An acrostic poem for you:
We celebrate all kinds of love in our lives.
Everyone deserves the love they want in their life, whether that’s by another person or self love.
Dance, dance.
Don’t judge others' decisions.
I am grateful for the loves in my life.
Not in a conservatorship anymore, yay Britney!
Great love stories happen all the time.
That’s all I have for you. <3
Books I wish I read in high school, The Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije, another good ole coming of age story but not one dimensional like in high school ya’ll and not about the woes of a pubescent white boy. Instead, we follow our protagonist from Windhoek, Namibia to Cape Town, South Africa where Séraphin explores his identity as a young Black man in a new city during his FINAL year of law school. Ngamije himself is the cofounder and editor-in-chief of Doek! which is Namibia's first literary magazine. He also teaches some salsa lessons woo! I’ll say it. I think fiction stories are really important, especially written by authors of color. Even though I personally over index on non fiction reading--these stories are a good reminder that as kids and teenagers in high school--the reading curriculum was mostly fiction.
Read if: you want to read a coming of age story with multiple intricacies that we didn’t get with Holden Caulfield, yeah I brought his name up again. Whoops.
Books where you save yourself, Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen, We’re talking about migration, we’re talking about dislocation, we’re talking about generational trauma, we’re talking about the immigration to the patriarchy, family values and more. In his first novel, Nguyen weaves together the stories of a Vietnamese family in New Orleans to being physically underwater, as an allegory. The story of familial trauma and resettlement is never over, permeating throughout the main character’s life.
Read if: you know generational trauma and migration have long term/long lasting effects, big woof.
Not your typical eat pray love, The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement by Tourfah Jallow, with Kim Pittway, in this memoir Tourfah Jallow talks about her trauma as a rape survivor and how her utter bravery spurred the momvement of other women in West Africa to share their stories. Jallow was the first person to come forward with her story about the dictator, Yahya Jammeh.
Read if: You the #MeToo Movement was started by Tarana Burke and you’re interested to know how it manifested outside of Hollywood and the US.
On trend, Intersex and identity by Sharon E. Preves, I was listening to one of the episodes on my podcast rotation, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness and the guest on was Alicia Roth Weigel where she talks about putting the I back in LGBTQIA. She talks about the first time she heard the word intersex, how decisions are made for intersex babies for surgeries that are now illegal in some places and how there are as many intersex folks out there as peope with red hair or green eyes. (that number is probably under counted because a lot of people she said learn they are intersex as adults when they’re going through early medical records). I know Middlesex is probably a more familiar book but we love more representation out here.
Read if: you too, want more information about the I in LGBTQIA.
Decolonize your mind, New York, My Village by Uwen Akpan, A writer and editor from Nigerian comes to the Big Apple where idealistic dreams of the publishing industry are shattered quickly by, you guessed it, the permeating white supremacy culture, fetisicism, and cultural appropriation. There’s also a story of triumph and connecting with neighbors across cultures. New York is supposed to be a cosmopolitan and international city but that does not mean that there is no tokenism, rampant racism, and stupid stereotypes.
Read if: you know realized dreams are nuanced one you get there.
Local bookshop spotlight: This week we’re featuring Duende District in DC: “Duende District is a pop-up boutique bookstore for & by people of color, where all are welcome. We specialize in carrying the best new adult & children's books by BIPOC authors/illustrators in English & Spanish.”