In Conversation event, led by South African Artist Collective, House of INVADE- as part of the Javett-UP /TORCH Collaboration

Regrounding Transnational Solidarity, Workshopped in Conversation

Facilitated by Queenzela Mokoena (House of INVADE-) & Dr Alyssa Ollivier-Tabukashvili

Thursday November 12

Curio Books (downstairs Common Ground), 37-38 Little Clarendon Street, Oxford.

14:30 – 16:30

This event is open to all but registration is encouraged.

Join us in this intimate, guided discussion about what solidarity across borders looks like in practice, and how we work it out together.

This session follows the zine-making workshop on Monday, where participants created zines to explore where they stand within theirs and others’ struggles. Now we want to continue the conversation: what do we do with what harms on the ground level, what acts of care have past movements left us with, and how can we think with each other rather than for each other?

Solidarity across borders is often treated as a feeling or a statement. We want to treat it as a practice, something we try, test, and sometimes get wrong together. We'll ask where we're tangled up in each other's stories, who carries the pain, who benefits, and what we choose to do from there.

In addition, many of us may feel overwhelmed with the extent of information we see online – flooded with issues around the world, wanting to be aware, supportive, conscious of how we’re implicated, but then inert, unable to take action.

Here we try to reground ourselves, make the most of being offline and go back to the basics of tangible solidarity. We will work collectively to identify these basics and hopefully come away with the tools to be grounded and energised for meaningful solidarity across borders.

All are welcome!

Facilitators:

House of INVADE- is a Queer Black feminist collective (Queenzela Mokoena & Nyakallo Phamuli) working across publishing, archiving and spatial justice. Founded at Wits University in 2018, they use risograph printing, alternative book design and zine workshops to democratise storytelling. Their practice “invades” knowledge systems, centering marginalised voices on gender, race, and township life. The “DE-” signifies their mission to, democratise, decolonise and deconstruct normalised sociopolitical narratives. By turning zines into tools for mass distribution of knowledge and reclaiming public space through workshops, they build inclusive, dynamic spaces within creative and educational industries; one workshop, one zine, and one story at a time.

Alyssa Ollivier-Tabukashvili (https://torch.web.ox.ac.uk/people/alyssa-ollivier) is the Javett-UP BRIDGE Fellow for 2025-2026

Description supplied by the event organiser.