The Radical Reading Room at the Ascension Church is a space to remember the radical campaigning history of Ascension Church Hulme, in particular the Viraj Mendis Defence Campaign, from which emerged many of Manchester’s network of small organisations which support refugees and asylum seekers.
~ It’s a space to keep connections between the Church and social movements for peace and justice (whatever their relation to faith) alive in the here and now.
~ A space to imagine and create pathways to a world-to-come: a world based on justice and peace where harms are few, where there will be a flourishing of all living beings.
The current collection of books, which we plan to develop, is a small collection gifted by local elders in social movements, with a particular emphasis on Black Studies and Women’s Studies as well as papers from local anti-racist and anti-deportation struggles and a collection of political theology.
Radical Reading Room lunches
From September onwards we will be hosting a monthly chat in the Radical Reading Room at the Ascension Church, about radical reading, prompted by one of the themes in the collection in the Reading Room. There will be a brief (15 minutes at most) introduction and a bit of reading together, followed by a discussion. Please bring a lunch if you would like to.
Dates
Thursday 22 Sept 1-2pm
Thursday 13 Oct 1-2pm
Thursday 17 Nov 1-2pm
The first session on 22 September will be a brief introduction to ‘Report from the Bahamas’ (1982) by June Jordan, a text that was often used to start Women’s Studies teaching. In it the African-Caribbean-American poet June Jordan opens up the questions of consciousness of sex and race and class, what can make us monsters to one another, what it might mean ‘to get the monsters off our backs’ and how we creates the basis for living on common ground.
If you are interested in adding to the collection of books or finding about more about the radical reading room, please contact Janet Batsleer and Margaret Beetham at radicalreadingroom@ascensionchurchhulme.com.