If
you’re compiling your summer reading list, here’s an opportunity to check out
the following new releases.
To
Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe
This
timely and relevant book explores how Black Feminism and Afrofeminism are being
practised in Europe today and gives significant historical background on the
struggles for gender and racial equality on the continent.
In
the form of an anthology of scholarly and creative essays, it brings together
activists and artists of colour, who discuss a range of issues in various
countries, offering insight into Black women’s experiences in a “racialized and
hierarchical” region.
Edited
by Akwugo Emejulu, a professor of sociology at Warwick University, and
Francesca Sobande, a digital media studies lecturer at Cardiff University, the
volume recounts how activist spaces for survival and resistance are built and
sustained, among other issues.
The
contributors also address the subject of how women engage with creative
practice and the arts "as a means of activism and self-preservation”, and this
topic gets particular focus in the chapter written on behalf of the Mwasi
Collectif, an Afrofeminist association based in Paris, France, that includes
artists and writers and which has faced antagonism from officials.
The
book equally explores a “variety of critical spaces” such as motherhood and the
home, with discussions of Caribbean households in Britain and an examination of
Caribbean “versions of patriarchy” (chapter 7). Other countries that feature in
the anthology range from Belgium to Greece, for a comprehensive and astute look
at Black women’s experiences across Europe. (Pluto Press)
Trouwportretten
(Wedding Photos)
Trouwportretten,
Surinaamse voorouders in beeld (Wedding portraits, Surinamese ancestors in
pictures, Album 1846-1950) portrays more than a century of marriages in
Suriname, in word and images. It’s written in Dutch, but you don’t need to be a
linguist to enjoy the photographs.
Edited
by Lucia Nankoe and Jean Jacques Vrij, the book was inspired by almost 100
wedding photos and dozens of stories. It invites readers to be a guest at the
weddings of these Surinamese couples, or couples whose partners have a Surinamese
background, between 1845 and 1950.
Surinamese
citizens travelled the world early and, apart from finding partners in their
own country, they also tied the knot with residents of Aruba, Curaçao or
Bonaire (in the Caribbean), and of the Netherlands and North America, according
to the editors.
“Although
most marriages took place in their own religious, ethnic and social circle,
these boundaries were also often crossed,” the editors explain. Several stories
in the book show that this was not without complications and prejudice.
“The
lovers, however, followed the path of their heart and often the family and
community got over it after some time,” the editors state.
Readers
get to know the wedding couples not only through the pictures but also through
the stories related here, sometimes in the words of family members, sometimes
compiled by the editors.
The
stories were previously highlighted in the similarly titled exhibition that took place in the Netherlands in 2018 (curated
by Nankoe), and more accounts are recorded in this attractive book.
The
collection informs readers about Surinamese society in important phases of its
history. “This is also the story of immigration and emigration, of different
religious backgrounds, of slavery and contract workers and above all of an
ethnically-culturally diverse society in a shared national history,” the
editors say.
The
book’s encouraging message is that ethnic or religious differences between
people in intimate relationships often become irrelevant. In other words, love
conquers all … sometimes. (Publisher Uitg. In the Knipscheer)
Dogly
Days
If
you’ve ever wondered how our pets view us and the world, My Dogly Days, by
Philadelphia-based Indian writer Vijay Lakshmi, is the book for you.
This is a
story of adventure, compassion, friendship and growth, seen through the eyes of that
ever-loyal best friend, and it will appeal to both young and “mature” readers.
As
playwright Quinn Eli has written, the book comes at a time when “so many of us
lose sight of the humanity we share in common”.
He adds that My Dogly Days reminds us that under the surface, "our struggles, our dreams and our
aspirations" are all the same.
"We long for companionship, we long for love, and
most of all we long to make our stories known," Eli remarks.
The
poetic and insightful nature of the book inspires us to look at our neighbours
and to realize that we all have similar concerns, that we're all on some kind of a journey. (Austin McCauley Publishers)
