Head to the Aesop store in Soho, London from 27-30th June and walk away with a complimentary queer book.
This pride month the Aesop team are again generously housing a fleeting queer library on their shelves. This year’s theme is ‘Multiple Margins’ – pertaining to the intersections of queer and racial identities. There are some great titles from contemporary queer writers in the mix, so this is not to be missed!
To kick things off, on the 5th June Aesop collaborated with the Black-owned creative agency A Vibe Called Tech to facilitate a conversation between novelist and founder of the late beloved gal-dem magazine Liv Little, writer Jason Okundaye and artist and writer Osmon Yousefzada. The discussion, taking place in the Bishopsgate Institute’s library, was a captivating exploration of the speaker’s lived experience of having multiple marginalised identities, advice for young writers and the processes of writing their respective works: ‘Rosewater‘, ‘Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain‘ and ‘The Go-Between – A Portrait of Growing Up Between Different Worlds‘.
The speakers and audience sat in the Bishopsgate Library – one of the most extensive archives of queer history, politics and culture – surrounded by hoards of books and a selection of queer artefacts, posters and magazines that had been chosen from the archive. Highlights of the conversation are available to watch on Aesop’s digital channels.
With titles from literary icons like Audre Lorde and Saidiya Hartman alongside novels from up-and-coming queer authors, get yourselves to the store and take this opportunity to brush up on your queer culture! For those who are already fans of queer literature, London’s Gays the Word bookshop may be a familiar place – and some of the titles in Aesop’s library have been sourced from there.
This year, Aesop is also providing a complimentary audiobook, Jason Okundaye’s debut novel Revolutionary Acts to accommodate for increased accessibility beyond the printed word.
If you happen to miss the library this time, Aesop will also be holding a reading corner in their Brighton store from 2-5 August.
Get to Aesop and get reading!
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Team Nonchalant x
Hii I’m Mads (they/them)! I’m an anthropology graduate who is passionate about queer politics and countering intersectional oppression through communal practices of queer joy!
Writing for Nonchalant is to me a way to help keep our community connected, informed about moments of cultural significance, and up to date with events that help foster solidarity amongst us!
