Lavender Menace

Abolition and Liberation Study Group
2024-06-18 18:00 - 20:00, 2024-06-11 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London) | Midlothian
Weekly 6-8pm on Tuesdays: 11th, 18th, 25th June & 2nd July

‘Abolition’ describes an outlook towards the world that works to dismantle systems of oppression that maintain and perpetrate forms of injustice. Contemporary abolitionists argue that prisons and the police (among other institutions) are key mechanisms of anti-black, racist, classist, ableist, trans- and queerphobic oppression. Abolitionists claim that dismantling these systems an essential component of liberation struggles; and propose alternative ways of organising the world and living our lives to address the issues that these systems claim to solve. We draw from long histories of resistance to oppression to ground our ideas.

This reading group will read and discuss a mix of essays and books on these subjects. We will look at recent texts addressing these issues from feminist, queer and trans perspectives. We will focus on thinking about the intersections of gender, sexuality and race with carceral systems, along with ‘deviant’, wayward, and collective approaches to resistance and to supporting people affected by such systems.

This material requires being open to learning. All are welcome, no matter your knowledge or experience of abolition.

About Nat

Nat Raha is a poet and activist-scholar. She’s organised with a number of queer and trans collectives, including Edinburgh Action for Trans Health and MATE (Mutual Aid Trans Edinburgh). She co-edits Radical Transfeminism zine with Mijke van der Drift, who together are co-authors of Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds (Pluto Press, forthcoming 2024).

Booking information

Book your free ticket

Booking in advance is essential. Your booking covers all four sessions to allow the group to get to know each other. Places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.

Preparation

This material requires being open to learning. All are welcome, no matter your knowledge or experience of abolition. We will send

Venue & Accessibility

The sessions are located at the archive in Edinburgh Palette. Visit our accessibility page for information on how to get to us on public transport and by car, along with access information.

Any other questions

Please email us: themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk

Lus na Tùise
2024-06-01 15:00 - 17:00 | Midlothian
Disathairne 1mh an Ogmhìos – Lus na Tùise – 3f-5fBithibh còmhla ri Marcas Mac an Tuairneir, bàrd, seinneadair is neach-breithneachaidh, airson còmhradh le Mia Suhaimi fad feasgar de leughadh rogha dhàn a chòig co-chruinneachaidhean, cho math ri cnuasachadh litreachas cuèir na Gàidhlig, nar tasglann-chuèir failteachail.Saturday 1st June – Lus na Tùise – 3pm-5pmJoin poet, singer and critic Marcas Mac an Tuairneir in conversation with Mia Suhaimi for an afternoon reading of selected poems from his five collections, and discussion of queer Gaelic literature in our friendly queer archive.

BookingBooking in advance is essential as places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.

Venue & AccessibilityThe event is at the archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information on how to get to us on public transport and by car is here, along with access information: https://lavendermenace.org.uk/how-to-find-us-accessibility-information

Any other questionsPlease email us: themenaces@lavendermenace.org.ukThis event is part-funded by The Gaelic Books Council

Social Sunday
2024-05-26 14:00 - 16:00, 2024-05-12 14:00 - 16:00, 2024-04-28 14:00 - 16:00, 2024-04-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Midlothian
On the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month, the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive is open 2pm-4pm for our informal Social Sundays. Join us for tea, cake and lots of queer book discussion!

There is no need to sign up in advance, you can just turn up.

Social Sundays are a great way to learn more about the archive and chat about your favourite LGBTQ+ books. You can come with friends or on your own – our volunteers will make you feel welcome.

Venue & Accessibility

Social Sundays take place at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information about accessibility and how to get to us on public transport and by car is available on our website: How To Find Us and Accessibility Information.

Any other questions

Please email us: themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk

“Indecent and obscene” - 40 years since Operation Tiger
2024-04-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Midlothian
40 years ago, customs officers launched “Operation Tiger”. They seized books destined for LGBTQ+ bookshops Gay’s the Word in London and Lavender Menace in Edinburgh.

Join us for an evening with Graham McKerrow, Sarah Pyke, and Sigrid Nielsen to discuss Operation Tiger, obscenity, and queer bookselling in the 1980s.

This event will be held online with panellists joining us from Edinburgh, Cambridge, and London. Please book a ticket and we will email you a link on the day of the event.

