broader, fuller sound. ‘Musical Chairs’ deftly meshes the angular excitability of ‘Hopscotch Fever’ with a spectral warmth and expensiveness able to encompass acoustic guitars, Wu’s almost metaphysical funk bass lines, tape loops and blips and bleeps, a guest spot by Eric Dietrich (of The Drin and Sorry Eric) on saxophone, and Gilfilen’s hip moving boom-bap drumming add to the excitement.
In Willcutt’s hands, the struggles, and at times terrors, of our current age are playfully subverted with agile world play and dynamic vocalization that moves from sweet and dreamy to cartoonishly exaggerated as she charts an emotional course through such topics as the difficulties of playing the role of “woman” in a misogynist world (“Playing Puppet”) or the injustice of anthropocentric hierarchy (“Tightrope Walker”). Musical Chairs is serious music not meant to be taken too seriously, a playful act of resistance, a meditation on the good and bad of this world, and ultimately a remarkable statement on the continuing growth of Artificial Go.
https://artificialgo.bandcamp.com/
NO PEELING formed in 2025 as a studio project by five friends in the fertile Nottingham DIY underground. September 2025’s self-titled EP was the perfect introduction to the No Peeling universe. Bandcamp Daily picked it as an Essential Release, calling it “a clanging collection of get-in-get-out egg punk that doesn’t ask for more than 10 minutes of your time and overdelivers on every front”. It managed to cram a lifetime of idea-nuggets into seven songs that rarely exceeded the minute mark. A blast of enthusiasm and hyperactivity, the EP was the audio equivalent of a barrage firework: exhilarating and energising. Whilst the first EP was completed before the band had played live; the forthcoming EP2 hits a little differently.
EP2 has the garage punk clatter and sparkly efficiency of their debut but is somehow faster and weirder. The guitar and synth seem to be engaged in a constant (playful) fight, tumbling further and further away from the song structure being held together (and propelled) by one of the tightest rhythm sections around. The scrawl and skronk might occasionally recall No Wave but those grooves are locked down. This all provides the perfect foundation for the wry, dry observations of Sophie Diver. From pasta post and fluff-clad delinquents to clingfilm catastrophes and poor working conditions, all modern life’s bases are covered and emerge miraculously from a magic-eye explosion of clangs, thwacks and bloops.
https://nopeeling.bandcamp.com/album/no-peeling
https://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk/

An Evening of Techno-Negativity with MayDay rooms and Thomas Dekeyser
2026-05-13 19:00 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1AE
Join us for an evening diving into the long histories of technological resistance, with MayDay rooms and Thomas Dekeyser.
At 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.
Which 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.

'Bored Stiff: the punk 'zine and scene that refused to die' an evening with Terry Macalister, Gaye Advert and Emilia Elfrida
2026-05-13 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
FREE ENTRY BUT PLEASE RSVP USING THE FROM AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE
This event celebrates a Bored Stiff book half a century after a fanzine of that name burst into life at the height of the punk “explosion.”
Original creator Terry Macalister has brought together in contemporary time a group of musicians, photographers and club owners who made the punk scene what it was then and what it has become now.
Laid out in the original way using marker pens and manual typewriters, Bored Stiff, the book, is a totally original and authentic window into what academics have called a “significant cultural intervention.”
With the help of Martin Hand – a graphic designer, Bored Stiff contains interviews with band members from the likes of The Adverts, Penetration and the Menstrual Cramps as well as folk such as Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington who created the Roxy and Vortex punk clubs.
There are also copies in this new book of the original fanzine which include live reviews from the late 1970s of the Sex Pistols, 999 and Iggy Pop and harnesses the raw energy of the early days of punk.
Gaye Advert, the bassist of the Adverts, will be at the book launch to talk about her role in the early punk scene along with Emilia Elfrida, vocalist and songwriter of today’s self-styled lesbian punk band, the Menstrual Cramps.
They will discuss why punk happened, what it means to them and why it has survived albeit in different form 50 years on. Terry and Martin will explain how they put together the new version of Bored Stiff and why they insist on an analogue production that eschews the superficial glamour of the digital print world.
Terry Macalister is the original creator of Bored Stiff and the author of the new compilation of old and new material. Excited by the success of the early fanzine, Terry went on to spend his life in national journalism, most notably as a specialist editor on The Guardian.
He is the author of several books including Crude Britannia (Pluto Press) and Polar Opposites (Guardian ebooks), executive producer of The Oil Machine film and co-producer of the forthcoming Earth Mother documentary. He is the founder of a Cambridge-based protest choir and sees himself now more as artist and activist than journalist.
FREE ENTRY BUT PLEASE RSVP USING THE FROM AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE

