EVERY MONUMENT WILL FALL: Dan Hicks and EMPIRE LINES podcast in conversation
An evening of decolonial discussion in association with Curio Books + Culture and Common Ground.
Presented by: Curio Bookshop| 0 | OXFORD: Common Ground Cafe + Coworking (info) |
|---|---|
| P | Thursday 9th October, 2025 |
| N | Door time: 6:45pm Start time: 7:00pm |
| . | 16 and over |
| C | Literature |
Event information
"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake"
James Joyce
How can we truly look the imperial past - and present - in the eye, in order to address a plethora of injustices and imagine a better future?
Join author and curator Dan Hicks and Jelena Sofronijevic, producer of the podcast EMPIRE LINES, for a special evening of conversation and a live podcast recording in a third space in the heart of Oxford.
Dan's latest book, 'Every Monument Will Fall: A story of remembering and forgetting' (Penguin, 2025), explores and interrogates the legacies of violence we have inherited, in Oxford and across the world, in the form of the monuments, statues, buildings and other structures of commemoration which cast their shadows over us.
From the militarism and white supremacy enshrined in many of our cultural institutions, to their decolonial counterweights in the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and Saidiya Hartman's critical fabulations, the text takes the reader on a journey through the landscape of our memory culture and plots trajectories to future reconciliations.
Dan will be joined in conversation by Jelena Sofronijevic, a writer, curator, researcher and producer of the acclaimed EMPIRE LINES (available on all major podcast platforms), which examines the unexpected and often fascinating influence of empires in art. Working at the intersections of cultural history, politics and the arts, Jelena has curated exhibitions including 'Invasion Ecology' (2024), and is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD focused on the representation of diaspora communities and cultures from the Balkans and Yugoslavia.
Together, they'll discuss 'Every Monument Must Fall' and consider the tangled histories of colonialism and the different artefacts attached to it. This will be a live podcast recording which will include plenty of opportunities for audience participation!
Ticketholders will also receive a discount on Dan's book, copies of which will be available on the night.
This promises to be a really special evening of stimulating discussion, reflection and imaginative work - don't miss out!