About the panellists

Graham McKerrow is a journalist and political activist who edited leading gay and HIV/AIDS publications. He trained as a journalist on local newspapers and in 1980 he joined Gay News as a reporter and investigated police harassment and failings. The following year he co-founded and then co-edited Capital Gay. In response to Operation Tiger, he coordinated the Defend Gay’s the Word Campaign. In the 1990s, he edited the magazine Positive Nation for people with HIV/AIDS. He then spent 15 years at the Guardian, ultimately as editor of the Guardian and Observer Syndication Service.

Sigrid Nielsen is a graduate of St John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In Edinburgh in 1979 she joined Bob Orr in Open Gaze, the bookstall he ran at Edinburgh Gay Centre, and worked in other bookselling and publishing groups. She and Bob opened Lavender Menace, Scotland’s first Lesbian and Gay Community Bookshop, as a partnership in 1982. Sigrid managed author readings, mail order lists, and bookshop events. She co-edited In Other Words: Writing as a Feminist (Hutchinson Education, 1987) and published articles and short stories. In 2019, she and Bob revived Lavender Menace as an LGBT+ books archive and heritage organisation.

Dr Sarah Pyke is Munby Fellow in Bibliography 2023–2024 at Cambridge University Library and a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. She has taught at London Rare Books School, Anglia Ruskin University, and the University of Roehampton and has held fellowships at the School of Advanced Study’s Institute of English Studies and Freie Universität Berlin. With Malcolm Noble, she has recently written on queer bibliography, and a co-edited special issue of The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America on this emerging sub-discipline will be published in June 2024. With Leila Kassir, Sarah co-curated the online exhibition Seized Books! LGBTQ+ books and censorship in 1980s Britain for Senate House Library, University of London.

Venue & Accessibility

The event will take place online over Zoom. If you have accessibility requirements, please email themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk.

Any other questions

Please email themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk.

Lesbian Words
2024-04-21 14:15 - 16:15 | Midlothian
Following the success of our Lesbian Words discussion group, we invite new members to join our monthly informal book club to discuss literature by lesbians and queer women.

This month, we are discussing how writing helps us survive as lesbians and queer women. We will also include a short writing session. You are welcome to bring along any text, poem, or excerpt you are reading or writing if you would like to share it.

Booking information

This event is free but booking in advance is essential as places are limited. If you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.

Venue & Accessibility

The sessions are located at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information about accessibility and how to get to us on public transport and by car is available on our website: How To Find Us and Accessibility Information.

Any other questions

Please email us: themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk

Queer comics workshop with Jem Milton
2024-03-23 12:00 - 14:00 | Midlothian
Saturday 23rd March

Doors: 11:30am, Event: 12-2pm

Comic artist Jem Milton will run a workshop exploring LGBTQ+ identity in comics. We will discuss queer representation in comics and Jem will reflect on their own process of creating queer stories and characters. Jem will also lead an activity which will explore character creation and illustration. The Flying Ship has an incredible cast of queer characters, and we can’t wait to hear Jem’s ideas for how we can create our own.

You don’t need to be an artist to join, and this workshop isn’t designed to be a technical “how-to” guide. We encourage you to explore your creativity and get some inspiration for creating your own comic characters!

Book your ticket

About Jem MiltonJem Milton is a comic artist and illustrator based in Glasgow. Their work focus around the themes of exploring identity and navigating a cisgender/heteronormative world through a queer lens. Their ongoing webcomic The Flying Ship was released in print this year through Dark Horse Comics. As well as creating comics and artwork they also enjoy knitting, gaming and hanging out with their two cats.

Booking informationBooking in advance is essential. Places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.

A recorded version will be available on our YouTube channel after the event – you don’t need to book for this, but sign up to our newsletter to find out when it’s available.

Venue & AccessibilityThe event will take place at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information about accessibility and how to get to us on public transport and by car is available on our website: How To Find Us and Accessibility Information.

Any other questionsPlease email themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk.