BOOK LAUNCH: THE ASSET CLASS: HETTIE O'BRIEN IN CONVERSATION WITH DAN HANCOX
2026-05-12 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
‘PART WAKE-UP CALL, PART FINANCIAL THRILLER’ (SHAMI CHAKRABARTI) The Asset Class is an equal parts thrilling and enraging work of vital
financial journalism, lifting the lid on the relentlessly destructive force of private equity. We are thrilled to welcome the book’s author Hettie O’Brien to Housmans to be interviewed about the book by celebrated journalist Dan Hancox.
A thrilling, eye-opening investigation into private equity, a secretive wing of the finance industry that is so relentlessly destructive, it could have been created to undermine our way of life. You don’t know their names, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals, nurseries and care homes, the media you consume and the companies you work for. They even own the tools your union uses to fight back. Business is a contest – and they say their people are built to win. But when does competition become a struggle to the death? For decades, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover story: that this is merely the ‘creative destruction’ essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they’re dismantling everything that made our economies work.
In The Asset Class, reporter Hettie O’Brien penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales, she follows the money, the ideological roots and the trail of destruction. What she finds is chilling: private equity isn’t just reshaping the economy – it’s selling out the foundations of Western society. The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back.
Hettie will be interviewed by Dan Hancox, Guardian journalist and author of Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World (Verso, 2024). They will talk about the book for about 45 minutes followed by a q&a.
To avoid disappointment, please do book a ticket ahead of the event.
As 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.
If 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.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00

Feminist Fightback reading group: Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights
2026-05-11 19:00 (Europe/London) | Vibast Community Centre, 167 Old Street, EC1V 9NH
Join Feminist Fightback for our next reading group book: Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights
Sex workers Juno Mac and Molly Smith bring a fresh perspective to questions that have long been contentious. Speaking from a growing global sex worker rights movement, and situating their argument firmly within wider questions of migration, work, feminism, and resistance to white supremacy, they make it clear that anyone committed to working towards justice and freedom should be in support of the sex worker rights movement.
The book is 288 pages long. We will discuss this book in 4 sessions:
Monday 9th February (56 pages):
Introduction
Chapter 1: Sex
Chapter 2: Work
Monday 9th March (53 pages):
Chapter 3: A Victorian Hangover: Great Britain
Chapter 4: Prison Nation: The U.S., South Africa, and Kenya
Monday 13th April (50 pages)
Chapter 5: The People’s Home: Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and Canada
Chapter 6: Charmed Circle: Germany, Netherlands, and Nevada
Monday 11th May (31 pages)
Chapter 7: No Silver Cullet Aotearoa (New Zealand) and New South Wales
Conclusion
Please come having read the relevant chapters.
Copies available for sale at The People’s Letters (E2 9RA), a sex worker supportive bookstore.
The event will be at Vibast Community Centre, 267 Old Street, London EC1V 9NH.
It is about 3 minutes walking from Old Street station, or the 55 and 243 buses stop just in front of the Centre. The venue is accessible and has accessible toilets.
Please arrive at 7.00 for 7.15 start; we will finish at 8.30pm. All genders welcome!

The General Strike in Southwark – a history walk with MayDay Rooms and Past tense
2026-05-10 14:00 (Europe/London) | Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1AE
Come to Elephant and Castle to learn about the 1926 General Strike in Southwark.
A FREE radical history walk in collaboration with Past Tense around the Elephant & Castle.
100 years on from the 1926 General Strike, we will reflect on how trade unionists organised the strike on the ground in this important area of South London. How was the strike spread? Who was involved? And how did the state, the Council and the police respond?
We will discuss mass picketing, workers’ autonomy, riots, the burning of buses and police repression.
No Tickets necessary
Meet at 2pm on Sunday 10th May, by the Obelisk at St George’s Circus, SE1

Anarchist Breakfast Club
2026-05-10 11:00 (Europe/London) | Hackney Downs Park, , E5 8NP
Hackney Anarchists are back conquering bread 🍞
Every second Sunday of the month find us at the centre of Hackney downs cooking together, sharing food and discussing politics.
Our food is free to share with whomever might need it or want it. Everyone is welcome, no questions asked.
We are hoping to share food and its preparation with those who want to join. Come at 11 to help us prep and cook. This is also a joyful way to have political conversations and develop mutual aid tools.
This is a shared process and everyone can get involved however they want. We also welcome ingredients, leads for food sourcing, recipe suggestions (vegan), or just your company.
🍲 Abolish the bourgeoise butter bean! We feed ourselves 🏴

Pitch Invaders III Football Tournament
2026-05-10 00:00 - 23:59 UTC | Old Spotted Dog Ground, Upton Lane, E7 9NP
Pitch Invaders Tournament is back and kicking
All dayer at the Clapton CFC football grounds.
More info coming soon

