Our Feminist Cabaret at the Radical Book Fair

"If I can't dance I don't want to be in your revolution" Emma Goldman

Come on in from the cold and join us as we finish day two of the Radical Book Fair by filling the Assembly Roxy stage with a spectacular line-up of poetry, music, rage, solidarity, love and empowerment. There may also be some laughter! Grab a table with mates or make new pals in the light of tremendous talent.

This is our Friday evening celebration, celebrating intersectional feminism and community through performance in full-on cabaret style. Performers include Lady Unchained, Cecilia Knapp and Caitlin Stobie, a set curated by Kirstyn Smith showcasing Marbles' 'What Now?' issue (Out in January), music by Djana Gabrielle, Kirsty Law & the Women Life Freedom collective.

Please note that social distancing and masks will still be expected at this event just like every other, though as the bar will be open people are permitted to remove their masks while they drink, and there will be a central dance floor as well as seating areas, arranged cabaret style.

There will be a short intermission roughly half way through the event.

Our performers:

A 2019 Celtic Connections Danny Kyle Stage Winner, and one of the “most note-worthy performances” at the 2019 Kintyre Songwriters' Festival, Djana Gabrielle is a French-Cameroonian singer-songwriter who has been honing her craft on the Scottish music scene for a few years now. She released her debut EP, recorded in Glasgow, in late 2015 and toured around the UK and Europe to promote it. In 2018, she took on the challenge to write, record and release a brand new song each month, which earned her a "New & Notable" feature on the American music platform Noisetrade. She now focuses her work on songwriting and theatre projects, while playing shows and gearing up for her next release, hoping to introduce her soulful, soothing and melodious sound to new audiences in Scotland and beyond.

Cecilia Knapp is a poet and novelist and the Young People's Laureate for London 2020/2021. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward prize for best single poem. She is the winner of the 2021 Ruth Rendell award and has been shortlisted for both the Rebecca Swift Women's Prize and the Outspoken Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared in The White Review, Granta, Wasafiri, Popshot, Ambit, Magma and bath magg. She curated the anthology Everything is Going to be Alright: Poems for When you Really Need Them, published by Trapeze in 2021. Her debut novel Little Boxes is published by The Borough Press. She teaches poetry and creative writing in a number of settings and lives in London.

Caitlin Stobie was born in South Africa and holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, where she is a Lecturer in Creative Writing. She is a winner of the Douglas Livingstone Creative Writing Competition and the Heather Drummond Memorial Prize for Poetry, and was named by South African literary journal New Contrast as one of the country’s ‘rising stars’ in poetry. Her writing has appeared in Banshee, Gutter, PN Review, Poetry & Audience, SPAM, Stand, Tears in the Fence and elsewhere, and has been supported by Arts Council England. Her debut poetry collection, Thin Slices (Verve Poetry Press, 2022), was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Poetry Prize by Eyewear; an earlier version was also shortlisted for the RædLeaf International Poetry Award.