Poets Liberation Front: July Salon

lisa luxx with Jason Allen-Paisant, Jamal Mehmood and Francesca Nadin on; aiming beyond catastrophe: refusal to surrender

At this point, amid the myriad crises of the present moment, we want to reflect on the writer’s role in ensuring a people never surrender their spirit. Political imagination as taking aim beyond the target; sometimes that looks like Octavia Butler’s Afro-Futurism and sometimes it is the PFLP’s Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine. Meanwhile, Bayo Akomolafe suggests that in order to break the death spiral, the world needs to embrace the trickster. So how does literature help us find new ways of aiming beyond the horizon?

This salon will attempt to be a timely antidote against defeatism, against empire and against forgetfulness.

The salon is a space to actively engage in current resistance literature emerging from our political landscape. Tickets are on a sliding scale solidarity rate, please pay honestly.

This event is created and hosted by lisa minerva luxx in partnership with Shubbak Festival.

About the poets

lisa minerva luxx is a British-Syrian writer and political activist. Their poetry, essays and fiction have been published internationally including by Poetry Review, Magma, New England Review, BBC Radio 4 and their short film Lesbian. was produced by Channel 4.

In 2021 their debut collection, Fetch Your Mother’s Heart, was released by Out-Spoken Press to critical acclaim. Currently studying a PhD in diaspora resistance poetics, luxx has also guest lectured at Columbia University, American University of Beirut and Queens Mary London.

Since 2021, luxx has written three verse plays including what the dog said to the harvest which premiered at Southbank Centre. They are also a platinum award-winning lyricist with Maison Arts, LA.

luxx is a long-time grassroots organiser across England, Beirut and Syria. They believe in transnational community and direct action as a means of liberation.

Jason Allen-Paisant is a scholar, award-winning poet, and writer. His work explores how Afro-diasporic artists and communities shape their futures through embodied philosophies, focusing on the intersections of poetry and philosophy. He is the author of two critically acclaimed books of poetry. His debut poetry collection Thinking with Trees won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize, and was an Irish Times and White Review book of the year. Self-Portrait as Othello, his sophomore book of poems, won the UK’s two most prestigious poetry awards for 2023 — the Forward Prize and T.S. Eliot Prize; it is one of the rare books to have accomplished this feat. His other books include the philosophical treatise Engagements with Aimé Césaire and The Natural WorldJason is Professor of Critical Theory and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester and an associate editor of Callaloo Literary Journal.

Jamal Mehmood is a writer and filmmaker based in London. His work has been featured at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Magma, BBC4, Poetry London, and Popula. He has been shortlisted for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry in Film and won the national Poetry Rivals. His latest book ‘The Leaf of the Neem Tree’ (Hajar Press) was released in 2021.

Francesca Nadin is an activist and writer who was imprisoned from June 2024-May 2025 by the British government for taking action for Palestinian liberation. Passionate about the power of language to shape our lives, and inspired by struggles from other moments and geographies to make our struggle at the heart of the war machine truly anti-colonial and radical.

Venue accessibility

The venue is wheelchair accessible for manual wheelchair users and those with mobility requirements via a lift. However, please note that the lift cannot accommodate electric wheelchairs. We recognise the limitations of access at this venue. The decision to host the event here was made thoughtfully to anchor in a space centring Palestine. We are committed to providing access for anyone who like to attend online. Please contact us to arrange.

Poets Liberation Front

An 8 part series of community discussions led by poets, produced by lisa luxx and Shubbak Festival. It launched in April, with monthly salons throughout 2025.

About the series

This event is produced by lisa minerva luxx and Shubbak Festival. Presented with generous support from Arts Council England.