Punk Cabaret of Chaos
2026-05-09 19:00 (Europe/London) | New River Studios, 199 Eade Road, N1 4DN
House of Hadda showcasing the best DIY Punk Cabaret!
Featuring:
Pete Bentham and the Dinner Ladies
Anoise
anarchistwood
Rites of Hadda
SAVE THE DATE
Advance tix on WeGotTickets

Kickboxing & Anarchism
2026-05-09 11:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | , 31 – 33 Dalston Lane, Hackney, E8 3DF
​​️ NEXT CAFE ️
Join us next SATURDAY 9th of MAY between 2pm and 8pm at Halk Evi, 33 Dalston Lane E8 3DF for a kickboxing workshop and an Anarchism talk by Čengić Community Defence is a London based community gym with left wing, feminist, and anti-oppressive politics. Bring comfy clothes if you want to get involved with the workshop!
We will also have free STI testing onsite & the opportunity to sign up to an online digital PrEP service provided by the amazing folks at @thelovetankcic
If you would like to get involved on the day, we start cooking from 11am – the more the merrier! Feel free to bring along any food that would otherwise go to waste and get in touch if you have a food link up for us
From 2pm onwards we’ll have:
Pay-what-you-can’ food & drinks
Infoshop: zines, books, posters, stickers & more
Free shop & clothes swap
Free binders donated by @genderswap
(limited sizes available)
The space is wheelchair accessible (through Tyssen Street entrance)
[Image description: The background is of pink and yellow rays of colour spreading throughout the poster. The rays are coming from behind a shadowed image of two people kickboxing. Overlayed is information about the Cafe & timings in black text. The poster also contains logos for both DSC & cengic community defence on the top right and bottom right, respectively.]

SOLD OUT: REVOLUTIONARY FORGIVENESS: D. K. RENTON in conversation with Barnaby Raine
2026-05-08 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
THIS EVENT IT NOW SOLD OUT. TO BE ADDED TO A WAITING LIST PLEASE EMAIL SHOP@HOUSMANS.COM Housmans are delighted to welcome the legendary theorist, thinker and lawyer D.K. Renton to launch what we believe may be one of the most original, and vital, works of left wing thought to appear in recent years. He will be joined in conversation by the scholar and journalist Barnaby Raine.
Forgiveness is necessary in the long fight for a just world—but it is only possible after the oppressed are victorious
For too long, revolutionary social movements have reconciled to defeat. We must start winning again. Forgiveness is a crucial strategy for remaking the world, to secure and sustain victories, to transform one-time enemies into friends. With deep political commitment, D. K. Renton makes the case for forgiveness—but of a particularly unruly sort. Tracing the tragic abuse of Eleanor Marx and Jane Wells, the mistakes of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye, Renton urges us to forgive, but only after tearing down the citadels of the rich.
Revolutionary Forgiveness connects collective struggle with the individual’s search for justice to demand a better future for all—when the oppressed will be magnanimous in power, and even former oppressors will be free.
“Renton rescues ‘forgiveness’ from the pulpit and returns it, bloodied but lucid, to history.”
— Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism
As 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.
If 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.
THIS EVENT IT NOW SOLD OUT. TO BE ADDED TO A WAITING LIST PLEASE EMAIL SHOP@HOUSMANS.COM
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BOOK LAUNCH: REVOLUTIONARY FORGIVENESS: D. K. RENTON in conversation with Barnaby Raine
2026-05-08 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Housmans are delighted to welcome the legendary theorist, thinker and lawyer D.K. Renton to launch what we believe may be one of the most original, and vital, works of left wing thought to appear in recent years. He will be joined in conversation by the scholar and journalist Barnaby Raine.
Forgiveness is necessary in the long fight for a just world—but it is only possible after the oppressed are victorious
For too long, revolutionary social movements have reconciled to defeat. We must start winning again. Forgiveness is a crucial strategy for remaking the world, to secure and sustain victories, to transform one-time enemies into friends. With deep political commitment, D. K. Renton makes the case for forgiveness—but of a particularly unruly sort. Tracing the tragic abuse of Eleanor Marx and Jane Wells, the mistakes of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye, Renton urges us to forgive, but only after tearing down the citadels of the rich.
Revolutionary Forgiveness connects collective struggle with the individual’s search for justice to demand a better future for all—when the oppressed will be magnanimous in power, and even former oppressors will be free.
“Renton rescues ‘forgiveness’ from the pulpit and returns it, bloodied but lucid, to history.”
— Richard Seymour, author of Disaster Nationalism
As 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.
If 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.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.

