Friends in Common - Book Talk + 'Friendship Speed Dating'
As part of Queer History Club we are super excited to bring you a conversation, reading, and fun bonding activity with queer writers Laura C. Forster & Joel White!
Friendship is full of revolutionary potential in the face of a profoundly anti-social capitalist system. For queer people, long encouraged by mainstream norms to understand ourselves as people with no collective, nourishing past and no realistic or hopeful future, creating lineages of friendship and community - whether that's building intergenerational queer friendships, or finding friendship in queer history - becomes a radical imperative. Friends in Common shows that friendship as a political practice and a historical precedent is foundational to strengthening revolutionary ideas and projects, and can be the antidote to capitalist despair
Join Laura C. Forster and Joel White for the Leeds launch of their new book Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities. Expect a bit of reading, chat and a 'Friendship Speed Dating' session where we chat about some of the questions and characters from the book - and hopefully build some new radical queer friendships!
Copies of Friends in Common will be available for purchase at the event.
Laura C. Forster and Joel White will be in conversation with historian Kit Heyam.
Laura C. Forster is a writer and historian based in Newcastle. She is a lecturer in Modern History at the University of York, and has written for Tribune, ROAR, and DOPE.
Joel White is a writer and campaigner based in Glasgow. His writing has appeared in Tribune, the LRB Blog, Radical Philosophy, The Guardian, and The Wire.
Kit Heyam is a Leeds-based heritage practitioner, trans awareness trainer, academic and author of Before We Were Trans.
Date: Thursday 26th June 2025
Time: 7-9pm
Venue: The Bookish Type, 77a Great George Street, LS1 3BR
Tickets are on a sliding scale (£5 / £3 / £0)
Please be honest about your financial situation when selecting what to pay for your ticket. If you purchase a ticket at the lowest end of the scale when you could afford the higher ticket prices, it makes it harder for us to provide financial flexibility to those who most need it.
- £5 "I am comfortably able to meet all of my basic financial needs."
£3 "I may stress about meeting my basic financial needs but still regularly achieve them."
- £0 "I have no disposable income to afford the event"
Tickets are only refundable up to 7 days before the event starts. Please email to cancel.
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Access Info
The shop has an 8cm step but we have a ramp we can put in place if required.
There is a downstairs bathroom with toilet and hand basin.
There is a range of seating including chairs that are armless with padded seats and backs, armless sofa, bench with cushions.
Face masks are encouraged but not required; an H13 HEPA air purifier will be in use.
On street parking available (charges may apply).
Please email in advance if you have any specific access needs: thebookishtypeleeds@gmail.com