eroding empire

Flickers From The Fen / Landsraad / Apoxupon
2026-07-25 18:00 - 23:00 (Europe/London) | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
New Cross Live presents Flickers From The Fen, A full-band showcase of medieval whimsy from the dungeon synth wizard Landsraad, Dune-inspired ambient odysseys Apoxupon, Texas fantasy synths £13, Doors 6pm, 14+, u16s with an adult 18+

My Rushmore / Cainhurst / Closed Hands / My Theatre Friend
2026-07-24 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents My Rushmore, Ragged and joyous emo anthems Cainhurst, Emoviolence vampires Closed Hands, Chaotic screamosh My Theatre Friend, Captivating lo-fi screamo Doors 6pm, £11, 14+, u16s with an adult 18+

HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES: JAMES BYRNE
2026-07-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Join us for another evening of cutting edge poetry.
For 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.
Our Poets:
Ziba 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.
Stephen 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.
Poet, 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.
This is a free event, but please RSVP below. Feel free to BYOB.
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Racetraitor / Temple Guard / Hour Of Reprisal / Afraid To Die
2026-07-23 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents Racetraitor, Legends of confrontational, righteous, hardcore extremities. Only their 2nd time ever in London, and perhaps never more lyrically relevant than right now https://racetraitor-hc.bandcamp.com/ + support from Temple Guard, Riff devastation from UKHC legends Hour Of Reprisal, Norwich Edge Metal http://xhourofreprisalx.bandcamp.com/ Afraid To Die, Turmoil worship for moshers. Record out on TCS on Feb 6th! Doors 6pm, £16, 14+, u16s with an adult

BOOK LAUNCH: FLOYDS GONE by Jacob A. Smith
2026-07-22 18:45 - 21:00 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Come celebrate the launch of a brilliant and daring new short story collection published by eidolon ink
Jacob 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
“When you have them pixelated, magic occurs. You become the imagination of the technology. Like you’re watching the technology dream.”
‘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.
These 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.’
Please note this is an externally organised event. Any inquiries should be made to ‘hello@eidolon.ink’
Book a free ticket below, or reserve a copy of the book.
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.
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HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES: JD HOWSE
2026-07-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
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?
Composed 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.
OUR 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.
Azad 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.
Calliope 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.
VJ 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.​
Oliver 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.
This is a free event but please RSVP below.
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Practical squatters evening
2026-07-20 19:00 | , ,
Welcome to practical squatters evenings where you can meet old and new squatters to get you ready for a new squatting life Get your burning squat questions answered (for correct legal ones ask Ass and the squatters handbook) Share skills and hang out Location is in different squats every time or decentre email practicalsquatters@riseup.net before each time

Passionate Politics - Monthly Discussions
2026-07-19 15:00 - 18:00 | 56a InfoShop, 56 Crampton Street,, SE17 3AE
passionatepolitics.neocities.org passionatepolitics.neocities.org passionatepolitics.neocities.org
what is this and why are you doing it? this is a space to talk about what on earth is going on right now we’re in a major period of misinformation and we all live in bubbles, socially isolated from anyone who isn’t like us staying disconnected is making us weak. we need to connect with each other cross-culturally in order to fight fascism (and just like, to be okay) Before women could change patriarchy we had to change ourselves; we had to raise our consciousness. – bell hooks, Feminism Is For Everybody
who is welcome to join? anyone is welcome (yes, anyone! although it is primarily for adults, as a political discussion group) i believe we need to pull ourselves out of our algorithms to have meaningful intersectional interactions it’s free to attend – you can just turn up will there be loads of reading involved? no reading is hard being politically conscious is hard getting things right is hard the point is not to get it right, or to read loads the point is to find points of connection, learn organically from each other, and fantasise about utopia together how will each session look?
arrival, grab a drink, informal chats (try to arrive a few mins before we start) checking in, intro circle, landing into the space together reading together and using the text as a jumping-off point for deeper discussion checking-out and goodbyes
the website has a list of previous readings if you want to gauge the ~vibe~ …but don’t feel like you need to resonate with everything being spoken about. the point is to e x p a n d our worldviews! what if i say the wrong thing? what if someone says something i don’t agree with? ! by attending and participating, we open ourselves up to potential hurt and vulnerability the sessions are very small in capacity (less than 10 people in the room) we follow a shared agreement for how to interact in the sessions we try to know ourselves, and be mindful of when it’s getting too heated or too close to home we take breaks as needed, to reconnect with our bodies and/or get some air

HOUSING READING SERIES: HUW LEMMEY IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIET JACQUES
2026-07-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
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?
FINALLY! 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.
Obscene? Potentially. Criminal? Maybe. Sick? Probably. But worth buying? UNDENIABLY!
Join 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!
This 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
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Ostraca / Cady / Jotnarr / Christina Carpenter
2026-07-16 19:00 - 23:00 | Piehouse Co-op, Arches 213-214, Edward St, Deptford, SE8 5HD
Real Life and Cady present Ostraca, Blackened Skramz legends in the UK for just 2 shows! https://ostraca.bandcamp.com/ + Support from Cady, Negative blastbeat screamo, https://cadyheron.bandcamp.com/ Jotnarr, Raw screaming crust, http://jotnarr.bandcamp.com/ Christina Carpenter, New London skrim £12

Monthly Drop In
2026-07-16 19:00 - 20:00 | LARC, 62 Fieldgate St, E1 1ES
Need advice about an issue with your boss or landlord? Want support organising in your workplace or community? Want to talk about anarchism or syndicalism? Want to meet members of the group and find out how SolFed works? Just want to say hi? Then come see us at one of these drop in sessions. We will be on the top floor of LARC.