Punk Spirit! book talk with author John Malkin
2026-05-08 19:00 (Europe/London) | Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
‘Punk Spirit! An Oral History of Punk Rock, Solidarity and Liberation’ is an oral history that brings together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones, Gang of Four, Crass, Propagandhi, The Slits, Bad Religion, Shelter, Rebel Riot, Blackfire, and many others. John Malkin ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk artists and spiritual teachers from around the world and highlights intelligent, thoughtful, and humorous discussions on liberation, spirituality, and living freely. Chapters dive deeply into many interconnected realms of punk such as the subgenres of straight edge, Krishnacore and Taqwacore; evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches and illegal punk concerts in East German churches; anti-religious sentiment within punk; and the myriad ways punk has been combined with a variety of traditions to illuminate ideas from atheism, anarchism, science, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other ways of being in the world.
John Malkin is a journalist, musician, activist, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author ofPunk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism (Rowman & Littlefield 2023).
“Punk Spirit!, with its unique blend of anarchic counterculture and classic psychoanalytical theory, makes for a most compelling read. From incarnation to oral history, the power of punk compels you!” —Steven Blush, Author and Filmmaker, American Hardcore
“I devoured Punk Spirit! in two sittings. It was pure enjoyment to read – pure exhilaration! Crack openPunk Spirit! and behold a ‘volatile church’ where the lifeblood of a rich, complex, and passionately punk spirituality surges through every page. Incited by John Malkin’s galvanizing questions, the collective voices of his interlocutors raise up a kaleidoscopic vision of punk spirit that is as vibrantly alive as it is full of surprises.” —Glenn Wallis, Guitarist for Ruin, Author of An Anarchist’s Manifesto
“Punk Spirit! is an affirming and varied testimony to the significance of punk music and spirit in the library of humanity and existence. Explore! The Spirit of Punk reflects how in our extreme punk expression of letting go of societal norms and indoctrination, we find liberation and peace in reaching for and manifesting another state of being and its possibilities.” —Yaotl Mazahua, Iconoclast, Aztlan Underground (aka Anahuak Underground)
“A skilled interviewer, John Malkin is one of a handful of punk mavens willing to explore its deep, spiritual intimations. This is a monumental collection of conversations, offering anyone with a reasonable curiosity about punk rock and spirituality the opportunity to understand their amorphous, vibrant, and sometimes revolutionary entanglements. If God is dead, punk is not dead, and the anti-establishment postures and rebellious spirit captured in Malkin’s book lives on!”
—Ken Chitwood, Religion Scholar, Journalist, Theologian “Punk is far from dead; it is getting richer and richer. We are lucky to have John Malkin look at a very specific aspect of that world. With gems from more than 150 interviews conducted over the course of a quarter century,Punk Spirit! is an important contribution to the ever-growing oral history of one of the world’s most compelling subcultures.”
—Gabriel Kuhn, Author of Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics “You need this book if you ever screamed at the sky and wanted it to scream back. Lively and vivid,Punk Spirit! dares you to ask: What does it mean to be free?”
—Antonino D’Ambrosio, Filmmaker, Author, and Visual Artist, Let Fury Have the Hour “This book tries to make sense of the madness that is punk and to find the meaning in the noise, the spirituality in the energy, and the idealism in the anger.” —John Robb, Bassist and Singer for The Membranes, Author ofPunk Rock: An Oral History and The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth
“For those of us who came up in punk clubs and later found a home in spiritual practice, this book isn’t just interesting—it’s personal.”—Miguel Chen, Bassist for Teenage Bottlerocket; author of I Wanna Be Well and The Death of You
“Captivating. Malkin connects with an amazing array of artists and enlarges the vision of the spirit of punk.” —Eddie Stern, Bassist for Chop Shop; Yoga and Meditation Teacher for Lou Reed
“Malkin’s decades-long trek takes us dead center into the interior. No bullshit.” —Gary Gach, Author of The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Buddhism John Malkin is a journalist, musician, activist, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author ofPunk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism (Rowman & Littlefield 2023).

Squat Safety
2026-05-08 19:00 (Europe/London) | Lesnes estate, Thamesmead,

Book Talk: Fascist Yoga with with Stewart Home
2026-05-07 19:00 (Europe/London) | Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
Join us to welcome author Stewart Home to talk about his book ‘Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists, and the New Order In Wellness’
The practice of yoga promises peace, self-realisation and release, thanks to the power of its ‘mystic’ Indian origins. But what if this is just hype? In Fascist Yoga, Stewart Home sweeps away the half-truths to tell a new origin story of the world’s first modern yogi – a Californian escapologist who added some Hindu fairy dust to gym and circus exercises.
Ever since, the world of yoga has been full of grifters, occultists and white supremacists, all out to exploit and recruit via the medium of exercise. From cult leaders to brainwashed followers, TV celebrities and fake gurus, the story of yoga has involved some of the strangest currents of humanity.
Today, the COVID pandemic has activated elements within the modern yoga movement to espouse far-right conspiracies, and QAnon’s fascist political programmes mirror some of yoga’s key early proponents.
In this new exposé, Stewart Home shows that nothing is sacred.
About the author:
Stewart Home is a legend of counterculture. He is an artist, filmmaker, pamphleteer, art historian and activist, and the author of countless pulp fictions, including most recently Art School Orgy and She’s My Witch. He regularly performs to audiences across the world and recently started making headstand paintings with the canvas placed above him and brushes held in his toes. He was born and lives in London.

