On Wednesday 23rd July 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of Syria Speaks Art and Culture from the Frontline (free entry). We will meet at Coco Caravan (a short distance from the town centre train or bus station, with a limited amount of parking available nearby at Fawkes Place). Coco Caravan are hosting an exhibition of work by Cammy Leon, “Hope & Imagining – Syria’s past and future”, which will run from 10th July to 9th August. Before the reading group session, there will be an event at the exhibition from 5.30-7pm, for people to gather, explore the artwork, buy hot chocolate and hopefully poetry from a Syrian living locally (entry with a donation to the White Helmets).

Syria Speaks is not a conventional book—it’s a kaleidoscopic collection of art, stories, essays, poems, cartoons, photography, and graffiti that documents the Syrian people’s creative resistance during the early years of the revolution that began in 2011 (written in 2012 and 2013). Compiled by Syrian and international editors, it gives voice to those who dared to challenge repression with words, images, and dreams.

The book is diverse in medium and voice—from tragic personal narratives to bold graphic art, from lyrical poetry to bitter satire—and it is united by a deep commitment to freedom of expression and the courage to imagine something beyond dictatorship and violence.

Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, content notes, free audio/visual resources, and a recently published short article about the current situation in Syria. There is also more information about the book and its editors.

Entry to the reading group session is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before.

We encourage people to read the whole book, but you are welcome to attend to listen to the discussion without reading any of it. We have collated some short sections, audio-visual material and an article for those who do not have the time or money for the whole book (these are available as previews on Google Books):

• Introduction and Hama ’82 (pages vii-1)
• Between the cultures of sectarianism & citizenship by Hassan Abbas (pages 48-59)
• The Art of Persuasion by Anonymous Artists Collective (pages 66-77)

This event follows our event on Burning Country in June last year, and the fall of the Assad regime since.

Content notes:

The book deals with repression, war and genocide – involving specifically violence, murder, death, torture, police brutality, rape and sexual violence, injury, grief, death of parents, blood and gore.

About the book:

In Syria, culture became the critical line of defence against tyranny. Villagers have joined the cultural frontline alongside urban intellectuals, artists, writers and filmmakers and to create art and literature that challenge official narratives. With contributions by over fifty artists and writers, both established and emerging, Syria Speaks explores the explosion of creativity and free expression by the Syrian people.

They have become their own publishers on the Internet and formed anonymous artists collectives which are actively working in their country’s war zones. The art and writing featured in this book, including literature, poems and songs as well as cartoons, political posters and photographs, document and interpret the momentous changes that have shifted the frame of reality so drastically in Syria.

About the editors:

Malu Halasa is a London-based writer, journalist, and editor with a focus on Palestine, Iran, and Syria. She is Literary Editor at The Markaz Review, and was the curator of Art of the Palestinian Poster at the P21 Gallery, as part the Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture Festival, from 23 May to 14 June 2025.

Zaher Omareen is a Syrian writer and researcher based in London. He has worked on independent cultural initiatives in Syria and Europe, and co-curated exhibitions on the art of the Syrian uprising. He is currently working on a collection of short stories drawn from the collective memories of the 1982 Hama massacre.

Nawara Mahfoud is a Syrian journalist and documentary producer who has worked for the New York Times. She blogs for the New Yorker, among other publications.

About the Exhibition 

A bold collection of four digital art prints centres the courage and defiance of the Syrian revolution. Through striking visual storytelling, two of the series honours key figures who embodied the spirit of resistance: Mazen Hamada, Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, and May Skaf—each a symbol of unwavering dignity in the face of repression.

Two of the works evoke collective liberation: one captures the moment Aleppo was liberated, Syrian and Palestinian flags raised in solidarity; the other shows a quiet revolution—people cycling freely through Damascus, reclaiming joy where it was once forbidden by the brutal Assad regime. This is a tribute to memory, movement, humanity and a future that refuses to die.

The exhibition is a fundraiser for the White Helmets. There will be an auction for the artworks, and donations collected on entry to the exhibition event and during the exhibition.

Resources

• Buy Syria Speaks from the Yellow Lighted Bookshop – RRP £14.99, £12.74 with discount (saving £2.25). To get a 15% discount: Look at your “basket”, and enter the “couponcode” 25stroudradical. Pick up book from Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage. If posting books, you may wish to buy other books we are reading this year
• This short article gives a vivid snapshot of early post-Assad Syria—where grassroots activists of all ages are reclaiming political space, pushing back against HTS’s religious conservatism, and building the beginnings of a pluralistic, left alternative rooted in social and economic justice.
• Listen to this 6 month old podcast episode dedicated to Omar Aziz, Razan Zeituneh and Alan Kurdi “Long Live the Syrian Revolution” (30 minutes, Politically Depressed podcast, embedded below).
• 8 month old podcast “Roundtable on Syria” (90 minutes, The Fire These Times podcast). “For episode 178, From the Periphery collective members Leila Al-Shami, Elia Ayoub, Karena Avedissian, and Ayman Makarem gathered together for a roundtable to discuss the latest developments in Syria and to provide a historical and political background to help understand the current moment.”
• Cartoon by Anarchist activist Omar Aziz, “Revolution in Every Country Comic Series: Episode 1 – Syria: Erasing an Inconvenient Revolution“
• Video recording of panel discussion from the “Discover Syria in Stroud” event held on Saturday 11th January 2025, marking the fall of the Assad regime. After a screening of For Sama, Emma from CSSD and Stroud Against Racism hosted a panel discussion, featuring Leila Al-Shami, British-Syrian activist and writer. She is co-author of ‘Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War’ and is co-founder of From The Periphery media collective; Robin Yassin-Kassab, a regular media commentator on Syria and the Middle East. He is the author of the novel The Road from Damascus (Penguin, 2009), contributor to Syria Speaks (Saqi, 2014), and – with Leila Al-Shami – the co-author of ‘Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War’; Rami Emad, a Syrian Refugee living locally (embedded below)

About our events

Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash.

We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. We do not want the sessions to feel like school – the idea is that everyone has something to contribute, even if primarily through finding the discussion texts difficult and having questions with other attendees can attempt to answer.

To ensure marginalised people feel welcome, we encourage care and thoughtful contributions that respect people’s identities and lives. We are an LGBTQ+ inclusive and anti-racist space.

Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing.

There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.

About the venue

We will meet at the Coco Caravan Cacao House (2 Bedford St, GL5 1AY). This is a venue connected to a chocolate studio which brings together people to share different cacao knowledges, specially selected chocolate varieties, and experience chocolate as a plant food of immense cultural, historical, and spiritual value.

This is close to the train station and not far from the bus station. There are stands to lock bikes to on the High St nearby, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. There are no toilets at the venue. There step free access the building. The room is well lit. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.