I was planning to get a lot of Non fictions read in November… didn’t happen at all! A bit about the three books I did get to read!
Naomi Klein’s No Is Not Enough is the only non fiction I did actually pick up last month. Written in 2017 a few short months into the Trump presidency, it’s a powerful call to arms. It ends with the hopeful Leap Manifesto, encouraging a collaborative approach. Taking ideas from The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, I can imagine this would have been a must read when published and still has a powerful message now
Open Water is Caleb Azumah Nelson’s brilliant, soul baring debut. A young couple fall in love in South London and we see it through the protagonist’s eyes- your eyes, even. It’s in second person. A beautiful perspective on Black masculinity in London now but also so much more. Out in February 2021, available for pre-order from Penguin
Real Life was another excellent debut and Booker Prize shortlisted. Brandon Taylor writes about Wallace, a Gay Black man at university in a small, predominantly white town. A campus novel set over one weekend, Real Life gives an insight into how day to day micro aggressions and attacks on Wallace’s person impact his outlook. It’s one of those everything is happening but also nothing is happening books but it got me in my feelings
Small Axe
I know everyone has had their eyes on the Small Axe series over the past month or so! It’s essential viewing, there are too many pieces of Black British History and the Black British experience that are missing from public knowledge and discourse. There have been a few episodes that have had me quite emotional both due to familiarity and also plain human heartbreak.
Aside from telling stories that need to be heard, the acting, writing and production are incredible! Produced and directed by Steve McQueen. Co- Written by Courttia Newland and Alastair Siddons. Incredibly talented cast: Letitia Wright, John Boyega, Michael Ward, Sheyi Cole, Shaun Parkes, the list goes on. The following of movement and story telling within one event in the Lover’s Rock episode was stunning!
The episodes cover The Mangrove five, Lee Logan‘s story Alex Wheatle‘s story and Education, focusing on the Black British perspective.
Without rambling into an essay, I don’t know what to say except you have to watch this, it needs to be seen. But it’s difficult to watch at times,an emotional viewing.
Small Axe is still showing on BBC Iplayer and Amazon Prime