First Thursday Freedom board game night!
2026-05-07 19:00 (Europe/London) | Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
Come and join us for a night of frivolity, fun and friendly competition. Every 1st Friday of the month. Next one is the 5th February, 7pm Decentre.

MINCE!
2026-05-06 19:00 (Europe/London) | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mince-tickets-1987510848450?aff=oddtdtcre…
sharing new/experimental/queer work in progress, music, film, performance, and other stuff that can happen live.
MINCE is a variety show of queer, experimental, work-in-progress art. Anything that can be performed live or shown on a screen!
Ticket proceeds will be going to Fiveforfive. Fiveforfive is a wealth redistribution project by-and-for trans women and femmes. Every month, donations are split up and given to five transfems’ fundraisers that have been submitted, at random. It cuts through the popularity lottery of crowdfunding your surgery, pooling resources and sharing fairly. You can learn more about Fiveforfive and support the project here.

BOOK TALK: PUNK SPIRIT!
2026-05-05 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
AN ORAL HISTORY OF PUNK ROCK, SPIRITUALITY AND LIBERATION
We are super excited to welcome John Malkin over from California to talk about his incredible, and as far as we can tell, unique, book: Punk Spirit! We’ve had countless books about punk (not to mention zines) pass through Housmans over the year but none that quite approach the topic from this angle.
Punk Spirit! is an oral history that examines this movement from many unique perspectives, bringing together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols, Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones, Gang of Four, Pussy Riot, Crass, Talking Heads, Propagandhi, The Slits, Bad Religion, Shelter, Rebel Riot, Blackfire, and many others.
Punk Spirit! ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk artists and activists from around the world and highlights intelligent, thoughtful, and humorous discussions on liberation, spirituality, and living freely. They discuss a myriad of topics from creativity and anger to freedom from suffering and the ways that punk rock has opposed or embodied religious and moral tenets. Chapters dive deeply into a variety of interconnected realms of punk rock such as the subgenre of straight edge, Krishnacore and Taqwacore, evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches, illegal punk concerts in East German churches, anti-religious sentiment within punk rock, the vital connections between punk and self-expression, and the myriad ways punk rock has been combined with spiritual and religious traditions to illuminate ideas from science, atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other ways of being in the world.
And complete with a forward by one of our favorite writers, Penny Rimbaud! How could we have said no?!
John Malkin is a journalist, musician, activist, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author of Punk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism , and his interviews and writings have been published in internationally including Adbusters, Punk Planet, Razorcake, Spirituality & Health, Z Magazine, Ode, In These Times, Sojourners, The Sun, Film International, Shambhala Sun, Tricycle, Friends Journal, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, The Monterey Herald, and others. He lives in Santa Cruz, California with his wife and son.
As 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.
If 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.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.

Punks For Palestine VI
2026-05-04 13:00 (Europe/London) | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Punks For Palestine VI
All proceeds split between
The Sameer Project
Providing aid to displaced families on the ground in Gaza
Da’m: Defend and Mobilize
Supporting direct action and activism in the UK against the Israeli arms trade.
Louder than ever as this world grows harder. As always: hardcore, punk and hiphop joining forces in solidarity.
Featuring
Buds.
Big riff emo punk
Chinned
The Stevenage Grindcore Mafia, reunited for 1 night only.
Kemastry (CMPND)
Shamanic wordplay from a uk hiphop legend
Kila Kosa
South London Hardcore
Mashaal
London hardcore by kids of immigrants.
Perp Walk
Chain stomp fury for the moshers.
Ritual Error
Post hardcore noise for the revolution
Sarsour
Shooting Daggers
LONDON QUEERCORE
Speit
Irish-Palestinian freedom rap
Unwitnessed
Brand new London hardcore. Get down early and testify…
Yung Yusuf
Raw rebellious bars from the diaspora
We’ll also have charity materials and information from other Palestinian relief efforts and demonstrations, as well as some new opportunities to support Palestinian arts and businesses in London.
New Cross Inn, nearest stations New Cross Gate and New Cross
Tickets £13
“Solidarity Tickets” £19 (optional extra donation)
https://pit.live/events/punks-for-palestine-2

