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Or, In Community
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Reader,
I spoke last week about how great the 1000 Nights Discord has been and in the time since I have been thinking about the power of reading the same text with a group after 2 meetings with the study circle honouring the revolutionary life and legacy of Assata Olugbala Shakur. We’re working through Assata: An Autobiography and yesterday’s meeting made me realise how long it’s been since I attended a Noname Book Club meeting. I need to fix that.
One of the things that came up during yesterday’s meeting was the place of child-bearing and child-rearing in revolutionary movements. It came after a time when I’ve been reading books about parenting and who (American) society considers worthy of the title of parent. The most recent titles - Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World by Jessica Slice and Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson - especially speak to some of the issues that came up during the call — the racial and disability angles of contact with the family policing system in the US.
I can’t wait to discuss Assata with the Noname Book Club because I imagine reading it as a person in the Global South will be different from the folks in the group, who are mostly from the African Diaspora. A lot of revolutionary reading spaces on the continent, at least in my experience, can sometimes be classed in a way that is not representative of our countries - higher than average incomes, college educations, passports - and it’s always interesting to see how revolutionary writing can be abstracted in settings that differ from those of their (working class) authors. I say this as one of these people (other than the income part; feel free to point me to jobs!) so I hope this is read as coming from a place of self-reflection (Assata writes about self critique and how important it is!) not just hateration.
I keep coming back to the fact that there are insights that come from reading and thinking with other people; a thing I’m coming back to after years of avoiding book clubs like the plague. I’d love to hear your experiences with book clubs, especially those premised on a particular identity — being on the Left, for instance, being queer, and much more besides. I’d love to hear how they enrich your life — or what you wish book clubs had!
Quick news/ things that may be of interest:
This Saturday: a joint meeting of the Nairobi chapter of the Silent Book Club & the Queer Times Book Club
Love for the People: Honoring the Revolutionary Life and Legacy of Assata Shakura; a three-part collective study circle honoring the revolutionary life and legacy of Assata Olugbala Shakur ends this week | Register here
Treat someone you like (me, for instance, I have a Switch) to the Tiny Bookshop Game (which is also on Discord)
Subscribe to my WhatsApp channel for texts I find while I spend time online
Add me to your New York Times Crossword leaderboard!
If you’re in the Global North and would be open to engaging in the North-South solidarity that is sharing a library card, please email or message me so we can figure things out. Thank you!
Join us for these Laps & Livres meet ups this month (sign up here, feel free to reach out for more information via lapsandlivres@proton.me)
Film folks: The Japan Foundation has newly launched the JFF Theater online streaming platform
A bunch of (mostly American) short stories if that’s your jam
Software resources for audiobook management. Especially Audible-centric, including organization and removing DRM from Audible files
A thread for folks looking to support Usikimye’s work
The Queer Liberation Library 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️, which is free to join here
Digital Library of Korean Literature, which is free to join here
How to Write Alt Text and Image Descriptions for the visually impaired
Links to Reading Lists, Free Books, Book Recs, Book-related Items, and Calls for Submissions in this document (most recent links at the top)
Since Elon seems to want (some of) us gone, I’m trying to post more often on Bluesky. Follow me there if you’re on it!
You can send me books, postcards, letters, and assorted items via PO Box 102439, Jamia Posta 00101, Nairobi, Kenya (I write back!)
I have finished the following books since I last wrote to you: War on Gaza by Joe Sacco (e-book), Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson (e-book and audiobook narrated by Angel Pean, Emily Norman, Katie Koster, Kimberly M. Wetherell, Si Chen & Renata Friedman) and Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous; collected by Gillian Anderson (e-book & audiobook narrated by Gillian Anderson & Anonymous). I’m primarily using Storygraph now (passively updating Goodreads as I read most e-books on Kindle via the library) and I hope to get back to making videos soon.
As ever, please write back to me and tell me what books you’re reading or looking forward to reading — it’s always a great time talking about books.
Thank you for reading 🙂
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Enjoy the week ahead and have a lovely time reading. Talk to you soon!