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#Day 16 is ‘Homegoing’ by Yaa Gyasi. This book goes from the pre-colonial Golden Coast in West Africa to the modern day US through a story of family. The style itself resembles family - it’s warm and trusting and layered and complicated and devastating, and tracks of intergenerational trauma bleed throughout. So many different voices tell so many stories but it never feels cliche or repetitive. It’s hard to overestimate what an incredible feat of storytelling this book is. Highly recommend. This book also came to me as the nominated book for the Women of Colour reading group in Edinburgh, currently run by the indomitable Fatima S. So this post is also just a chance for me to shout out all those groups and little pockets of melanin around the city that have made me feel at home over the past year. And anyone looking to join stuff like this, hmu! I’m in so many aha 🌞✨ @eu_acs @edinburghbme #BlackHistoryMonth #31daysofcolour (at The Meadows) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo_NY9ZhB8M/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ribn979dizu0

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#day9 is a tribute to one of my favourite books and writers, Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Caucasia is the story of Jesse, It tells the story of Birdie and Cole, biracial sisters growing up in 1970s Boston. Their parents are radical activists in a movement the don’t really understand, and one day leads the family to be split down the middle. It’s a beautiful story of family, sisterhood and racial identity, and made me laugh, cry and smirk quite a lot. If you’re in Edinburgh it’s currently in the main library as part of their *miniscule* display for black history month (ignore my scruffy AF1s) but you cab probably also find it at the amazing @lighthousebks . Also strongly recommend her most recent book, New People, which is an incredible parody of super ✌🏽woke ✌🏽 brown millennials and exploring what is means to be black today. For more book recommendations and things of this style, check out @themyopiaproject va. They’re a decolonial academic project, providing a platform for people to write about diverse topics that aren’t given a place in mainstream academia. Check them out! Happy #BlackHistoryMonth ☺️ #31DaysofColour (at Edinburgh University Library) https://www.instagram.com/p/BotgxXJhLvF/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9w4ngevsuv1k

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The Fisk University Jubilee Singers were a musical group from Nashville who toured the UK in the 1870s. They were the first group to perform traditional spirituals on a public platform, being the first to enter this form of black music as a form of popular culture. But at the time, what was also really popular were minstrel shows, and the contrast of having actual black people perform confused some audiences. Many “negro minstrelsy” was called a “novel religious exercise”, while others thought they were trying to be minstrels and just getting it wrong, and even black audiences treated them with scepticism and ambivalence, being protective of what had been up until then a private musical culture. Reminded me that black people having to fight for ownership of black culture is nothing new. Happy Black History Month, guys! #blackhistorymonth #31daysofcolour #day8 https://www.instagram.com/p/BorVz5uBelF/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7r8670unh7z1

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Simone Badal-McCreath and Wikipedia Power

i just wanted to share this wikipedia page i wrote on a really cool jamaican chemist called simone badal-mccreath, who, at age 32, has been winning tons of prizes for her work researching anti-cancer properties in natural jamaican products.

this came from a #womeninred wikipediathon event at my uni, which is all about improving the representation of women on wikipedia (only 16% of bio pages are about women. you can guess the numbers on women of colour). editing wikipedia is surprisingly easy and suuuch an effective way of improving representation and honouring your history.

to get involved, feel free to check out the uni of edinburgh’s wikimedia page with guidance on  how to set up an account, edit, and find the names of women who might otherwise go forgotten.

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Maia, 18: ‘Being black? It’s where I’m from, how I look, what I eat’

Maia, 18,  is a first year studying History and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. She was instructed to think of Obama as I took this picture.

Hi Maia!

Hey! 

Tell me about your upbringing :)

I was raised by my mum and dad (even though they weren’t together) and grew up with my brother, in South London. My dad’s family are Nigerian and they were my main extended family living here in the UK, so we used to spend a lot of time together, at my grandma’s, eating rice and plantain (Plan-tin!) (It’s fucking plan-tain, okay!) (Sighs) and the whole house smelled like fried fish. It felt very much like everyone was equal and just had this mish-mash of cultures and the background of South London, where we lived.

Did you grow up feeling black?