[POSTPONED] Book Launch: Liquid Reflections with Liliane Lijn
2026-05-02 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES – PLEASE CHECK BACK SOON FOR A RESCHEDULED DATE. We are profoundly honored to be hosting the paperback launch for a memoir by one the world’s greatest living artists, the sculptor Liliane Lijn, who will be joined in conversation by leading art writer Jennifer Higgie. Liliane Lijn is an artist who needs little introduction. Her stirring, often ostentatious and always poetic works are dotted throughout the British urban landscape, and overseas. Regular visitors to Housmans will have no doubt seen her recent piece Temenos just up the road from us, near Granary Square.
We will host Liliane May 2nd to launch the paperback edition of her brilliant bildungsroman Liquid Reflections. The book begins in 1958 with the talented and fearless Liliane Lijn leaving her family home and moving to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. In the years that followed, Lijn built a life for herself in the city. She embraced the hectic bohemian spirit of the Left Bank. She befriended artists, painters, poets, gallerists and revolutionaries, as the late Surrealists gave way to a burgeoning Pop Art movement. She had disastrous love affairs with difficult men. She experimented boldly, creating ground-breaking sculptures with light, text and movement. And as her profile steadily grew, she was told again and again that there are no great women artists: ‘There never have been.’
Liquid Reflections is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure – years when Lijn was constantly in motion, from Paris to New York to Venice to Athens, from paper and canvas to wax and Perspex to oil and water. In love, she became pregnant but rebelled against the idea that a woman could not be both a great artist and a mother. And she sought – and found – radical pleasure in the act of creative expression and in the living, sensuous world around her.
Based on personal diaries from the time, this is a riveting and revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman.
‘I wrote LIQUID REFLECTIONS because I wanted to take my readers on the journey I made to become an artist. It’s the story of an idealistic, inspired young woman who refuses to accept the prejudices of her time. Becoming an artist was also a search for my own identity…’— Liliane Lijn
Liliane will be conversation with the art writer Jennifer Higgie, author of numerous books, her most recent being The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World, the first major work of art history to focus on women artists and their engagement with the spirit world.
This is going to be an extremely special event and we are delighted to be hosting it. Please do book a ticket in advance to avoid disappointment on the night.
Liliane and Jennifer will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour, followed by an open discussion with the audience. Doors will open at 6:45, with the event starting around 7.
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BOOK LAUNCH: LIQUID REFLECTIONS WITH LILIANE LIJN
2026-05-02 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
We are profoundly honored to be hosting the paperback launch for a memoir by one the world’s greatest living artists, the sculptor Liliane Lijn, who will be joined in conversation by leading art writer Jennifer Higgie.
Liliane Lijn is an artist who needs little introduction. Her stirring, often ostentatious and always poetic works are dotted throughout the British urban landscape, and overseas. Regular visitors to Housmans will have no doubt seen her recent piece Temenos just up the road from us, near Granary Square.
We will host Liliane May 2nd to launch the paperback edition of her brilliant bildungsroman Liquid Reflections. The book begins in 1958 with the talented and fearless Liliane Lijn leaving her family home and moving to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. In the years that followed, Lijn built a life for herself in the city. She embraced the hectic bohemian spirit of the Left Bank. She befriended artists, painters, poets, gallerists and revolutionaries, as the late Surrealists gave way to a burgeoning Pop Art movement. She had disastrous love affairs with difficult men. She experimented boldly, creating ground-breaking sculptures with light, text and movement. And as her profile steadily grew, she was told again and again that there are no great women artists: ‘There never have been.’
Liquid Reflections is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure – years when Lijn was constantly in motion, from Paris to New York to Venice to Athens, from paper and canvas to wax and Perspex to oil and water. In love, she became pregnant but rebelled against the idea that a woman could not be both a great artist and a mother. And she sought – and found – radical pleasure in the act of creative expression and in the living, sensuous world around her.
Based on personal diaries from the time, this is a riveting and revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman.
‘I wrote LIQUID REFLECTIONS because I wanted to take my readers on the journey I made to become an artist. It’s the story of an idealistic, inspired young woman who refuses to accept the prejudices of her time. Becoming an artist was also a search for my own identity…’
— Liliane Lijn
Liliane will be conversation with the art writer Jennifer Higgie, author of numerous books, her most recent being The Other Side: A Journey into Women, Art and the Spirit World, the first major work of art history to focus on women artists and their engagement with the spirit world.
This is going to be an extremely special event and we are delighted to be hosting it. Please do book a ticket in advance to avoid disappointment on the night.
Liliane and Jennifer will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour, followed by an open discussion with the audience. Doors will open at 6:45, with the event starting around 7.
As 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.
If 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.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.

