The Year It Should Have Been Freedom: An evening of literary solidarity with writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah

Join us in honouring Alaa's continuous struggle from the prison on Thursday 25 September from 6.30PM in the ground-floor Event Space at Pelican House London, at: 144 Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, E1 5QJ.

At the end of this month, it will be exactly one year since British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah should have been released from his latest prison sentence in Egypt.

To mark this 1 year date, Haymarket Books (co-host), Skindeep Magasine (co-host), Black Lives Matter UK, CAGE International, Abolitionist Futures - alongside the Free Alaa campaign - present an evening of literary solidarity, with a series of readings by acclaimed writers that honour Alaa’s ongoing struggle for freedom.

Alaa is Egypt's highest-profile political prisoner who rose to prominence during Egypt's 2011 revolution. He is an author, pro-democracy activist and father who has been imprisoned for over 10 years for his activism. On September 29th of last year, Alaa completed his latest five-year prison sentence - but Egyptian authorities refused to release him. The struggle to reunite Alaa with his family continues, from London to Cairo.

The evening will include readings from the following acclaimed writers and artists:

• Khalid Abdalla (Producer; Writer; Actor - The Square, The Kite Runner, United 93, The Crown; Playwright - Nowhere) 
• Harsha Walia (Author - Undoing Border Imperialism; Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism)
• Amrit Wilson (Author - Finding a Voice: Asian women in Britain; Hindutva and its Relationship to Zionism; The Threat of Liberation: Imperialism and Revolution in Zanzibar; Dreams Questions, Struggles: South Asian Women in Britain)
• Hazem Jamjoum (Writer, Translator - The Revolution of 1936-1939 in Palestine; No One Knows Their Blood Type)
• Omar Robert Hamilton (Author - The City Always Wins; Co-Editor - This Is Not a Border: Reflection & Reportage from the Palestine Festival of Literature, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated; Founder - Palestine Festival of Literature)
• Amelia Horgan (Author - Lost In Work: Escaping Capitalism)
• Sara Salem (Author - Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony, Co-Editor - Historical Materialism, Sociological Review)
• Nihal El Aasar (Author - VERSO Books)

100% of funds from ticket sales go directly to Free Alaa campaign. Refreshments and snacks available. Venue is ground-floor and wheelchair accessible.