I did when I was younger. I knew I wasn’t white, that I was different… and it made sense to me, but I guess not the others. Then in like my early teens I think I rejected it more and tried to adhere to like white western culture. I went to a very white Catholic girls’ school in Surrey where it was cool to have straight hair and be as skinny as possible. But as I got older I got more exposed, and exposed myself, to more black culture and not as explicitly Nigerian culture.

Do you think of yourself as being Black British?

Yes! I think it encompasses both my blood and where I’ve grown up. Just British would be neglecting a massive part of myself; my blood, my family. And wholly Black would just be me chatting shit, I’ve lived here all my life.

What does being black mean to you (now)?

It is something which is obviously half my blood and predominant amount of culture I’ve been brought up with, with my dad’s family living in the UK and my mum’s family living not in the UK. It means family and roots and unique-ity (is that a word? Uniqueity?) of my culture. Yeah, it’s where I’m from and how I look and … what I eat.

What does whiteness mean to you?

For me… whiteness kind of has bad connotations. It means a system of privilege, an unequal top-down system. For me, whiteness is also half of my ethnicity and that makes it almost quite difficult in how I would probably define it… Whiteness is closely aligned for me with white privilege and I feel, as I have some of that privilege, as a mixed race person, [what’s important is] how you use your whiteness, whether to enhance equal rights, civil rights … or if you abuse it.

What does being woke mean to you?

Being woke is like… being in touch with everything that’s going at the time, and *waking up* to what’s going on around you, [for example in] bad situations that happen so often, like arguments on social media (or IRL aha) or in debating or ‘informed’ discussions, where someone compromises what you believe in, it’s about making sure you know and [are] able to back up your opinions and articulate your argument with evidence, it there’s always so much of it, of stuff that’s going on at the moment in media, art, books... Just being woke about what wagwan at the time! (Laughs)

Let’s say it’s the end of the race wars. You have to save one white person (someone you don’t know personally). Who do you save???

Oh my god. That’s hard. Oh my god. That’s so difficult. I don’t know. Barack Obama’s mum? For having Barack Obama.

(Good answer.)

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‘If you can't see yourself represented then create it’: talking to the gal-dem

gal-dem represent everything that is good about the internet, and all the best things about being a poc in Britain today. They’re smart, funny and honest and aren’t afraid to carve out a space for themselves. To me, they are the very meaning of #blackculturematters. It’s not just that they’re there or even that they’re thriving: they’re standing up to say ‘we’re worth it and we know it’, and they don’t care who hears. 

gal-dem is an online magazine created by and for young women of colour, mostly based in and around the UK. They comment on the news, art, culture and society as well as creating really beautiful and insightful projects exploring the black British experience today.

I got in touch with some of the gal-dem (and ex-Graveney students!) to talk to them about why celebrating #blackculturematters is so important.

Firstly, what are your memories of Graveney? Was it a good place to be a young WoC? Was it encouraging? What did you go on to and what are you all up to now? Hannah: I have a lot of good memories of Graveney, mainly to do with friends and school trips, and less to do with work haha! It's a very multicultural school so I think it was one of the best places to grow up as a WoC. Although interestingly I didn't identify as a WoC at school really, I hadn't ever heard anyone use the term. It wasn't until I went off to uni in Durham to study Philosophy and got more involved in the language of activism that I learned what it meant. I've always been proud to be mixed race but it wasn't until I moved out of London that my race became a more apparent thing because I was one of the only non-white people.

Niellah: I only went there for 6th form and I found it really multicultural and a comfortable place to study and makes friends as a black girl. After Graveney I went to Aberystwyth uni in Wales and that was a massive culture shock for me as it was predominantly white town and just nothing like the multicultural bubble of London that I was used to. Being a WoC there was way more of a struggle than in Graveney.

Why are things like gal-dem so important for young WoCs tpday? Hannah: It's a platform for us to have our say without being tokenised, or having our anger pacified, or our messages censored for being too controversial. I didn't even know I was a WoC growing up, and knowing now that there are all these communities of women that go through the same stuff as me is so empowering and I've learned so much from being involved already.

Niellah: I think we were just a little bit bored of not having a voice and having everyone else dictate our opinions and thoughts in the media and elsewhere. gal-dem allows us to write and create what we want and express ourselves in the way we see fit. And it's just a wicked platform to learn about other WoC's experiences.

