“We read … to work through our pain, to situate ourselves in a legacy and to understand the cyclical nature of our political demands.”

Lola Olufemi, writer and activist

The Poetry Translation Centre’s Radical Approached Reading Group returns in January. We will be kicking off 2021 with a strong dose of Revolutionary Optimism. After the tough year we all experienced in 2020, the reading group look at key texts that help us imagine and fight for a better world.

These sessions will be led by Brazilian poet, artist and activist Adelaide Ivánova. In this season we will be looking at a range of different types of writing from academic texts to fiction, and each session will start with a short poetry reading.

Free sessions - Accessible from around the world

The reading group is open environment where everyone is invited to read and learn together. In our first season, we benefited from participants from across the world, London, Yorkshire, Portugal, the UEA and South Africa.

The Radical Approaches Reading Group is FREE but you can make a donation to the PTC when you book your place. we encourage participants to commit to attending all six sessions.

Our facilitator

Adelaide Ivánova is a Brazilian poet artist (b. Recife, 1982). She lives between Berlin and Cologne. Her first poetry collection, O Martelo (The Hammer) won the Rio de Janeiro Poetry Prize in 2018. Her work has been featured in English in Clinic and Alba Londres.

What our participants are saying

“a wonderful open-mindedness and enthusiasm for discussion … a diverse group with honest and thoughtful responses”

“To be able to listen to the perspectives of others. It is a way a good way to share thoughts about themes, ways of knowing and thinking, and it is good to grasp what others find in the same text. That is fun: same text, same author, same words but different ideas about it.”

When and where

Lead by Adelaide Ivánova these six sessions will run via Zoom at 2pm Sunday every two weeks from January 24 to April 4. We will send you a chapter from a key text relating to the theme Revolutionary Optimism to read before each session.

At the sessions themselves, everyone will have a chance to ask questions and share their thoughts. We will have a complete list of text in early January.