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‘Read the Room’ Virtual Discussion – May 29th, 2026

On Rats and Race: Dispossession, Disenfranchisement, and Despair

What does it mean when rats become currency for survival?

What can infestations reveal about racial capitalism, war, displacement, abandonment, and the conditions people are forced to endure?

Join APEX Advocacy for our next Read the Room virtual discussion as we unpack the political and historical symbolism of rats, poverty, and survival across literature, poetry, and contemporary reporting.

This session will explore excerpts from Native Son by Richard Wright, selections from Arc & Hue by Tara Betts, Rat by Jonathan Burt, and recent BBC reporting on rats spreading through displaced persons camps in Gaza. Together, these texts illuminate how systems of neglect, racialized dispossession, colonial violence, and economic extraction shape the environments people are forced to survive within.

From families killing rats to reduce rent payments, to children in Gaza sleeping amid collapsing sanitation infrastructure and disease outbreaks, this discussion asks participants to critically examine the relationship between poverty, public health, housing, empire, and disposability. We will also explore how literature and poetry help us process despair while creating space for resistance, dignity, and collective analysis.

About our special guests:

Dallas Robinson she/her: Dallas is a land steward and writer from North Carolina. She uses her work as a grower of food and flowers to listen to the land. These lessons inspire her writing, politic, and facilitation style in her work at the Garden Salon, a hub for cultivating creativity.

Fabian Rivers he/him: Fabian is a vegan veterinary surgeon in exotic animal medicine and dentistry, but also works with companion animals and wildlife. He graduated in 2018 and won Young Vet of The Year 2020 and has gone on to work with variety of TV programmes, from children's TV to documentaries focused on ethics around exotic animal trade, dog breeding and rewilding projects. His interests are focused around improving compassion for non human animals, philosophy and ethics within veterinary medicine and its implications on topics such as race, gender, geopolitics and challenging the status quo on how people interact with non human animals.

Read the Room is APEX Advocacy’s ongoing virtual discussion series where we unpack articles, scholarly texts, poetry, and book excerpts through critical analysis and community dialogue. Participants are encouraged to engage, reflect, and ask questions during the live Q&A.

Space is limited, so please register early. All donations support APEX Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Though the $25 donation is suggested, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

Reading selections and the Zoom meeting link will be provided to participants by email after registration.