Feminist Fightback reading group: Feminisms (Dog Section Press)
2026-07-14 19:00, 2026-07-07 19:00, 2026-06-30 19:00 | Sir Ralph Perring Centre, Golden Lane Estate, EC1Y 0SA
Join Feminist Fightback for our next reading group book: Feminisms, a collection of essays published by Dog Section Press. You can download a copy of the book or purchase it for £6 here: https://www.dogsection.org/product/feminisms. Feminisms is a collection of ten essays from a diverse milieu of writers on the subject of feminism. Each piece is illustrated by Cat Sims. Feminisms features: Ren Aldridge & Janey Starling, Stacey Clare, Abu Leila, Lola Olufemi, Leah Cowan, Emma Heaney, Nazmia Jamal, Sophie K Rosa, Sophie Lewis and Dilar Dirik. The book is 117 pages long. We will discuss this book in 2 sessions: Tuesday 9th June (50 pages): * Our Bodies Are Not Just Battlegrounds: They Are Weapons, Too by Ren Aldridge and Janey Starling * And the Academy Award Goes to… by Stacey Clare * Keeping the House, Building the Movement: the Housing Struggle and Feminism by Abu Leila * The Bank and The Mayor’s Office Won’t Give us our Freedom by Lola Olufemi Tuesday 14th July (59 pages): * What Stories Does Carceral Feminism Tell Us in Service of the Border Regime? by Leah Cowan *On the Baselessness of Sex by Emma Heaney * A Letter Fetish: To an unknown lesbian, living in Newcastle in the 1970s by Nazmia Jamal * A Feminist Archaelolgy of Self by Way of Words by Sophie K. Rosa * Feminists Against Women by Sophie Lewis * Feminism and Change: Accountability and Struggle by Dilar Dirak Please come having read the relevant chapters.
The sessions will take place at the Sir Ralph Perring Centre, Golden Lane Estate, EC1Y 0SA. The closest station is Barbican. This is in Golden Lane Estate by the swimming pool and tennis court. The venue is fully accessible. Please arrive at 7.00 for 7.15 start; we will finish at 8.30pm. All genders welcome!

Psycho Mosher / RAD / Emergency Broadcast / Forced To Run
2026-07-14 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents Psycho Mosher, Crossover thrash insanity from Colombia! + Support from RAD, Brighton Crossover Thrash Emergency Broadcast, Straightedge Hardcore Forced To Run, New London metalcore riffs £9, Doors 6pm, 14+, under-16s accompanied by an adult 18+

Psycho Mosher ( / RAD / Emergency Broadcast / Forced To Run
2026-07-14 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents Psycho Mosher Crossover thrash insanity from Colombia! [www.instagram.com/psychomosherband/] + Support from RAD Brighton Crossover Thrash [www.instagram.com/rad_thrashmetal/] Emergency Broadcast Straightedge Hardcore [www.instagram.com/emergencybroadcastband/] Forced To Run New London metalcore riffs [www.instagram.com/forced_to_run/] Tuesday 14th July £9 Doors 6pm New Cross Inn 14+, under-16s accompanied by an adult 18+ https://pit.live/events/psycho-mosher

Steatopygous / Render. / Pityspeed / Hiding From Mirrors
2026-07-13 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents Steatopygous, Screamo mosh youth Render, Emotional hardcore epics Pityspeed, Sassy queercore from members of Good Cop and Gender Warfare Hiding From Mirrors, New London screamo dreams £9, Doors 6pm, 14+, u16s with an adult 18+

Anarchist Breakfast Club
2026-07-12 11:00 | 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 🏴

BOOK LAUNCH: KILL BILLIONAIRE with ANDERS LUSTGARTEN
2026-07-11 19:00 - 20:30 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
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.
When 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.
The 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?
We are delighted that Anders Lustgarten has chosen Housmans as the launch pad for this propulsive, daringly political work of thriller fiction!
He will conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour, followed by a q&a and signing session.
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.
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Summer Fair
2026-07-11 12:00 | The Feminist Library, 161 Sumner Road, SE15 6JL
Feminist Library will open our doors again on Saturday 11th July for a summer fair featuring; – stalls from our friends and comrades selling zines, art and stuff they’ve made. -Jumble table -Arts and activism workshops -summer Refreshments -exciting summer vibes only.

