A Full Moon Reading: On Transformation And How To Alchemize In A World Full Of Grief [Radical Book Fair]

Please check ticket info for this event below, incl. information about access.

A conversation between writers Sophia Hembeck and Fariha Róisín about how to heal in a time of mass delusion.

With the moon as a symbol of cyclical change and transformation, a reminder that life is a constant process of evolving, they are asking questions about:

how to tell the truth through the immensity of the facade of capitalism and how to transcend the veneer of fascism and supremacy to make work (and live) in a way that interrogates systems of oppression and power?

This conversation will focus on the interior and the exterior, showing all the ways we are interconnected, all the ways we are complicit, and how we transform, refusing the colonizers mission, by healing.

Speakers:

Fariha Roisín is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Ontario, Canada. They were raised in Sydney, Australia, and are based in Los Angeles. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, they are interested in the margins, liminality, otherness and the mercurial nature of being. Their work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam and queer identities and has been featured in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and Vogue. They are the author of poetry collections How To Cure A Ghost (2019) and Survival Takes a Wild Imagination (2023), as well as the novel Like A Bird (2020), Who Is Wellness For? (2022).

Sophia Hembeck is a writer, visual artist & cultural critic based in Edinburgh. She has published three books: Things I Have Noticed, 2020, Things I Have Loved, 2023 & Things That Are Different Now, 2025 which comprise literary essays as well as her own artwork. As a fierce advocate for literary essays she teaches essay writing classes for writers of all levels. In her weekly substack The Muse Letter she wonders about the meanderings of life.

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*Please note that masks will be required at this event (as with all Lighthouse events).

*Accessibility: All events will be professionally filmed & livestreamed. The Roxy is wheelchair accessible (including toilets) and we'll have provisions for neurodivergent guests including stims, quiet space and colour-coded lanyards.

*Events are £5 or free -we completely understand paying for one or two events and then getting free spots for others. The Radical Book Fair is entirely bookshop run and ticket sales are vital to keeping the fair sustainable and paying all our speakers so all support is heartily welcome!

*Featured books: The book & ticket option will select the most recently published book at any given event, if you’re not sure which book you want or don’t want that featured book, then buy a £5 voucher ticket that can be used for any of the books below.

*If you'd like to help make the book fair accessible to more folks, please consider adding to our pay-it-forward fund HERE. Or there are also DONATION TICKETS which are £10, listed as a 'book', please note these are not redeemable at the fair, and rather a much appreciated contribution to the Fair's running costs,

Our host:

Jj Fadaka is a writer, facilitator, and radical based in Edinburgh. Their writing explores the possibility of abolition, feminism, and love to create change. Their work speaks to the political urgencies we face while centring community-making in our resistanc