Edinburgh Book Festival: The World Around Us

For 2018, Edinburgh International Book Festival is exploring the theme of freedom, a particularly important notion at present. Across this week, there have been a number of exceptional events that spotlight world-shifting movements, questionisms, and consider one's place in society today. Here are a few that took stock of the world around us today.

Freedom Debate: Precarious Freedoms: Queer Perspectives from Around the World
What does it mean to be queer and free in 2018? Precarious is the collective answer from this panel of LGBTQ+ artists. Co-curated by Queer Dive Party, this evening’s Freedom Debate is less a debate and more a community of solidarity.

The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, a play about Jesus coming back to Earth as a transgender woman, by Jo Clifford takes centre stage of the event. Clifford explains how writing the play and identifying as a woman came hand-in-hand while Susan Worsfold explains her work as a director and in voice work. Natalia Mallo, the play’s Brazilian director and translator describes how she took the work to her home country and the trials and tribulations of getting the play performed. Anecdotes from censorship to armed police removing seats to transphobic hate groups’ intentions to shoot the play’s star are met by a shocked audience.

Chitra Nagarajan, editor of She Called Me Woman, a collection of queer Nigerian women’s stories, reads extracts from the book emphasising that there is no one homogenous queer narrative – every experience and every narrative is unique. Rounding off the panel is the writer and performer Travis Alabanza who delivers a passionate piece of spoken word written after they were attacked for being visibly trans in public.

It's an emotional and electric night with passionate discussions on intersectionality, multiplicity, and the precarious nature of being queer today, no matter where in the world or who in the world you are. [Katie Goh]

Afua Hirsch: Forged Identities
Conversations around race and identity in the UK have never been more toxic in Afua’s lifetime. Brit(ish) is a search for that identity, exploring the everyday racism that plagues British society.

Afua wrote Brit(ish) because she needed to, for herself. Upon publication, her work has been proven: the Times review was full of contempt, and the gratitude narrative of Britain “letting her in” and that she should be unconditionally grateful sprawled double-page spreads. “Exhibit A,” she quips. Britain is nostalgic and willfully ignorant to preserve that view. She, for raising facts outwith the narrow thread of victory narratives, was dubbed ‘the woman who wants to destroy British history.’ “History always informs our present,” she says. “I  want to remember history, not erase it.”

Cutting straight to the heart of Britain today, we meet at a crossroads in the country’s future. One side is toxic, the other claims it doesn’t see race. Afua navigates the extreme opportunity and threat that could lie ahead in an articulate and engaging hour, where we need to see issues clearly to address them. She sees glimmers of hope coming through – spaces opening up where people are listening. “It’s minor steps, but it matters.” [Heather McDaid]

Rose McGowan: A Brave Woman
“This is not a tell-all. It’s a tell it how it is.” These words perfectly capture Rose McGowan’s book Brave, and her hour at the Edinburgh International Book Festival alongside journalist Afua Hirsch. McGowan is an established actress and director, activist and now author, a thought leader and agent of change. As a feminist whistleblower, she was at the forefront of the movement to break the silence and has openly been fighting the machine. Read our full feature on the Rose McGowan event

June Sarpong: We’re All in this Together
“We're not set up for anyone who doesn’t fit the able-bodied norm,” explains June, recalling her experiences after a car accident in her teens. One in five people in the UK have a disability; they are twice as likely to be unemployed. Society is set up in favour of one narrow set of people.

It’s an idea she explores in Diversify. It seeps across society – to women, people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, whose talents are excluded. “Think of what we’ve lost, and what we continue to lose." June has action points: challenge your isms, check your circle, celebrate difference. In troubling times, it’s easy to retreat to comfort zones, to people like ourselves. She brings constructive and challenging ideas to bridge the gaps between sides to avoid extremes.

Her goal is to create a framework that allows as many people as possible to reach their full potential. It’s a common goal in the room, and through a fascinating hour from June, there’s hope that little by little, with everyone challenging their own isms, it’s achievable. [Heather McDaid]

Adam Kay: Doctor in the House?
Junior doctors are under attack, with the Government proclaiming they were striking due to greed. The Government has a loud voice, and so Adam Kay published This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor to shout back.

Adam reads diary excerpts, some hilarious, some weird, others utterly devastating. Strained relationships, harrowing conversations with patients, death. This is part of the job. A stiff upper lip is expected, all in a day’s work. Overworked, thinly-stretched - it was too much for Adam and, increasingly, is seeing more leave the profession as years go by.

Next time the Government attacks the NHS and shifts blame, he has one simple hope. “See the other side. Help Junior Doctors by being part of the conversation.”

An exceptional event ends in an angry, passionate declaration: no one would do this job for the money, and the Government daring to say so risks one of the country’s most vital institutions and is a statement of contempt and disrespect to those putting others’ lives before their own. He raises a laugh, and rallies to his battle cry - the risk is too great to ignore. [Heather McDaid]

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Edinburgh International Book Festival 2018 takes place until 27 Aug at Charlotte Square