Any final words of wisdom for the Yoof of Today?? Hannah: Wow, at 21, I don't feel old enough to give any wisdom to young people yet! But what I can say is that, from my experience, you should always stay true to yourself. It's a cliché for a reason! Older people love to lecture young people and when you're at an impressionable age you're likely to listen to them. I've been given so much advice from industry professionals but not all of it has been useful or even true! Sometimes you have to take risks and see for yourself.

Niellah: If you can't see yourself represented then create it, don't wait about for someone to do it for you. And corny, but remember you have a voice and don't let yourself be silenced.

You can also hear the editor, Liv Little, talking about their work on Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour here. 

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10 ‘Black’ Shows to Watch Instead of “The Get Down”

Here,some amazing shows which are produced, directed and/or written by black artists. Each one is beautiful and insightful in its own way, and I promise will be 10x more rewarding than anything Baz Luhrmann can sell you.

1. Scandal 

Scandal is an American political thriller television series starring Kerry Washington and created by Shonda Rhimes.

‘...Far from being Capitol Hill's golden girl, she is a woman with many skeletons in her closet – each one bringing a new shock, and revealing her to be a poisonous mess of co-dependency and betrayal. Shonda Rhimes, Scandal's creator, deserves huge praise for having the courage to make the first black female lead on US television in 38 years a flawed anti-heroine. And if Pope is screwed up, so is her team: Huck was a former black ops marine with a past involving torture and murder; Harrison served time for insider trading; and Quinn – well, let's just say Quinn has dark impulses.’The Guardian, 2013

Watch free here.

2. Master of None

Personal and professional life of a 30-year-old actor (Aziz Ansari) in New York who has trouble making decisions.

‘Master Of None isn’t a show about race. It’s a show about Dev. Race does play a role in the show, but that’s because it plays a role in Dev’s life. Even in “Indians On TV,” the story is still largely about Dev and his emotional journey brought on by the email thread instead of just about the issue it’s tackling. Ansari and Alan Yang pen a masterful script that’s emotional, incisive, and funny. Even though “Indians On TV” has a very clear message, the show holds onto its voice and doesn’t let that message overpower everything else that it does well, including the comedy. Dev works through his feelings about the racist email chain with Busta Rhymes over sashimi in the VIP lounge at a Knicks game. It’s so weird and full of funny bits, proving that Master Of None can be both very serious and very fun at the same time.’ AV Club, 2015.

Available on Netflix.

3. Chewing Gum

(British!) Comedy series following religious, Beyoncé-obsessed 24-year-old Tracey Gordon who is fast finding out that the more she learns about the world, the less she understands.

‘Chewing Gum is beautifully written, its dialogue outlandish and thoroughly believable. This is modern, working-class city life: a world where skin colour is invisible for some (Tracey’s best friend is mixed race and her sisters are white, but it is never discussed) and omni-present for others; a world of absent fathers and dominant mothers. It’s also a refreshingly optimistic world, in which people believe they can achieve anything, whatever their background.’ The Guardian, 2015

Available on 4od

4. Issa Rae / Insecure

Modern-day black women might be described as strong and confident; in other words, just the opposite of Issa and Molly. As the best friends deal with their own real-life flaws, their insecurities come to the fore as together they cope with an endless series of uncomfortable everyday experiences.

‘Issa and Molly have an extended group of friends, including Natasha Rothwell's Kelli. Rothwell also is a story editor on the show and when the circle of friends expands, Insecure becomes a more provocative and issue-driven show. Particularly the sixth episode, with long, funny and daring conversations about double-standards relating to black masculinity and sexuality, as well as a spot-on theater parody, is going to seem to some viewers like a "better" show, but it feels like the show Insecure only wants to be occasionally, rather than all of the time. Insecure doesn't want to be a "Group of African-American women get together and tackle subjects of importance to African-American women" show.’ Hollywood Reporter, 2016

Will be available on HBO Online, but until then watch the web-series precursor Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl.

5. Empire  

Hip-hop artist and CEO of Empire Entertainment, Lucious Lyon, has always ruled unchallenged, but a medical diagnosis predicts he will be incapacitated in three years, which prompts the sharks to circle. Without further damaging his family, he must decide which of his three sons will take over.

