Our selection of the five best talks, readings, lectures, debates and other wordy-based events taking place across London next month.
Wednesday 6th June
The Origins of Modern Atheism @ LSE
Free, 6.30pm
The LSE's Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion launches this month with a discussion between Giles Fraser, former canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, and emeritus professor of European Thought at the LSE, the famously forthright John Gray. The discussion centres on the links between Enlightenment thought and theology, and looks at how atheism is inevitably framed in advance by the religious systems that it seeks to deny.
Thursday 14th June
Craig Taylor @ Museum of London Docklands
£6, 7pm
Craig Taylor is at the Museum of Docklands this June discussing his brilliant and critically acclaimed book, 2011's Londoners. The book explores the dizzying variety of people who all contribute to making London what it is – a sprawling network of disjointed narratives that resists a singular overarching interpretation. Londoners gives voice to these narratives – from hedge fund managers to beekeepers, tube announcers, cabbies and those just passing through.
Saturday 16th June
Objects of Emotion @ Wellcome Collection
£20, 10.30am-5pm
Featuring puppets, puppeteers, a literary theorist and an array of high-powered neuroscientists, Objects of Emotion seeks to examine how and why it is that objects (both inanimate and animated) can inspire feelings within us that, rationally, should be reserved for other sentient beings. With a range of performances (including an extract from Blind Summit's much praised The Table) as well as discussions and lunch, this should be a fun and enlightening day.
Wednesday 20th June
Brian Sewell @ St Mary's Church
£12, 7.30pm
The one and only Brian Sewell is in conversation with writer and publisher Naim Attallah at St Mary's Church in Primrose Hill. Outspoken, not afraid to say what he thinks, and always prepared to take a clear stand, the 80 year-old Sewell – Evening Standard art critic since 1984 – is highly respected by fellow journalists and largely loathed by the contemporary art world. This is a wonderful opportunity to hear, in person, Sewell's painstakingly precise enunciation.
Thursday 28th June
Sam Nightingale @ A Brooks Art
Free, 6.30pm
Contemporary artist Sam Nightingale talks about his current, and rather fascinating, exhibition at the newly opened A Brooks Art. The show includes, among other things, a series of photographs and a stylised map that chart the lost cinemas of Islington: his blankly enigmatic black and white images touch on a strange trace of cultural loss, whilst other works in the show convey his passion for the physical medium of film itself.
Image credit: © Jon Worth / British Humanist Association, from www.atheistbus.org.uk
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