The joy is with us: a queer resistance cabaret

Join us for an evening of performances and discussion celebrating JOY and Queer resistance!

A glorious line up of queer talent will explore the role of queer and feminist spaces in the struggle not only against queer oppression, but against racism, Islamophobia, ableism and xenophobia.

Through music, poetry, conversation and performance, we celebrate this work as part of our communities, and reflect on the work that needs more resources and energy.

Come be thrilled, entertained and galvanised where art meets resistance!

The event is a collaboration with the Change the Act campaign.

Our performers:

Zozan Yasar is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Before starting her PhD she made two documentaries called we depend on each other and my (refugee) life focusing on refugee experiences in the UK. For nearly a decade, she worked as journalist focusing on matters such as conflict, forced migration, women’s and minority rights, and humanitarian concerns in the Middle East and other regions.

Robyn O'Donnell is a writer, poet and photographer from Edinburgh in Scotland. She has blue hair, pronouns and girlfriend with the same. Her poems are about slurs, shopping centres and love. Her longer form writings are mostly personal essays disguised as film reviews or blogs about disliking computers. Earlier this year, she was published for the first time with her poem about queer joy, 'Yes' appearing in Yvette Taylor's anthology, Queer in a Wee Place. She hopes to concentrate on one project long enough to write a book and can mostly, usually, be found under a small cat.

Curlew (she/her) is the moniker of Scottish experimental-folk artist Gill Higgins. She celebrates Celtic tradition through her queer, neurodivergent, disabled lens, with the use of harmonium riffs, synthesiser drones, field recordings from Nature and her signature looped ethereal vocals. Having spent her past-life training as a surgeon in Scotland's NHS, her work explores the intersection of science and folklore, technology and intuition, the modern and the ancient. She will be accompanied by her band for this special festival set, with drums, fiddle and close vocal harmonies transforming into a mesmerising wall of sound.

Our host:

Lakshmi Ajay is a visual artist, writer and social worker living in Edinburgh. Working across painting, writing, film and sculpture; she explores her dynamic experiences of migration and queerness, and finding pockets of community along the way. She creates art in the hope that they lead to enduring spaces of connection, and spends her days dreaming of other worlds in the making. You can see more of her work at Echo: Take One Action, Fierce Salvage and The Skinny.

*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!

*If you'd like to help make the book fair accessible to more folks, please consider adding to our pay-it-forward fund HERE.