Dalston Solidarity Cafe
2026-07-11 11:00 - 20:00 | , 31 – 33 Dalston Lane, Hackney, E8 3DF
Dalstong Solidarity Cafe – Join us second saturday of the month between 11am and 8pm at Halk Evi, 31 – 33 Dalston Lane E8 3DF for a workshop/presentation. 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)

Diploid / Dead Name / Power Failure / [Filler]
2026-07-06 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents Diploid, Frantic, unhinged grind from Melbourne. Mind breaking noise worship. + Support from Dead Name, Blackened noise punk rage Power Failure, Hardcore powerviolence for stompin [Filler], New London powerviolence from members of Katolik / Hello Bastards / I Like Bugs £12, Doors 6pm, 14+, u16s with an adult

Stress Positions / Tension / My Tiny Room / Sarsour / Clouded
2026-07-05 18:00 - 23:00 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
Real Life Presents Stress Positions, Expect the unexpected. Furious hardcore on Three One G + Support from Tension, Frantic Stompcore My Tiny Room, Golden age Skramz Sarsour, Side-to-side distortioncore Clouded, Metalcore murder riffs £13, Doors 6pm, 14+, u16s with an adult

DREAMS AND GHOSTS WITH DOMINIC PETTMAN & EVERYDAY ANALYSIS
2026-07-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Housmans, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross, N1 9DX
Join us for a conversation between two of the most exciting theorists of the digital realm, Dominic Pettman and Alfie Bown
We 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.
This time we have Dominic Pettman joining us, to talk about some of the recurrent ideas that animate,
his recent publications, The Forgetting of Dreams: Selected Oneiric Residues (published by Everyday Analysis) and Ghosting: On Disappearance (Polity, 2025).
Dominic 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.
blurbs:
The Forgetting of Dreams: Selected Oneiric Residues
We 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.
Ghosting: On Disappearance
Abandonment 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.
Ghosting 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.
This 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.
Dominic 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).
This is a free event, but you can reserve copies of the books through our ticket portal.
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SPEEDWAY + FEELS LIKE HEAVEN + SUPPORT TBA
2026-07-03 20:00 | Blue Monk, 71 Enid Street, SE16 3RA
CASH PISTACHE X STRONGER BOOKINGS – Speedway, Feels Like Heaven + Support TBA – The Blue Monk, London
Speedway presents a classic hardcore sound yet adapting and mature. Mosh, Solo, 2 steps… all the classics will be there, with some melodic hints bringing up the bands heavier influences. In a nutshell, Speedway is one of those bands that can adapt to any line up;
Feels like Heaven brings together members of Settlement, Blood Sermon and Speedway, joining them for their European tour. If you’re into Rites of Spring or Title Fight, you got yourself a hardcore band tickling the emotional and feeling like beach and skateboarding.
LOCAL SUPPORT ANNOUNCED SOON

Squat Safety
2026-07-03 19:00 | Lesnes estate, Thamesmead,

First Thursday Freedom board game night!
2026-07-02 19:00 | 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.

The Schizophonics / Nervous Twitch / Chinese Junk
2026-07-02 18:00 - 23:55 | New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Rd, SE14 6AS
New Cross Live and Safe As Milk present The Schizophonics, San Diego Rock and Roll! + Support from Nervous Twitch, Chinese Junk £20, Doors 6pm. 14+, u16s with an adult

INITIATE + BODYWEB + SUPERNOVA
2026-06-30 20:00 | Blue Monk, 71 Enid Street, SE16 3RA
CASH PISTACHE X STRONGER BOOKINGS – Initiate, Bodyweb, Supernova – The Blue Monk, London Very excited to bring a solid mix of modern hardcore names to the Blue Monk in South London. Welcoming as headline the Californian beast from Initiate. They blend their fast, melodic hardcore riffs with straight forward lyrics and punk elements in a way that feels fresh. Their last two releases only show one thing – Initiate is a band that is determined to show they won’t stick to what’d be considered “traditional” hardcore, and they’re here to exploit the full potential of their many influences. Coming up next, Leeds legends Bodyweb – bringing nu-metal and shoegaze influences to hardcore. By their own word, “discomforting and dark at the core, but has the widest creative parameters possible” – Listening to Bodyweb is an experience as a whole – expect the unexpected. Supernova is a politically outspoken hardcore band with main musical influences coming from bands like Carry On, Have Heart, Turning Point and Mindset. The music is high energy with lyrical themes covering topics such as violence against women, social injustices, fighting against oppressors, the power of staying kind in a world designed to make you cruel and of course, The Straight Edge.

Reading Group 22 - Essays on Organisation
2026-06-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Freedom Bookshop, 84b Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
For our twenty second reading group we will be reading a selection of four short essays on different ideas about organisation. Each one comes from a different perspective, from left communist to insurrectionary anarchist. The first essay is a left communist view, Centralised Party, Yes – Centralism over the Party, No! by Onorato Damen. The second essay is a classical organisationalist anarchist view, Anarchist Organisation not Leninist Vanguardism by Wayne Price. The third essay is a more sythesist take of organisation, A Diversity of Anarchisms by The Eclipse Committee. The last essay is an inurrectionary anti-organisationalist view, Organisation vs Getting Shit Done by William Gillis. Our friends at Freedom Press here host the reading group for free, so please support them by using them for your supply of radical books and zines. The reading group will be meeting on Tuesday the 30th of June, 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.
