"No" with Sara Ahmed

Our favourite feminist killjoy is back! Sara Ahmed joins me to talk about her brand-new book No Is Not A Lonely Utterance: The Art and Activism of Complaining. In her first ever (how special are we) public conversation about the book, Sara speaks about becoming a feminist ear and a complaint collector, sharing stories of her own complaints as well as those shared with her in community. Explaining how the power of complaining lies in creativity and collectivity, Sara shows why saying no is a powerful queer method.

References:
Sarah Ahmed’s No Is Not A Lonely Utterance (Allen Lane, 2025)
Sarah Ahmed’s The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (Penguin, 2023)
Sarah Ahmed’s Complaint! (Duke, 2021)
Sarah Ahmed’s What’s the Use (Duke, 2019)
Sarah Ahmed’s On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Duke, 2012)
Onomatopoeia
Jean Porcelli
Race Relations Amendment Act
CARD Complaint Against Racial Discrimination
Kennetta Hammond Perry’s London is the Place for Me: Black Britons, Citizenship and the Politics of Race (2018)
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/london-is-the-place-for-me-9780190909949?cc=gb&lang=en&
Heather Love’s Feeling Backward
Chelsea Watego’s “Always Bet On Black (Power)” (2021)
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/always-bet-on-black-power/

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is a feminist ear? How might you become one?
2. We speak about the role of energy in complaining. Where can energy come from or disappear to? To quote Sara: ‘puff, puff’
3. How does Sara define institutional fatalism and why might it be an illusion?
4. What makes complaint a queer method?
5. This is a question from Sara’s book: What is the first complaint you remember making? How do you feel about it now?