The North London neighbourhood of Stoke Newington boasts a rich literary history: Daniel Defoe once lived at 95 Church Street; Edgar Allen Poe went to school just down the road. The annual Stoke Newington Literary Festival, now in its fourth year, pays homage to the area’s tradition of radical thinking and literary values with a five-day programme of events, tours and talks.
The New Statesman is pleased to partner with the festival, in which several of our editors and writers will be participating. Highlights include:
Reads Like a Seven
Friday, 8pm. £4. Venue – Babble Jar
New Statesman deputy editor Helen Lewis joins Steven Poole, award-winning broadcaster/game developer Ste Curran and others in a revival of ‘Reads Like a Seven’, where they read out one of their pieces of games journalism. It’s curated and presented by New Yorker games contributor Simon Parkin (read Simon’s pieces for the NS here). Following a sell-out debut at last year’s GameCity 7 – where blogger Kieron Gillen described it as “a reminder of the breadth of what gaming is, what it means and, indirectly, how writers on games have wrestled down the immaterial” – this second iteration promises to “dispels any doubts that video games deserve to be considered alongside other art forms, either for their breadth of invention or the passions they provoke”.
Multiculturalism and the Rise of the Far Right
Sunday, 5pm. £5. Venue – Abney Public Hall
David Goodhart, director of think tank Demos, will be in conversation with New Statesman assistant editor Daniel Trilling. Goodhart has recently authored a controversial book, The British Dream: Successes and Failures of Post-war Immigration, advocating for reduced immigration to the UK and posing the argument that immigration can undermine national solidarity. Trilling’s book, Bloody Nasty People: the Rise of Britain’s Far Right, charts how the likes of the BNP and the EDL have exploited anti-immigration sentiment to pin the nation’s ills on to the shoulders of the vulnerable.
Why It’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere
Saturday, 3pm. £5. Venue – Abney Public Hall
BBC Newsnight’s economic editor Paul Mason contextualises worldwide dissent — the Arab Spring, Athens, and Quebec, as well as social unrest in the UK — in his updated best-seller Why It’s (Still) Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. He’s joined by New Statesman contributing editor Laurie Penny in offering insights and anecdotes on dissent and its role in the global future. How will social networking, the economic crisis and a new political consciousness ignite the next generation of radicals?
Tariq Ali in Conversation with Owen Jones
Sunday, 2pm. Venue – Stoke Newington Town Hall
Tariq Ali, filmmaker and author of over a dozen books on world history and politics including The Clash of Fundamentalisms and The Obama Syndrome, engages leading new Left voice and New Statesman contributor Owen Jones in a wide-ranging geopolitical discussion – in light of the reissue of Ali’s The Stalinist Legacy. Jones is the author of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class.
For the full events programme visit the festival website: www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com/the-programme
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