Join us for FLARB this September with ZEST co-director Ellen Gillett as she facilitates a fun, informal conversation around our new contemporary art commission Our Coffers Were Emptied to Pay for Your Pleasures by Josie Turnbull. An extract from the accompanying critical writing commission, by author Khairani Barokka, will provide stimulus for discussion – served with a side of coffee and cake.

FLARB is the Free, Lazy, Arty, Radical Book Club, a book club without the stress of a conventional book club. It reclaims the word ‘lazy’ as a radical approach to inclusion and self-compassion.

FLARB removes traditional access barriers to reading around arts and social justice topics in order to create a sociable, inclusive space to have a read, have a chat and learn something together. It achieves this by having:

→ No cost or fees (the texts are freely available online or provided ahead of the session, no joining/participation fee)

→ No pressure to contribute or commit (it is ok to turn up just to listen or to turn up only when you feel like it)

→ Very short texts (either written, video, or images) that can be digested in 10 minutes ahead of the session, or if you are feeling ‘lazy’, not at all!

→ No required knowledge or expertise to join, just curiosity and respect for others.