Nesian Punx #2 - a night of Pasifika POC Punk
2026-05-01 20:00 (Europe/London) | VFD, 64-66 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XB
8pm to 11pm, doors open at 7:45pm
Tickets £6 in advance (book here) or £8 on the door
Nesian Punx #2
A night of Pasifika – poc punk raising money for Free West Papua Campaign.
Since the first days of Indonesian colonial occupation in 1963, the people and land of West Papua have been under relentless attack. Over 500,000 West Papuan civilians have been killed by Indonesia’s military.
Racism and discrimination are a daily reality and basic human rights including freedom of speech are outlawed. The Indonesian Government have banned international media and human rights organisations from operating in West Papua, ensuring that news about what is happening rarely reaches the outside world.
The Free West Papua Campaign was launched in 2004, led by Benny Wenda – an exiled West Papuan independence leader and Chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).
The Free West Papua Campaign is bringing the story of West Papua to the world and campaigning for freedom and justice in West Papua. It is time to end the violence of the last 50 years and give West Papuans the freedom to decide their own future.
With the return of the mighty Half/Time- māori led punk band from Aotearoa back in London on their UK tour and lairy London punx -GRUNT and the wider diaspora community are teaming up to raise monies for our West Papuan brothers and sisters.
Talks from Free West Papua Campaign and Boycott for West Papua and a special performance from The Lani Singers – traditional West Papuan folk band playing songs rooted in resistance and celebrating Papuan culture (tbc)
Band merch/Prints/Stickers/Patches up for grabs!
BANDS
Half/Time – are a Māori post-punk band hailing from Aotearoa (so-called New Zealand) – they’re loud, angry and making change through music. Through visceral and vulnerable waiata (songs) they invite audiences to engage and learn about Aotearoa New Zealand’s colonised past, its present and hopes for its future. These are unsanitized, undiluted histories that are delivered without apology, encompassing the personal and political, amplifying the ancestral echoes of te ao Māori (the Māori world) and giving voice to the injustices faced by indigenous communities today. FFO Dead Pioneers, Idles, Pixies, The Muslims and Big Brave.
GRUNT – Lairy three piece London punx. Drums bass n vocals but not techno… brown queer and fvcking tired. ”Raw self-righteous feminist punk, reminiscent of the burgeoning 70’s punk scene” – Laviea Thomas for Decolonise Fest.
Hemi Hemingway – With the rock’n’roll panache of a dive bar matador and the emotional force of a knife in the guts, Hemi Hemingway makes music that thrills, spills and breaks hearts. The effortlessly slick New Zealand star has a connoisseur’s ear for the finest parts of musical history, sweeping 60s rock, 50s sheen and 80s romanticism into the present day, refurbishing and refashioning them into something new and fresh. At home in the spotlight, he’s a showman in the best troubadour traditions, but one with real depth, showcasing swagger and vulnerability in equal measure.
The Lani Singers – from the Baliem Valley in the remote central highland region of West Papua in the south-west Pacific, play songs that are rooted in the sacred rituals of the Lani tribe. Formed in UK 2004 as a way of celebrating and preserving Papuan culture – the Indonesian regime have outlawed traditional music and cultural practices in West Papua. The band have played at music festivals in the UK including Glastonbury, Musicport, Port Eliot, the Mayor of London’s Thames Festival and Celebrating Sanctuary. They have also performed live sessions on the ‘World Routes’ show on BBC Radio 3 and on DJ Ritu’s ‘A World In London’ show on BBC Radio London.

Omega Tribe + Daffodildos + Angry
2026-05-01 19:30 - 23:00 (Europe/London) | Aces & Eights, 156-158 Fortess Road, NW5 2HP
Omega Tribe, Daffodildos and Angry – a great night of punk positivity awaits!
https://www.outsavvy.com/event/34458/otdaffangae

First Friday Freedom Fun board game night!
2026-05-01 19:00 (Europe/London) | Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
Come and join us for a night of frivolity, fun and friendly competition. Every 1st Friday of the month. Next one is the 1st November, 7pm Decentre.

1st of May: The Red in the Green – Screening, free pamphlet and collective reading
2026-05-01 18:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1AE
The Red in the Green will mark the 1st of May, International Workers’ Day. Celebrating the convergence of worker and environmental organising, the evening will begin with a film screening and discussion (Who bombed Judi Bari?, 2012, 92 mins) and conclude with a collective reading of excerpts from Peter Linebaugh’s pamphlet The incomplete, true, authentic and wonderful history of May Day. There will also be time to explore some of our growing ecological direct-action archival collection.
The incomplete, true, authentic and wonderful history of May Day
As has become customary, we will collectively read excerpts from Peter Linebaugh’s The incomplete, true, authentic and wonderful history of May Day to celebrate the convergence of labour struggles and ecological direct action, with some free copies of the text available on the day.
Read The incomplete, true, authentic and wonderful history of May Day here
Who bombed Judi Bari? (Mary Liz Thomson, 2012) – 92 mins
In 1990, two prominent Earth First! activists, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, were car bombed in Oakland, California. They are then immediately investigated by the FBI for bombing themselves. Who bombed Judi Bari? Follows the subsequent lawsuit against the FBI, the complex history of Earth First!, the loggers and the controversy of tree spiking. Bari worked tirelessly to organise with workers in the logging industry in the American Pacific North West. Lobbying against the controversial tactic of tree spiking (inserting metal into trees to damage the saws of loggers) she aimed instead to unite workers in the extractive industry with environmentalists.
We are very pleased to have Andrew working as the researcher in residence for the next 2 years on the global economy, not global ecology archives. Andrew will lead a discussion on some of the important but often ill-remembered connections and collaborations between workers, union organisers and the ecological movement from our archival holdings.
Workers of the Earth, Unite!

