Interrupted

Activism has a long history – and literature has always been a part of it. As a new generation raises its voice to power, we ponder the role of writing in shaping activism. Join novelist Elle Machray, author, storyteller and performer Kelechi Okafor, and author and climate activist Mikaela Loach as they discuss what we can learn from the movements of the past, and how activism is reshaping the world around us.

Sunday 23 June | 3.30-5.30pm
Brighton University City Campus, 58-67 Grand Parade, BN2 0JY

Elle Machray lives in Edinburgh and studied Politics at the University of Leeds.
She started in writing in lockdown and was selected to join the inaugural cohort of the HarperCollins Author Academy in 2021. Elle's debut novel, REMEMBER, REMEMBER, was published by HarperNorth in February 2024 and is an alternative history of the gunpowder plot through the eyes of Delphine, an escaped enslaved woman as she takes on the British Empire to save her brother. In the moments between working and writing, Elle practices karate and explores the beauty of Scotland with her dog, Bruce.

Kelechi Okafor is a Nigerian-born London-based lover of words - whether it's crafting them into works of fiction or articles, performing them on stage or television, directing how others convey them on stage, or expressing herself and her thoughts on society in her podcast Say Your Mind. Known online as Kelechnekoff, she’s also affectionately known as “just a Baby Girl” by her followers, listeners, and community. Kelechi's book of short stories, Edge of Here, asks questions about the way we live now and offers a glimpse into our near future. Kelechi uses her storytelling skill to explore how Black women navigate our society on interpersonal, professional, spiritual, and communal levels.

Mikaela Loach is the best-selling author of It's Not That Radical: Climate Action To Transform Our World (2023). She is also a climate justice activist, co-host of The YIKES Podcast, writer and former medical student based in Brighton. In 2020, Forbes, Global Citizen and BBC Woman's Hour named Mikaela as one of the most influential women in the UK climate movement. In 2021, she was one of three people to take the UK government to court over its public payments to fossil fuel companies. Her work focuses on the intersections of the climate crisis with oppressive systems and making the climate movement a more accessible space. It's Not That Radical is Mikaela's first book.