Divergent: Weird Pride, Unruliness & Outsider Wisdom [Radical Book Fair]

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

The rules of our world aren’t consistent. They are rarely fair, rarely just, rarely rooted in nature, joy, care or creative potential. What could the future look like if we built it with a different rule book?

There is a boundless beauty and wisdom in world-views and experience that can't be boxed up, defined or refined by the 'norms' of a broken world. Join us to celebrate and explore neurodiversity with speakers pushing us to rethink our relationships to nature, gender, capital and each other.

If we acknowledge that neurotypical, heteronormative expectations, healthcare, norms and binaries do not make the world make sense, maybe we need to take another look at how to make our world better for everyone.

When we centre voices usually relegated to the fringes we create a richer, fairer world for us all - come crack the world open with us!

– Our Speakers –

CJ DeBarra (they/them) is queer, non-binary journalist, author and historian from Cork, Ireland residing in Nottingham, UK. They are the author of Neuroqueer and Queer Nottingham volumes one and two, and have an upcoming book due from Jessica Kingsley Press. CJ is also the founder of the NQHA, an oral history campaign recording queer stories from Nottingham spanning from 1790 to 2025.

frank r jagoe’s (they/them) work is a reclamation of madness and monstrosity in opposition to the exclusionary category of the human. Often it explores communication with other-than-humans: in recognition that we are in community with each other; in acknowledgement of the personhood of other-than-human beings; and in order to displace a western hierarchy that claims humanity as the highest form of existence. They are particularly drawn to considering how madness and monstrosity are defined in relation to language usage, and in opposition to rationality, coherence, and ‘reason’. Highlighting forms of communication beyond words, beyond class-based language, beyond human forms of speech, feels an urgent imperative. Throughout they want to consider whose language is respected, whose language is engaged with, and believed, or even acknowledged.

*Please note that masks will be required at this event ().

*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. There are also 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,

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

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Host or Publisher Lighthouse - Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop