In the world of struggle, as with the rest of the world, academic texts and nonfiction books and texts are often seen as the main tools to understand the world and the issues and power dynamics we deal with. In struggle world, writers of such texts are taken seriously, are interviewed in our alternative media,... Continue Reading →
Struggle, and your state of mind
Changing the world, revolution, struggle, organisation: they are among the hardest things we will ever do or try. Not just because we do this stuff on top of work and other commitments, not just because sometimes we are attacked by police, arrested, or bullied by rightwing people, but because of the emotional stamina it takes... Continue Reading →
Writerly magic
There is a magical relationship between writers that have never met. It has something to do with shared experience and solidarity and a common cause, and what happens when poetic minds join. Toni Morrison captured one such relationship so perfectly, in this tiny story: Two-Minute Seduction I took my heart out and gave it to... Continue Reading →
Does every woman need a room of her own?
What if Shakespeare had been a woman, or it was his sister who wrote, Virginia Woolf asked. What conditions would have had to have been different for her to even think she had a right to have ideas back then, then a right to write and to be read? Would her plays be known today?... Continue Reading →
40 Books by Oppressed People in 40 weeks
I've set a goal to read 40 novels or fiction/prose works (eg poetry, memoirs) by oppressed people by the end of this year (1 a week). This includes books by authors in thirdworld countries, women, sexually diverse authors, workers, indigenous peoples, people who face systemic racism, poor people, refugees and more. These people are, in... Continue Reading →
Excerpt: The Butterfly Prison
The first pages of the Butterfly Prison: Who made the story rules? Once, stories had been an oral tradition, a way to teach. Then they were stolen, canned, and sold. But now and then people tried to reclaim stories. They told them in order to redefine corrupted ideas and to name injustice. They broke the... Continue Reading →
Living without toilet paper
In Venezuela, for the last two years or more it has been hard, off and on, to find toilet paper. When I was there, sometimes a supermarket had it, but then the line up was two hours and who has that to spare. Especially because after a while of going without it, we realised we... Continue Reading →
Review: ‘The Butterfly Prison’ by Tamara Pearson Affectionately Demands Change
By Andre Vltchek, teleSUR The Butterfly Prison begins slowly, combining seemingly disconnected stories that are taking place in poor neighborhoods of Australia. The stories are like tiny vignettes; shy, modest, minimalistic but always significant and beautifully told. A fear here, a bitter humiliation there, a dream of a child interrupted by a police officer. Then... Continue Reading →
Bought and Sold
Smart big awards and prize money Is killing off black poetry It’s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art. The lure of meeting royalty And touching high society Is damping creativity and eating at our heart. The ancestors would turn in graves Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder... Continue Reading →
Ben Okri Quotes: We Are Living Our Stories
“The law is simple. Every experience is repeated or suffered till you experience it properly and fully the first time.” “That's the way it is. If you believe in something your very belief renders you unqualified to do it. Your earnestness will come across. Your passion will show. Your enthusiasm will make everyone nervous. And... Continue Reading →
The Butterfly Prison can now be pre-ordered
The Butterfly Prison will be available on 15 August, but can be pre-ordered, ensuring a copy and that any money made goes to the indepedent publisher and author.
What its like to read or write:
The stress of the world, of rushed long work days, of all the injustice, the organized routine hypocrisy makes aching holes in your chest and labours your breathing and hangs from your cheeks as a disproportionate, unreasonable, impossible weight. Then you read something - a poem, a story - little drops of humanity - and... Continue Reading →
resistance words 