Love from the Pink Palace - In Conversation with Jill Nalder
2024-03-14 19:00 - 22:00 | Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED, Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED, United Kingdom
Date and time:  Thursday 14 March at 7pm
Location:  Traverse Theatre, 10 Cambridge St, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED
Ticket price:  £18 (£30 with copy of the book which will be available to collect at the event). Save 20% off ticket price with an early bird offer – available until 14th February!
Book your ticket on EventBrite
Join Waverley Care for an evening with Jill Nalder, the inspiration behind Channel 4’s smash hit It’s a Sin, to celebrate her five-star memoir Love from the Pink Palace: Memories of Love, Loss, and Cabaret through the AIDS Crisis.
Tickets cost £18 / £30 including book. Save 20% using code EarlyBird until 14 February.
Entry includes the opportunity to meet Jill and have your copy of Love from the Pink Palace signed. Donations from ticket sales will help Waverley Care to be there for anyone in Scotland affected by HIV.
Jill will discuss the highs and lows of life in the 1980’s as the AIDS crisis emerged, the legacy her activism has created, and how her experiences were transformed into the critically acclaimed TV series It’s a Sin.
Jill’s memoir is filled with stories of injustice, stigma, and tragedy but also, above all else, love. Love that informed the drive for change, love that created communities of people fighting together, and the love for remembering this important history.
Book your place to find out how Jill’s story got the nation talking about HIV, and how you can #BeMoreJill too.
The Traverse Theatre bar will be open before and after the event to meet your fellow audience members and discuss the impact Jill’s book has had. Lavender Menace will also be hosting a pop-up book stall at the event, to keep your TBR pile topped up.
Supported by Edinburgh Art Festival and Lavender Menace.

K Patrick in conversation with Éadaoín Lynch
2024-02-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Midlothian
Wednesday 21st February
Doors: 6.30pm, Event: 7-8pm
Join us at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive for a brilliant event with K Patrick, in conversation with Éadaoín Lynch!
They will discuss K’s incredible debut novel Mrs S, which is a favourite among the Lavender Menace team thanks to the gorgeous prose, exploration of butch identity, and intriguing boarding school setting.
We will also be treated to poetry readings from both K and Éadaoín. We can’t wait to hear their conversation about the overlapping themes in their work.
Book your ticket
About Éadaoín LynchÉadaoín Lynch is an Irish poet & researcher based in Edinburgh. They are co-editor of Re·creation: A Queer Poetry Anthology with Alycia Pirmohamed, and their own poetry has appeared in Gutter and The North Magazine, among others. Éadaoín has performed as a headliner act at multiple events and festivals around the UK, and their work has been shortlisted for both the Jane Martin Poetry Prize and the London Magazine Poetry Prize. Fierce Scrow, their debut poetry pamphlet, launched in 2022 with Nine Pens Press.

About K Patrick

K Patrick is a writer based in Scotland. Their poetry has appeared in Poetry Review, Granta and Five Dials, and was shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize in 2021, the same year that K was also shortlisted for The White Review’s Short Story Prize. In 2023 they were shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award.
Their debut novel, Mrs S, published by Fourth Estate (UK) and Europa (US) was selected as an Observer Best Debut of the Year, and K was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelists for 2023. Their debut poetry collection, Three Births, will be published by Granta Poetry in March 2024.

Booking informationBooking in advance is essential. Places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.
A recorded version will be available on our YouTube channel after the event – you don’t need to book for this, but sign up to our newsletter to find out when it’s available.
Venue & AccessibilityThe event will take place at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information about accessibility and how to get to us on public transport and by car is available on our website: How To Find Us and Accessibility Information.
Any other questionsPlease email themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk.

Queer Joy
2024-02-18 12:15 - 2024-03-17 14:15 | Midlothian
12:15pm – 2:15pm on Sundays

18 Feburary, 25 February, 3 March & 17 March

Join us at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive for four discussion sessions centring on queer joy in literature. These free and informal sessions will be led by our Communications Assistant, Anna Broomfield.

This group will celebrate and seek out literature which captures the joy of being queer. We will decide what to discuss together, but we might cover themes such as gender euphoria, love/romance, found family, confidence and freedom. We’ll discuss books in the archive and contemporary ones too.

