About this Event
‘Play is open-ended, done on one’s own terms, imaginative, freeing. It is utterly disruptive.’
— Waithera Sebatindira, Through an Addict’s Looking-Glass
Join us for Hajar Reads: Play. In this reading and discussion group, we’ll reflect on play as a life-affirming practice, considering how embracing play and playfulness can open us up to more expansive ways of thinking, creating, and living.
We’ll use short extracts from selected Hajar Press titles — including (Lola Olufemi), (Nida Sajid) and (Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan) — as a starting point for our discussion.
Extracts will be shared in advance of the session, but there’s no expectation to have read them all to take part — just come along ready to listen, think and share!
‘At this, the man turned in their direction and smiled; he played not for the dream of success but because this new world necessitated beauty of all kinds. The new world was not just labour, but labour for the sake of life-making.’
— Lola Olufemi, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise
This session, hosted by Hajar Press, will be facilitated by Amber Obasi from Hajar Press, and Dr Durre Shahwar.
is an interdisciplinary writer, researcher, and artist. She is the author of One of the Good Ones, a pamphlet accompanying her solo photo exhibition on archives, seeking sanctuary, and documentation, exhibited and published in 2026 by Ffotogallery, Cardiff. She is co-editor of Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature (2024) and Just So You Know (2020). Durre has a PhD in autofiction and Pakistani-Welsh identity from Cardiff University and was the recipient of a Future Wales Fellowship. Her work deconstructs established frameworks to present counternarratives that capture the complexities of lived experiences when situated within social, cultural, political, and geographical landscapes. Durre divides her time between South London and Cardiff and is currently working on her debut non-fiction book.
😷 Access: Please cancel your ticket if you feel unwell, have flu symptoms or any other contagious illness. Mask-wearing is encouraged. This is to help look after and protect each other, especially vulnerable members of our community.
If you have an access question or need, please get in touch with us at events [at] hajarpress [dot] com.
🎟️ Tickets: Our standard ticket price is to help cover the cost of facilitators’ labour. We also have a solidarity ticket option for those looking to support our team’s work to organise these events and keep Hajar Press going.
There is a free ticket option for people who are unwaged/low-waged. These tickets are limited, so please do not select this ticket option if you can afford to pay for a ticket.
As a result of venue and facilitator capacity, spaces are extremely limited. Please do not reserve a ticket if you’re unable to attend the event.
Hajar Reads is a reading and discussion space open to all. Each month, we take a themed selection of extracts from Hajar Press titles as a starting point to imagine beyond the way things are and reflect on our responsibilities to the world and to each other.
For early access to spaces at Hajar Reads, consider joining our subscription; we release a limited number of early free spots to our subscribers every month.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00 to GBP 15.00
