Preview: Aspidistra Books Presents LGBT Literature and Art Fair @ Fab Cafe

Manchester-based independent book retailer Aspidistra Books is teaming up with VADA Magazine and The Gay Agenda radio show to present Lit Up!, a day-long celebration of LGBT culture, open to all.

The fair will bring together diverse forms of art and literature, as numerous individual artists perform their own work and pieces commissioned especially for the event. Acts will include fiction, drama and poetry writer and First Draft producer and co-founder Abi Fernandez performing her own work, Adam Lowe performing a reading of a passage from George Orwell’s 1984 in Polari, a drag duo interpretation of the coming together of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, as well as other acts in the pipeline to be announced closer to the time.

As a break from the chaos, there will be stalls selling selected literature from both independent and major publishers, including titles from Comma Press, Carcanet and For Books Sake to Penguin, Taschen and Phaidon, as well as the screening of a mini short-film festival in a curtained ‘cinema’ area in the back.

Entry is free but paying £3 on the door will get you a programme containing information about the artists performing at the event. Aspidistra Books will also be designing and creating limited edition screen-printed posters which will be on sale at the event with all proceeds going to the LGBT Foundation.

To keep up-to-date with forthcoming announcements, check the event page or follow Aspidistra Books on Facebook or Twitter.