Sara Ahmed: No Is Not a Lonely Utterance

Join us for the Adelaide launch of Sara Ahmed’s, No is Not a Lonely Utterance: The Art and Activism of Complaining. 

To complain is an intimate, dangerous act. Whether it’s speaking up about racism in the workplace or taking a stand against sexual harassment at university, the act of complaining to an institution can leave you isolated and undermined, all while the original injustice remains unresolved. Time and time again, we see these unanswered complaints compound to disastrous effect.

In No is Not a Lonely Utterance, Sara Ahmed dissects the anatomy of a complaint, revealing how institutions create hostile environments that stigmatize complainers, and charts a way we can listen to grievances with ‘feminist ears’: going beyond mere validation and seeking instead to address the root causes of injustice and inequality.

Weaving together testimonies from various walks of life, Ahmed shows us what we learn about the ways institutions exercise their power when complaints are raised, and indeed what we learn about our capacity to collectivize and create social bonds through complaint. In doing so, she inspires us to create better environments for our life’s work.

Sara will be discussing and reading from her book, and will sign books at the end of the evening.

There will be provocations, activism, care, community, and solidarity building among complainers, and questions are encouraged!

Sara Ahmed is an independent queer feminist scholar of colour. Her work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. Her most recent books are No is Not a Lonely Utterance and The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. She blogs at feministkilljoys.com and has a newsletter https://feministkilljoys.substack.com/.

Places are extremely limited so book early. Please let us know if you no discover you can no longer attend so we can offer places to others in the community.

Tickets are free to ensure Sara and her work is accessible to everyone. Goodwood Books is a small for-purpose feminist space, run completely by volunteers. If you can afford it, please support our work in supporting the feminist and radical community by donating.

The new paperback edition of No is Not a Lonely Utterance will be on sale at the event, or you can purchase one with your ticket to ensure a copy.

In solidarity, 

the Goodwood Books team x

We are an inclusive space. Please email us with any access requirements that ensure your evening will be comfortable. The spadce does get hot so bring a fan!

Contact us questions and access requirements at hello@goodwoodbooks.com.au

Goodwood Books is a feminist bookshop and meeting place located on Kaurna Yarta, the stolen lands of the Kaurna people. We support truth, treaty and reparations.

Our mission is to support reading as a community building and liberatory practice. We are committed to feminist and radical principles. We are actively anti-racist and anti-ableist. Trans rights are human rights.

We support community building through providing an accessible and inclusive third space where people come together to read, listen, make, and share.

Goodwood Books is a for-purpose business staffed by volunteers. All proceeds go to supporting local readers and writers, and to causes that fit our mission of supporting reading as a liberatory practice. Our business model is based on sustainable practices and we are deeply immersed in the circular economy.

Our collection is mostly secondhand, with a small but excellent selection of new books, by women, trans* and queer writers.