My PoC Bookshelf: Where Authors of Colour Take the Stage
Georgina Fakunmoju actually wanted to join a book club when the pandemic started two years ago and put an end to social reading and discussion. What now? While staring at her full bookshelf, the idea finally came to her – and shortly afterwards she started her own podcast and Instagram account, where she only presents BIPoC literature and gives authors of colour a platform. Here are three of her recommendations.
On 18 October at 20:30 pm, 'My PoC Bookshelf' will be at Villa Elisabeth for a LIVE PODCAST.
Chigozie Obioma: The Fishermen
Benjamin and his brothers live in Akure, Nigeria, near a river that used to be worshiped by humans as a god but that has been considered the cradle of evil since the arrival of the colonists. When their father takes a job up north, the boys secretly go fishing there – setting a chain of terrible events in motion. A magical fable about the history of the continent, about Nigeria today, about our darkest feelings of fear, hatred and revenge. A very exciting novel with great symbolic power.
Margaret Busby (ed.): New Daughters of Africa
The gateway drug for anyone interested in literature by women authors of African descent: 200 authors, 1,000 pages, starting with texts written before 1900 and continuing through to the early twentieth century and the present day. The British publishing legend Margaret Busby published the first anthology of its kind in 1992 with the same goal: to make the diversity of female voices on the continent and the African diaspora heard. It includes lesser-known names like Florida Ruffin Ridley (US), Stella Dadzie (UK) and Goretti Kyomuhendo (Uganda). But it also encompasses contributions by stars like Bernadine Evaristo, Roxane Gay and Zadie Smith. German release in summer 2023.
Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye
The debut novel by Nobel Laureate in Literature Toni Morrison, which is still painfully relevant today. The young Pecola Breedlove goes north from Kentucky with her family in the 1940s. She wishes she wasn’t black anymore, that she looked like the girls in children’s books, like their white dolls. It is a groundbreaking novel about self-loathing and internalised racism. This book was first published in the US in 1970 while Morrison was working at Random House – the first Black publisher in the history of the publishing house.
LIVE PODCAST
18 October at 8:30 pm, Villa Elisabeth
Georgina Fakunmoju will host author Josephine Apraku who just published her new book 'Kluft und Liebe: Warum soziale Ungleichheit uns in Liebesbeziehungen trennt und wie wir zueinanderfinden'. With ‘My PoC Bookshelf’ Georgina Fakunmoju is making Black, Indigenous and PoC knowledge, cultures and experiences visible in all their diversity and wants to create representation for BIPoCs in Germany who do not feel seen or acknowledged by white perspectives. The entry is free.
