Hi

This week we took a wee walk before the book club chat around The Feminist Art of Walking by Morag Rose. This blog/newsletter is mostly to showcase some photos taken by people on the night, but also a recommendation to read Morag’s book.

Morag founded The Loiterers Resistance Movement (LRM) twenty years ago 2006 as a way to people interested in place, space and pure rage about their destruction and detriment to communities in Manchester.

Heading out for a loiter ourselves seemed like a pretty good way to experience the streets, buildings and area around The Mitchell Library in a group before chatting.

It created an energy of wanting more, something else should happen next…zines, art, collage, a walk book, how to guides…

About 30ish people turned up for book club this month, so we ended up with 3 groups, each taking a different turn from the library. I stayed behind for anyone not able to make the earlier time, but still managed a wee meander out for 10 minutes before the rain brought us all back inside.

I reached out to our pals at the West Glasgow Feminist Transport Group, which is a ‘local social and campaign group advocating for accessible, affordable, reliable and sustainable transport that meets the needs of marginalised people’ and they kicked off the second half of the evening introducing themselves to everyone and

I was meant to join a couple of their Feminist Walkabouts last year, but moved from the area and the remit of my work role changed. So it felt like a great fit for more people from the book club to learn from them, and have somewhere to continue that on and being with others wanting to advocate for accessible streets.

We all seemed to divvy ourselves out well into the four groups around the regular reading tables. Much like every book club night, not everyone had finished the book, but we were all still chatting away until the library closed it doors. Most nights end with a smaller group crowding a few tables at a local bar a couple doors down continuing a to yap over over tacos and drinks.

Although I’ve not collated notes from everyone that read the book, there’s room in the comments below this newsletter for anyone to add to. I found the book a good blend of sharing memories, sharing information, sharing a passion and it felt like a collective gathering of knowledge all in one place. I did jot down that one person had been cat called reading the book on a park bench from a man passing by, and a car with men inside had been trying t attract the attention of one group as they walked by the intimidating M8 motorway that rips by The Mitchell. I wasn’t too surprised to hear.

Before the groups went out, we caveated that if anything felt unsafe, people were just to come straight back together in the library and communicate with each other through our group chat. We did have one group come back and say they were ‘positively heckled’ by a women out for a walk that evening too who stated “I love what you’re doing!”. I love that she shouted that about seeing a group of, mostly AFAB people, all feminists, out walking together, even if she didn’t know precisely what we were out doing! Seeing us loiter out together in the streets made her happy!

In 2023, when the group read Feminist City by Leslie Kern there was a great pull to the contents of the book, a knowing of what was being said was finally fully highlighted, but a want for ‘what to do next’. There was a little sense of this from some people at first, but as others spoke of their background in education or employment, or just interest, involvement with groups, creativity and art outwith tonight, there were seeds of possibilities sprouting quickly.

Holly Bruce (formally cllr, now MSP!) joined us for that evening in 2023 as she had not long helped Glasgow to become the UK’s first feminist city, and with Holly now elected into Scottish Parliament, the action, the want, and need for this type of championing and representation is clearly being taken seriously and visible, measurable wins of progressive change and people feeling what can be done by saying what you deserve!

Holly and Lana, from the Feminist Transport group and local Green cllr, has also attended the group when May East had joined the book club for an evening to discuss her book “What if Women Designed the City” where leverage point researched by May had been discussed and workshopped together that could be taken forward to policy makers, urban planners etc. Hopefully directing to May’s book will be another drive forward for action.

I’m very glad Morag’s The Feminist Art of Walking brought us together tonight.

The Feminist Book Club in Glasgow meets every month, a mix between an evening chatting about a book and a relaxed self led collage night. If you are in Glasgow you can join by signing up here, and anyone can keep up to date with our instagram page. #

We’ll be chatting about The Empusium. A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones on the 14th July.

Notes and newsletters to follow!

This Feminist Book Club in Glasgow started in 2019

Books on the list with an accompanying cover image I have really liked to read or the discussion has been great from them (link to more info in the image)

Are there any on the list you love/hate/question?

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison

2. Being Emily by Anne Donovan

3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

4. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

5. Testaments by Margaret Atwood

6. Becoming by Michelle Obama

7. The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla

8. My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir by Jenn Shapland

1. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

2. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

3. The Burning by Laura Bates

4. Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution by Mona Eltahawy

5. Watermelon by Marian Keyes

6. A Decolonial Feminism by Françoise Vergès

1. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

2. Black on Both Sides: A Racial history of Trans Identity by C Riley Snorton

1. All About Love by bell hooks

1. Against The Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

1. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

1. Feminist City by Leslie Kern

1. Mask Off-Masculinity Redefined by JJ Bola

1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

2. You Made A Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

1. Bunny by Mona Awad

2. Lifting the Veil by Ismat Chughtai

3. Our Women on the Ground: Arab Women reporting from the Arab World edited by Zahra Hankir

4. Scotland Her Story edited by Rosemary Goring

5. Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park and Translated by Anton Hur

1. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo and translated by Jamie Chang

2. Gathering. Women of Colour on Nature. edited by Durre Shahwar and Nasia Sarwar-Skuse

3. What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

4. Wordslut. A Feminist Guide to Taking back the English Language by Amanda Montell

5. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

6. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

7. A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

8. Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay

9. Good Girl by Aria Aber

10. The Feminist Art of Walking by Morag Rose

**not all books have called themselves ‘feminist’…but we read them…so they are to us now

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