Book your ticket
Booking information
Booking in advance is essential. Your booking covers all four sessions to allow the group to get to know each other. Places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.
Preparation
You do not need to prepare anything in advance if you do not want to, but you are welcome to bring your favourite book, story, image, or poem to the first meeting to share with the group. Each week we will give you short extracts to take home with you and read.
Venue & Accessibility
The sessions are located at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information about accessibility and how to get to us on public transport and by car is available on our website: How To Find Us and Accessibility Information.
Any other questions
Please email Anna Broomfield, Communications Assistant: anna.broomfield@lavendermenace.org.uk.

Reimagining the archive with Mae Diansangu and Shane Strachan
2024-02-17 13:30 - 15:00 | Midlothian
Saturday 17th February
Doors: 1:30pm
Event: 2pm-3pm
Join us at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive for an afternoon of readings and discussion on how to reimagine archives. We will explore representation in archives through an intersectional lens and interrogate how we can ensure queer stories are preserved. We look forward to sharing this fascinating and important conversation with you!
Mae Diansangu is a queer poet and spoken word artist from Aberdeen. She has performed at literary festivals across Scotland and appeared on BBC Scotland’s Big Scottish Book Club and BBC Radio 4’s Tongue and Talk. Her series of poems “black lives, heavy truths” is part of the National Library of Scotland’s collection. You can read her work in the anthologies “Tales fae the Doric Side” and “Re creation – a queer poetry anthology”. Mae writes in both English and Doric, and her first collection BLOODSONGS (Tapsalteerie) will be published in Autumn 2024.
Shane Strachan’s debut poetry collection DWAMS will be published in April by Tapsalteerie. He was awarded Scots Champion at the 2023 Scots Language Awards following his year as the National Library of Scotland’s Scots Scriever. His previous works include novella Nevertheless: Sparkian Tales in Bulawayo (amaBooks), podcast, film and exhibition The Bill Gibb Line, and multiple poems and stories in Gutter, New Writing Scotland, Northwords Now, Stand and others. His poetry has also appeared on BBC Radio 4 and in Aberdeen Art Gallery. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Aberdeen where he now lectures in Creative Writing.
Book your ticket
Booking information
Booking in advance is essential. Places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.
Venue & Accessibility
The event will take place at the Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information about accessibility and how to get to us on public transport and by car is available on our website: How To Find Us and Accessibility Information.
Any other questions
Please email themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk.

Gay Men’s Literary Discussion Group
2024-01-21 12:15 - 2024-02-08 14:15 | Midlothian
Lavender Menace Queer Book Archive presents a series of four free and informal sessions with David A. Allan.
Weekly 12.15-2.15pm on Sundays: 21st & 28th January, 4th & 11th February
Each week participants can enjoy conversation about gay books and gay writing. For every session the group will decide on a theme or genre, and participants can suggest published extracts or texts to discuss. Participants do not need to prepare anything in advance, but are welcome to bring along a text or extract from a piece of published gay writing that you feel a connection with. The theme for the first meeting will be Happiness / Identity. Each week the archive will prepare short extracts for the group to explore which you are free to take away and read.
This will be an informal discussion group for people who enjoy reading and talking about how gay writing has impacted our lives.
These sessions are for anyone who identifies as a gay or queer man and wants to discuss books.

Book your ticket
Booking
Booking in advance is essential. Your booking covers all four sessions to allow the group to get to know each other. Places are limited to 10 so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.
Venue & Accessibility
The sessions are located at the archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information on how to get to us on public transport and by car is here, along with access information: https://lavendermenace.org.uk/how-to-find-us-accessibility-information
Any other questions
Please email us: themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk

Social Sunday: Escape from Christmas
2023-12-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Midlothian
This is an informal drop-in event with conversation, refreshments, and music from Nikki and Laure. No need to book, just come for as long as you would like.

Lesbian Words
2023-11-28 08:00 - 17:00 | Midlothian
Following the success of our Lesbian Words discussion group, we are opening up to new members for a monthly informal gathering to discuss literature by lesbians and queer women. Bring along a text, poem, or excerpt you are reading or one you want to share with the group.
Booking
Booking in advance is essential as places are limited so, if you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to someone else.
Venue & Accessibility
The sessions are located at the archive in Edinburgh Palette. Information on how to get to us on public transport and by car is here, along with access information: https://lavendermenace.org.uk/how-to-find-us-accessibility-information
Any other questions
Please email us: themenaces@lavendermenace.org.uk
