Live Art Bookshop: Fat Body Work Book Launch
- Date
- Wednesday 29 Oct 2025
- Venue
The Garrett Centre
- Timings
7-9pm (doors open 6.30pm)
- Price
- Pre-order Book & Entry Ticket (£15) / Pay What You Can Ticket (£0–£12)
Join us for an unforgettable evening celebrating the launch of Charlotte Cooper’s new book, Fat Body Work: Somatics, Curiosity, Care and Practice.
Fat Body Work is a deeply personal and politically charged journey through fat embodiment and creative resistance. With roots in Fat Studies, queer ethics, anti-oppressive practice, and somatic inquiry, this book is a powerful invitation to rethink what movement, care and liberation can look like across the life course.
The launch will feature a live reading from Fat Body Work, and the world premiere of Nuidey, a brand-new short film by Charlotte Cooper made specially for this project. There will be a rare screening of SWAGGA: A Study On Camera by Katarzyna Perlak and Project O (Jamila Johnson-Small & Alexandrina Hemsley), featured in the book. Photographs from a new collaboration with Holly Revell will be on display. Copies of the book will be available to buy and Charlotte is happy to sign them.
Whether you’re an artist, activist, practitioner, or simply curious, this event is for anyone interested in movement, healing, liberation and joy.
About Fat Body Work
Fat Body Work (2025, 33editions) concerns the things Charlotte Cooper has learned from moving her body. Body work as the creative or political project of fat people is a tale rarely told. Tracing the shifting realities of fatphobia, ageing and care, this book blends experimental and embodied research, critical reflection, short essays, archival writings, drawings and poetry.
People who might particularly enjoy Fat Body Work:
- Fat liberationists, people looking for work that validates their lived experience and offers alternative and intersectional narratives of body work
- Scholars in sociology, psychology, and cultural studies researching embodiment, somatics, intersectionality, identity and creative research methodology
- Professionals including psychotherapists working with clients dealing with fatphobia, body image issues, trauma, and oppression; somatic workers; dance educators; Health At Every Size practitioners
- Performers, dance workers, anyone with a body work practice
Read an excerpt here.
Charlotte Cooper, Fat Body Work (2025, 33editions).
Charlotte Cooper
Charlotte Cooper (she/her) is a psychotherapist and researcher based in East London. Her scholarship and critical commentary concerning fat, disability and queer theory is widely disseminated. She is a cultural worker who performs as Homosexual Death Drive. Her publishing house is 33editions.
Charlotte has created the Study Room Guide Tantalising Glimpses, attending to the lack of resources and visibility around fat in Live Art – an invaluable tool for anyone interested in fat, queerness, feminism and bodies.
SWAGGA: A Study On Camera (2016)
SWAGGA was a show by Project O (Alexandrina Hemsley and Jamila Johnson-Small), Charlotte Cooper, and Kay Hyatt. This collaboration was remarkable because it featured untrained dancers with the kinds of political bodies – fat, queer, older – that are rarely treated as creative, expressive or worthy choreographic subjects. Katarzyna Perlak documented the process and created SWAGGA: A Study On Camera, a creative response to the live performance. The result is an extravaganza of mess, antisocial emotions and intersectional feminist sensibility. SWAGGA was screened at LADA in 2018.
Access Information
Event information:
The book launch will feature a 10 minute reading and the 40 minute screening of two related short films. After this there will be opportunities to chat, buy the book and get it signed. This is a seated event. Various seating options will be available including fold out chairs, office chairs, a sofa and a bench. All are welcome to join in a relaxed space and are free to come and go as they please. The lighting will be fixed with no sudden changes and microphone amplification will be used. There are disposable masks and hand sanitiser available.
LADA space:
The building is wheelchair accessible by lift and provides a wheelchair accessible ground-floor bathroom. All bathrooms are gender inclusive. There is no isolated quiet space inside, but there is a small quiet outdoor area. Some of the art on display in the space includes naked bodies. You can find more information and see photos of the space here. Should you have any particular access requirements, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to offer further support.
Content notes:
Charlotte’s short film, Nuidey, features three naked people moving in slow motion. Please email [email protected] if you would like more information on what to expect.
Please note that this event will be audio recorded.
Banner image credit:
Charlotte Cooper. Image credit Charlotte Cooper and Holly Revell, 2025.
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