FIGHT LIKE HELL: Kim Kelly book launch + very special guests Dawn Ray'd

Doors at 6ish. Early finish at 22:00.

Clapton Punks welcome author Kim Kelly to celebrate the launch of her new book 'FIGHT LIKE HELL: The Untold History of American Labor', a revelatory, inclusive history of the American labor movement, from independent journalist.

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We're delighted to host already legendary black metal superstars Dawn Ray'd for a special acoustic set, fresh off the back of the release of their universally acclaimed new album 'To Know the Light'

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Anarcho folk-punk from All in Vain

PLUS more speakers TBA

About the book

Freed Black women organising for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labour leader who helped orchestrate America’s civil rights movement. These are only some of the working-class heroes who propelled American labour's relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law.

In this assiduously researched work of journalism, Teen Vogue columnist and independent labour reporter Kim Kelly excavates that history and shows how the rights the American worker has today—the forty-hour workweek, workplace-safety standards, restrictions on child labour, protection from harassment and discrimination on the job—were earned with literal blood, sweat, and tears.

Inspirational, intersectional, and full of crucial lessons from the past, Fight Like Hell shows what is possible when the working class demands the dignity it has always deserved.

About the author

Kim Kelly is an independent journalist, author, and organiser. She has been a regular labor columnist for Teen Vogue since 2018, and her writing on labour, class, politics, and culture has appeared in The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, The Nation, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Esquire, among many others. Kelly has also worked as a video correspondent for More Perfect Union, The Real News Network, and Means TV. Previously, she was the heavy metal editor at “Noisey,” VICE’s music vertical, and was an original member of the VICE Union.

About Dawn Ray'd

A Liverpool, England-based black metal trio with an anarchist/anti-fascist agenda, Dawn Ray'd eschew the usual moribund black metal lyrical tropes for throat-shredding diatribes against racism, sexism, and economic inequality. Alternately uplifting and relentlessly bleak, the band's politically and socially charged lyrics, paired with their caustic, yet atmospheric sonic attack bolstered by vocalist/violinist Simon B., invokes names like Wolves in the Throne Room and Agalloch, with a touch of anarcho-punk legends Crass tossed in for good measure. The band's debut album, A Thorn, A Blight, was issued in 2015 via Halo of Flies. A sophomore effort, Unlawful Assembly, followed in 2017 and was released by Prosthetic Records, as was 2019's Behold Sedition's Plainsong.

Their latest album, 2023's 'To Know the Light' has received rave reviews, described as 'beautifully maudlin and elegantly defiant in equal measure' (the Quietus), 'a truly exhilarating and eye-opening experience' (Distorted Sound magazine, 9/10), and 'a triumph in metal experimentation and anarchist, anti-fascist songwriting' (Noizze.co.uk, 8/10).

Host or Publisher Clapton Punks