Book Launch & Conversation

Sara Ahmed presents NO!: The Art and Activism of Complaining with Roxane Gay

Tue, Apr 7, 2026

6:30 PM–8:00 PM

Proshansky Auditorium, CUNY Graduate Center. Free and open to the public. Register to attend in-person or onlive via livestream.

The cover for 'No! The Art and Activism of Complaining,' Sara Ahmed, and Roxane Gay

Please join us for the launch of Sara Ahmed’s new book, ‘No! The Art and Activism of Complaining,‘ published by Feminist Press. Sara will be joined by Roxane Gay for their first-ever public conversation.

Speaking as bad feminists and feminist killjoys, Sara and Roxane will share reflections on how we can refuse compliance with power, and on why we need to say no as boldly, creatively and collectively as we can.

To be heard as complaining is not to be heard, writes Sara Ahmed. In her sweeping exploration of complaint as a means of resistance, Ahmed attunes her “feminist ear” to those who seek to challenge powerful institutions. She shows how complaints can unbury past complaints, getting them out of filing cabinets or from behind closed doors, allowing us to see institutions more clearly—how they work, and for whom they work.

Where complaints live, how complaints are made, who receives them, who buries them and where—Ahmed’s accessible, attentive writing brings to life the lessons learned from people knocking at closed doors, teaching us how to collectively resist the glacial weight of institutional power. This book inspires all of us to persist, to say “No!” and to build new collectivities that break down brick walls together.

Speaker Bios

Sara Ahmed is an independent feminist scholar who works at the intersection of feminist, queer, and race studies. Her research is concerned with how bodies and worlds take shape and how power is secured and challenged in everyday life as well as institutional cultures. She has published eleven books, including The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England.

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity and once had a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda.