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Reading group 1 with Elliot Gibbons: Southend’s Twilight Worlds & Towards a Gay Communism by Mario Mieli

Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto PressThe Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.

Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.

From May 2023, Elliot Gibbons will host three reading groups that will look at the publication Southend’s Twilight Worlds that he edited on local queer history and Pluto Press’ Towards a Gay Communism by Mario Mieli. Meili’s book was first published in Italian in 1977 and is considered one of the earliest books of queer theory, although it was not seen as queer theory during the time. Over the course of these sessions, you will collectively consider LGBTQIA+ culture and theory by drawing connections between these two books. 

Elliot Gibbons is a curator and writer based in Essex. 

** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **

Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.

** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **

* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity *

All sessions will take place at The Old waterworks, North Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS0 7AB

You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend.


Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.

The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.