31 May

17:00

Boekwinkel Savannah Bay

Telingstraat 13, Utrecht

Join the monthly Lazy Queer Sunday for the festive presentation of the book 'Optimistic Queer Handbook for Harsher Times', featuring readings, discussions, and community connection.

Lazy Queer Sunday: Optimistic Queer Handbook for Harsher Times

More info & tickets

Start Utrecht Pride week at Bookstore Savannah Bay! You are warmly welcomed to the monthly Lazy Queer Sunday for the festive presentation of the book Optimistic Queer Handbook for Harsher Times.

In this unique collection, ten essayists provide a guide for harsher times in clear, practical language. In an era where the world can feel harsh and divided, this book offers a queer perspective full of resilience, solidarity, humor, and hope. During this special afternoon, we will discuss activism, community, love, survival, and the importance of optimism as an act of resistance.

Expect an inspiring presentation by editor Martijn Kamphorst, readings by Freya Terpstra and Rocky Hehakaija, conversation, and space to meet each other. Of course, you can also buy the book and have it signed!

Come listen, join the conversation, and celebrate together that queer hope is much needed—especially in harsher times. Everyone is welcome.

About the Book

It's undeniable: the climate for the rainbow community has become colder in recent years. Or as the editor of this book, Martijn Kamphorst, says: 'We live in the age of the tyrant.' But such eras have existed before, and even then, queers lived, celebrated, and danced. What can we learn from their past resistance? How do you collaborate? How do you stay cheerful? How do you not give in to victimhood and show your opponents that you will be happy right in their faces?

In a unique collection, eight essayists provide a guide for harsher times in clear, practical language. About how self-pity is pointless. About how we shouldn't look away. About how collaboration yielded wonderful results in the past. About how you can combine activism and joy. Martijn Kamphorst introduces and concludes, summarizes, and streamlines – and then there are twenty more authors, actors, athletes, famous Dutch personalities, and television makers who wrote a short encouragement.

Chapters and Contributors:

How we become stronger by coming together
Linda Duits (media scientist) and Barnaby Savage (theater maker)
How we found freedom in the darkest days
Mark Bergsma and Agnes Cremers (public historians)
How we overcome by continuing to glow
Maaike Meijer (emeritus professor of gender studies)
How hate is made and how we defeat it
Rémy Bonny (activist and director of Forbidden Colours)
How we package our hopeful story better
Freya Terpstra (disinformation researcher)
How we enforce what the law promises us
Aynouk Tan (journalist and board member at RITA, platform for reporting LGBTIQA+ discrimination, exclusion, and violence)
How we find and unite new family
Alejandra Ortiz (activist, writer, and community organizer)
How we rewrite the future by dreaming forward
Rachel Rumai Diaz (spoken word artist and program maker)