No!: The Art and Activism of Complaining

Description:

An assembly of refusals portraying the radical power of "no" by the renowned scholar and author of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, Sara Ahmed.

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.

Review Quotes:

An Indie Press Bestseller

Praise for No!

"Ahmed is optimistic about the transformative power of "complaint activism." . . . Readers will find meaningful insight and support." --Publishers Weekly

"Sara Ahmed's follow-up to The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (2023) doesn't simply celebrate complaints; it reimagines them as a form of resistance and recognition. . . . Ahmed's book is an insightful reminder: Sometimes the squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease until it's too late." --Hyperallergic

"Sara Ahmed always has her finger on the pulse of the times." --Angela Y. Davis, author of Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

"A brilliant feminist thinker." --Judith Butler, author of Who's Afraid of Gender?

"In this rousing treatise, Sara Ahmed brilliantly rearticulates the feminist method of complaint as a necessary and productive daily inhabitation of the political. No longer in the domain of negative affect or unseemly posturing, complaint is the enunciative basis for an ultimately optimistic orientation, a loud and insistent demand for a more just world. No! is a critical guide for these times when we have no choice but to complain." --Jasbir Puar, author of The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability

"No!: The Art and Activism of Complaining struck deep chords of recognition. Ahmed's excavation of the emotional impact of complaint goes beyond the academy to our shared histories of dismissal and denial. As an independent filmmaker, my refusal to remain compliant has unleashed a litany of nos. In an act of solidarity and resistance, we all need to sign up to the complaint collective Ahmed suggests." --Pratibha Parmar, writer and filmmaker

Praise for The Feminist Killjoy Handbook

"Being the killjoy is often a joy unto itself, and Ahmed shows us how to embrace it in all its liberatory glory." --Ms. magazine, Best Books of 2023

"The Feminist Killjoy Handbook is clearly helpful instruction. It is a book you can learn from: Here, in its pages, is your community and networks." --The Nation

"Audiences curious about navigating the intersection between feminism and daily life, intellectualism, poetry, and activism will love this title." --Library Journal