On Wednesday 27th May 2026, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a talk & discussion of the edited collection We Will Rise Again – speculative stories on protest, resistance and hope. The event will be held at Redz, 6 Threadneedle St, Stroud – and is free to attend.
We Will Rise Again mixes fiction and non-fiction and explores the value of speculation in informing movements on disability justice, environmentalism, community care and anticolonial resistance. Editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, and Malka Older champion realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers across the world. Authors include NK Jemisin, Charlie Jane Anders, Alejandro Heredia, Sam J. Miller, Nisi Shawl, and Sabrina Vourvoulias.
Below in our resources section you can find a link to buy the book at a discount, and free text, audio and visual resources. There is also more information about the books and Stroud Radical Reading Group events.
We will meet at Redz Youth Hub, 6 Threadneedle St, GL5 1AF. Entry is free butplease bring some cash if you can afford to donate to cover venue costs.
Anyone interested in the books is welcome – we recommend reading one or other of the books but you don’t need to have read either to join us. You do not need to have attended any of our previous sessions. 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.
“Each story is grounded within a broader sociopolitical framework using essays and interviews from movement leaders, including adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, charting the future history of protest, revolutions, and resistance with the same zeal for accuracy that speculative writers normally bring to science and technology. Using the vehicle of ambitious storytelling, We Will Rise Again offers effective tools for organizing, an unflinching interrogation of the status quo, and a blueprint for prefiguring a different world.”
Resources
Buy “We Will Rise Again” – £15.29 with discount (RRP £17.99, saving £2.70).To get the discount from The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: Look at your “basket”, and enter the “couponcode” 26stroudradical. Pick up your book from their Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage.
Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash if you can afford it (a few pounds would be great).
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.
The venue for this session is Redz Youth Hub, a hub for organising, creativity, and community building. It’s a free space for young people to host their own events, workshops, and meetups. They’ve been hosting sessions by Mutiny: Stroud’s Youth Assembly and The RYSE – the Radical Youth Space for Educations.
Redz is in central Stroud, close to the train station and bus station, with nearby stands to lock bikes, and parking for cars nearby at Fawkes Place or Church St car park. There is step-free access to the ground floor where we will meet. There is a toilet, and some comfortable seating as well as basic folding chairs. 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.
There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub (around the corner) for anyone who wants to continue chatting after 9.30pm.
We’ll meet at 10 John St – the old Electric Bike Shop, next to the Ale House pub and currently home to Access Bike/Creative Sustainability. More info on the venue below.
As publishers Verso say: “The Care Manifesto puts care at the heart of the debates of our current crisis: from intimate care—childcare, healthcare, elder care—to care for the natural world. We live in a world where carelessness reigns, but it does not have to be this way.”
On this webpage you can find free resources including free downloads of two chapters and a free online version of the whole book, details to buy a copy of the book at a discount, and information about the author, the book, how our sessions work, and the venue.
We will focus our discussion on chapters 3 and 6, and the following questions. Thanks to Benjamin – who will introduce the session – for coming up with these:
What can we do to create more caring kinships/communities/states?
Is there a conflict between indiscriminate and emotionally invested care? Can/should either be enforced?
In a world so empty of care, should caring people extend their care as far as possible to make up for this, or is it enough to care as much as they would in a caring world?
What role does the state have in a non-hierarchical caring society?
We enourage people to read the whole 97 page book but you are also welcome to listen to the discussion and ask questions even if you haven’t read the book (or engaged with other the free resources).
Resources related to the book are available below – most are free. We like to ensure everyone can attendee our sessions and get something out of them even if they can’t afford to buy a copy of the book or the time to read it. We would encourage people to read/listen to as much as possible, but you are welcome to attend and listen along even if you are unable to engage with any of the below. Audio/visual materials are provided for anyone who prefers these to reading – don’t feel you have to read content to attend the ‘reading’ group. The aim is to discuss the ideas – however they have been presented.
We’ll meet at 10 John St – the old Electric Bike Shop, next to the Ale House pub and currently home to Access Bike/Creative Sustainability. There’s one small step to enter the shop, then access is level. There are a couple of sofas and some harder chairs. There’s good lighting, and lots of room. It’s not an easy space to keep warm but there are heaters and some blankets. If you have any questions about acessibility or the venue, please get in touch.
About the author and the book
The Care Collective was formed in 2017, originally as a London-based reading group aiming to understand and address the multiple and extreme crises of care. Each coming from a different discipline, we have been active both collectively and individually in diverse personal, academic and political contexts. Members include: Andreas Chatzidakis, Jamie Hakim, Jo Littler, Catherine Rottenberg, and Lynne Segal.
Publishers Verso say:
The Care Manifesto puts care at the heart of the debates of our current crisis: from intimate care—childcare, healthcare, elder care—to care for the natural world. We live in a world where carelessness reigns, but it does not have to be this way.
The Care Manifesto puts forth a vision for a truly caring world. The authors want to reimagine the role of care in our everyday lives, making it the organising principle in every dimension and at every scale of life. We are all dependent on each other, and only by nurturing these interdependencies can we cultivate a world in which each and every one of us can not only live but thrive.
The Care Manifesto demands that we must put care at the heart of the state and the economy. A caring government must promote collective joy, not the satisfaction of individual desire. This means the transformation of how we organise work through co-operatives, localism and nationalisation. It proposes the expansion of our understanding of kinship for a more ‘promiscuous care’. It calls for caring places through the reclamation of public space, to make a more convivial city. It sets out an agenda for the environment, most urgent of all, putting care at the centre of our relationship to the natural world.”
Endorsements:
“The Care Manifesto is a radiant invitation to transform our economy and society, a roadmap for how we can emerge from overlapping crises and weave a new social fabric. The ethic of universal care is an antidote to the spiralling carelessness that our current system shows towards people and the planet. The authors understand that care is not a commodity: it’s a practice, a core value, and an organizing principle on which a new politics can and must be built.” – Naomi Klein
“This manifesto is a call to action for global progressives. The Care Collective shows the “systemic carelessness” of existing political, economic, and kinship orders are broken both for humans and the planet. They demonstrate that capacious care offers a practical and already existing starting point for change on all levels” – Joan Tronto, author of Caring Democracy
“In showing us the power of mutual aid, coalition-building and solidarity, this book aids us in ensuring our activism is enacted through our daily actions within our communities and that whilst change starts within us, it doesn’t end there” – Adele Walton, gal-dem
Our next three events in 2019 form a summer series on Climate and Environmental Crises – see our upcoming events page for more details. We will discuss Down to Earth by Bruno Latour on 15th May, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore on 19th June, and The Challenge for Africa by Wangari Maathai on 17th July (see below for more details).
Poster for Summer Series on Climate and Environmental Crises
Each event will take place at the Black Book Cafe, Nelson St, Stroud from 7.30-9.30pm. Events are free to attend but we ask for a donation of £2-3 from anyone who can afford it to cover venue costs. Please contact us about any accessibility requirements. A printable pdf of the poster above is available to print, if you would like to help us publicise the events.
Stroud Radical Reading Group meets once a month. Here you can find details of sessions, links, and further information
Stroud Radical Reading Group 