BOOK TALK: The Journal of a Kurdish Political Prisoner
2026-04-29 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Join for a discussion of the journal of Kurdish revolutionary, Ali Poyraz. He spent twenty-one years and four months in Turkish prisons. He was born in 1962 in Bozüyük, an Alevi village in the Gürün district of Sivas. According to Yeni Özgür Politika, his political consciousness was shaped by his older brother, Hüseyin Poyraz (also known as Rubar Dicle), a member of the PKK Central Committee. In 1981, Ali was captured by Turkish authorities in a rural area of Pazarcık while serving as a PKK cadre. Tried by a military court, he was sentenced to death. Although the Turkish Supreme Court upheld the sentence, it was later commuted to twenty-one years and four months of imprisonment following the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey under Prime Minister Turgut Özal.
Ali’s journal records his thoughts and observations, providing invaluable insight into life inside Turkish prisons, including the organisation, morale, and activities of political prisoners. His journal is a mine of information that lends itself to much probing and understanding of the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK over the past 45 years. This book is published for scholarly purposes, following the recent disbandment of the PKK as an armed force, and the changing political landscape in Turkey today.
We will discuss this powerful and important book, followed by a wider discussion of political imprisonment more generally.
As 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.
If 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.
Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.

Reading Group 20 – How Nonviolence Protects The State
2026-04-28 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
nce Protects The State For our twentieth reading group we will be reading How Nonviolence Protects The State by Peter Gelderloos. From the blurb: “Since the civil rights era, the doctrine of nonviolence has enjoyed near-universal acceptance by the US Left. Today protest is often shaped by cooperation with state authorities–even organizers of rallies against police brutality apply for police permits, and anti-imperialists usually stop short of supporting self-defense and armed resistance. How Nonviolence Protects the State challenges the belief that nonviolence is the only way to fight for a better world. In a call bound to stir controversy and lively debate, Peter Gelderloos invites activists to consider diverse tactics, passionately arguing that exclusive nonviolence often acts to reinforce the same structures of oppression that activists seek to overthrow.”
A free version of How Nonviolence Protects The State can be found at the Anarchist Library here and our friends at Freedom Press here have offered a 10% discount on physical copies for the reading group. Just quote “London SolFed Reading Group” or pop into Freedom for your general radical book buying needs. The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 28th of April, 19:00, at Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion even if you have not finished the reading.

Camera Obscura: Four Daughters
2026-04-28 18:00 (Europe/London) | LARC, 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 1ES
🗓 Tuesday 28th of April, 7pm (doors 6pm) 📍 LARC (62 Fieldgate St, London E1 1ES) A docu-drama telling the story of a Tunisian mother and her four daughters. The four daughters endure the cycles of violence, repression, followed by radicalisation that led to two young daughters joining ISIS. Join us for screening & discussion of the film directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, also known for The Voice of Hind Rajab. Trailer: https://youtu.be/36th41-rdb8

Acoustic Anarchy #103 with Finbar Ansbe and Girl Size Dog Bed
2026-04-25 19:30 (Europe/London) | Waterintobeer, Tara Terrace, 209-211 Mantle Road, Brockley, SE4 2EW
Acoustic night with two of Nottingham’s finest queer punk band Cheap Dirty Horse playing solo.

Herstories Book Club: the volcano lover
2026-04-25 14:00 (Europe/London) | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
☕ Next Herstories Book Club: Sat 25 April, 2.00-3.30pm
📍Location: Feminist Library
📖 Book: The Volcano Lover, by Susan Sontag (1992)
📚 Previous books we’ve read: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/herstories-book-club
A historical romance, Sontag’s book is based on the lives of Sir William Hamilton, his wife, Emma, and Lord Nelson in the final decades of the eighteenth century. Passionately examining the shape of Western civilization since the Age of Enlightenment, Sontag’s novel is an exquisitely detailed picture of revolution, the fate of nature, art and love.
