We’ve been busy since the Utopian Acts conference/festival in 2018 – last night, on May Day, we held a triple launch at Birkbeck, University of London. We brought into the world:
⭐️ The Studies in Arts and Humanities Journal Utopian Acts special issue, an open access behemoth of some of our very favourite critical writing on utopia. The special issue runs to over 170 pages, with reflections on the Utopian Acts conference; utopian poetics and poetry; critiques of utopian activism in Australia, Turkey, the Basque Country, and Brazil; insightful work on radical sexual violence organisations, Brexit, the 2018 UCU strikes in the UK; and a provocation on utopian ecocriticsm. We’re really proud of it, and it’s available to read for free and in open access on the SAHJ website now.
💥 Help Us Build the World, an anthology zine of utopian and activist art, fiction, storytelling games, and manifestos, available to buy and download here. Contributors to the zine included artists and writers who had participated at the conference and in the special issue, along with members our sister collective, the Beyond Gender Collective, whose Beyond Gender Manifesto is published in a remixed form in the zine and will be available to read in a more expansive form on our website in the coming weeks.
⚡️ Last but not least, the Utopian Acts Library, a transient library of fiction, criticism, poetry and graphic novels about utopia and activism. An experiment in collective book distribution, users of the library will hopefully be able to borrow and trade books within London and beyond, and are encouraged to add to the library and annotate books for future readers. You can read more about the library, and inquire about borrowing books, here.
Have a look at photos from the launch party here! Thank you so much to everyone who came last night – it was a wonderful, energising, enriching party. It’s becoming increasingly clear to us that the utopia we want is already happening – get involved in whatever way you can!
