Sara Ahmed – ‘Behind many disasters are unheard complaints’

A moving exploration of the solace and power of listening in an unjust world, from the author of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook‘ launched by Five Leaves a couple of years back
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 Ahmed is a feminist writer and independent scholar who works at the intersection of feminist, queer and race studies. Her research is concerned with how bodies and worlds take shape; and how power is secured and challenged in everyday life worlds as well as institutional cultures.

You may also like the following events from Five Leaves Bookshop:

• This Tuesday, 30th September, 07:00 pm, Lost Boys: How Education is Failing Young Working Class Men, with author Alex Blower in Nottingham
• Next Wednesday, 8th October, 07:00 pm, Adventures in poetry, with Andrew Taylor and Cliff Yates in Nottingham
• Next Thursday, 9th October, 07:00 pm, A translation event with Agnes Lidbeck and Nichola Smalley in Nottingham

Also check out other Arts events in Nottingham, Literary Art events in Nottingham, Sports events in Nottingham.