The Radical Bookfair hosted by Lighthouse Books has become an annual meeting ground for creative discourses that often live on the margins of our mainstream media, to be thoughtfully considered. This year’s event saw a host of panels and discussions based on the theme ‘Futures Worth Fighting For’ which focused on how to materialize our radical imaginations for a better world.
Living Rent was founded in 2014, as part of ACORN International, and is a mass-membership tenants union serving communities all over Scotland within the private and social rented sector. I was really excited to interview Meg Bishop, the organisation’s national secretary who addresses grassroots activism, organising and housing as integral parts of the feminist struggle.
Meet the Clitbait Team: an interview with Trisha Mendiratta, Society and Community Editor
As my time at university comes to an end, I look back at moments that changed my education. From relative deprivation to conflict theory to homegrown vs lone wolf terrorism, the first year of university would hold lessons I’ll carry with me all my life as a politics enthusiast. But nothing could prepare me for the lessons of the summer of Roman*. This was my first brush with heartbreak and politics of the real world.
first thought that came into my head when I realised I was non-binary was fuck, I don’t want to chop all my hair off. This was swiftly followed by a succession of minor panics: I don’t have the face for short hair, I don’t have the shoulders for androgyny, and everyone knows that my arse is simply too big to pass as anything but a woman. These thoughts accompanied thousands more over the next few months as I embarked on an excruciating – but ultimately liberating – internal journey.
I am angry. At first, I thought it was just about you. And you. And you. The way you dimmed me; reduced me down and down until I was on my knees and begging for you to do it again because I didn’t know what the world looked like from an upright position anymore.
I don’t know about you, but recently I have been relentlessly trying to convince myself that spring has sprung. Perhaps as a way to try and find a sense of renewal in a January which seems to be lifelessly trudging on from the year before. I have found myself resurrecting springtime playlists, eating only egg-shaped chocolates, sticking my body to rectangles of sunlight on the walls of my room as the sun sneaks through the window. You name it and, in the name of spring, I’ve done it!
Seven lakes to swim in…
Sexual assault, despite now being spoken about more, is still seen as a taboo topic, particularly within the South Asian community. To talk about assault is to first realise the behaviours encouraging and condoning this act of violation, but the conversation often ends before it can even begin…
Recently, a friend of mine moved out from home. For context, she’s British Bangladeshi, from a somewhat traditional and religious household, wherein women are made to live under the tyrant…
THE SECOND MONTHLY COLUMN OF ‘LEARNING WITH LUCY!’: The maternal mortality rate for Black women in the UK is five times higher than that of their white counterparts. The Five X More campaign is fighting to change that…
A beautiful and painfully honest account of navigating sex as a brown muslim woman and the culture that surrounds it…
I’m not usually one who looks forward to going to the hairdressers. Don’t get me wrong, the head rub you get as your hair is being washed sends me weak at the knees. And on more than one occasion, I have walked out firmly believing that I could give Lana Del Rey, circa. Video Games, a run for her money…
In observing the present moment, we cannot deny the relentless ways in which the past reverberates through the present. History lingers in each act of brutality, in the social relationships which lead to these actions. It lingers in statues and institutions and the messages they profess…
A beautiful explanation and history of Belly Dancing, a cultural practice which is a deeply personal and powerful act to many Middle Eastern women…
Our new series on the site, Interpreting the Self in Quarantine allows artists to explore how their relationship to themselves has altered in this time
Our beautiful Society and Community editor Beth speaks about the profound role the NHS are playing in this time of crisis…
Our Society and Community editor Beth discusses LGBTQ+ sex education in schools and representation in children’s literature…
If you’re the type to keep an eye on bookish trends in Scotland’s capital, you will see that the iconic Lavender Menace bookshop is popping up and installed at book fairs throughout the city. The stall stocks LGBT books, and has been since the late 70s, and has become a historic mark on the queer map of Edinburgh…
Beth compiles a list of words which have been added to the dictionary over the past (almost) decade and discusses what this reflects about our society…
The last ten years has offered up an eclectic range of new fiction that has challenged and changed how and what we read. Below, I’ve collected a handful of iconic or influential books of the last 10 years that show how new stories are being welcomed onto our shelves…
Our Visual Artwork Editor, Rosalind Main writes about I Am More Than’s third annual event, ‘Celebration of Diversity’. I Am More Than is an empowering and beautifully feminist project founded by her and Morgan McTiernan, both of whom are fashion models and activists for body inclusivity…
There’s generally a common perception around table-top roleplaying games regarding who they are for. They’re for white, male nerds, right? That’s the kind of people who play Dungeons and Dragons. The reality may surprise you…
Just over two years ago I was chatting to a man sat reading at the base of the Playfair steps. It was November and freezing cold. I asked him what the best thing he was ever given whilst being a rough sleeper was and he told me ‘a hot water bottle’. I always find it difficult knowing the right etiquette of what to give rough sleepers or anyone who is asking for help on the street…
CW: Harassment, coming-out experiences.
The air is warm and musty, children are screaming from an over-indulgence in sugar, moms turn up with over-the-top baked goods for the PTA, and little Debbie is just about to cause an outbreak of measles. The reason? Debbie’s parents are some of many Americans who have decided that they are anti-vaxxers…