‘Empire has a lighter touch. In one of her many showpiece moments, Cookie barges into a boardroom and notices that one of the executives at the big round table is a solitary black woman. Cue a plea from Cookie for more women breaking the glass ceiling, or a remark about “Lehman Sisters”? No, what we get is Cookie calling out to the embarrassed exec: “Hey – sista girl!” We don’t need anything else. We get it. When Lucious calls the president to apologise for his son calling him “a sell-out”, there’s no heavy-handed rumination on the disappointments of the Obama administration. Instead it’s: “There’s no need for that kind of language, Barack.”’ The Guardian, 2015.

Watch on 4od.

6. Grey's Anatomy  

The medical drama series focuses on a group of doctors at a hospital in Seattle, including several who began their careers at the facility as interns, created by Shonda Rhimes.

‘Determined not to have a program in which "all the extras are white, except the lone janitor," she has created one of the most colorful backgrounds in television, a hospital in which punked-out bike messengers and suffering Hasidim roam the corridors. "Shonda's only rule is drug dealers and pimps cannot be black," said Dr. Zoanne Clack, a black writer for the show who also practices medicine. Even the episodic roles -- a gay African-American, a young Hispanic couple -- are multicultural.’ New York Times, 2005

Watch free here.

7. Luke Cage

This gritty, action-packed drama follows the evolution of Luke Cage (Mike Colter), a man with super strength and unbreakable skin caused by a sabotaged experiment.

‘Luke Cage clicks... delivers a story with a complex social commentary, on a topic that it doesn’t normally touch: blackness. The titular protagonist is, of course, a black superhero. But the series explores the vulnerability of black lives to make an important point about its extraordinary man with indestructible skin.’ Vox, 2016

Watch on Netflix.

8. Black-ish

An upper-middle-class black man struggles to raise his children with a sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife, old-school father and his assimilated, color-blind kids.

‘What Black-ish does best isn't actual comedy (though it is a very funny show). No, Black-ish bravely goes places most shows—even dramas—won't: headfirst into sensitive topics affecting society today. This week's episode confronted police brutality and the many cases of unarmed African-Americans who've been shot and killed by police across the country. Let's see the nerds of The Big Bang Theory even get within spitting distance of that one.’ TV.com, 2016

Free online here. 9. How to Get Away With Murder  

Annalise Keating (Oscar-nominated,Tony-winning actress Viola Davis) is a brilliant, charismatic and seductive professor of defense law, who teaches a class called How to Get Away With Murder. Annalise, also a criminal defense attorney, selects a group of students -- the best and the brightest -- to assist with cases at her firm. Mysteries arise that test everyone's limits and reveal dark truths. Produced by Shonda Rhimes.

‘ As Annalise, Ms. Davis, 49, is sexual and even sexy, in a slightly menacing way, but the actress doesn’t look at all like the typical star of a network drama. Ignoring the narrow beauty standards some African-American women are held to, Ms. Rhimes chose a performer who is older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful than Ms. Washington...

The premiere episode is a cleverly constructed hoot: A group of Keating’s top first-year students compete fiendishly to win internships in her law office, then find themselves using her classroom lessons to fiendishly cover up a death. It’s a sexy murder mystery not unlike Donna Tartt’s first novel, “The Secret History,” not a nighttime soap... The pilot episode of “How to Get Away With Murder” is promisingly slick and suspenseful.’ New York Times, 2014

Wtch on Netflix 10. Undercover

Drama series in which a defence lawyer tries to finally uncover the truth of an old miscarriage of justice, while her husband goes to any lengths to conceal the truth about his own past, featuring Sophie Okonedo and Adrian Lester.

‘ Much less dramatic but unforgettable nonetheless is a scene in which Maya, her husband and children eat a meal in their home. Yep, that’s it. In 2016, it is an outrage that it’s a big deal to see a successful, affluent, complicated black family sit at a dinner table eating pasta. But the sad truth is, it’s a milestone. As is the way race is handled in Undercover: central to its plot and themes but not the sole defining feature of its characters. Just like real life.’ Guardian, 2016

Sadly no longer on iPlayer, so watch here.

Hope you enjoy! Message me any thoughts here.

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By CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, GLORIA STEINEM, JON MEACHAM and RASHIDA JONES