Freedom of thought and freedom to migrate are rights hard won. A childhood confined by military dictatorship, a present obstructed by populist world leadership has made me treasure them even more. The former destroys minds and bodies with religious dogma, the latter with racist anti-immigrant policies.
Before our story begins, our mother is five, and to protect her from the blitz in London, she is sent to her grandparents in Wales. Around the same time, in Morocco, Fatima Mernissi is born in her family harem, surrounded by women, her mother, her grandmother, and her aunts. From them, she learns to treasure education and decisiveness while retaining a sense of humor.
“My Amma says things in a way that make you smile, and she laughs along with you like a friend should, and she stands up for you like a father should.”
“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.” ~Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“It had been many, many years since anyone had been in his thoughts. It pleased him, it titillated him, it bothered him, but in a pleasant sort of way. He could not shake it off. “
“Someday, Somewhere, You Said Hello
And Walked Into My Life “
A raised fist made of rusty-red laterite clay, “Speak Out” is Djakou Kassi’s latest artwork currently on display in Los Angeles, in Signature African Art gallery. It is a symbol of power and support for marginalized communities. African masks cover the larger-than-life clenched fist and the messages carved into the clay cry out against racism and discrimination. “Love”, “No to Hate”, “We are all Human”, and “I can’t Breath” reference the struggle faced by people of color everywhere, especially African Americans in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Daughter of the Passion
The Lord arrived
Not with love’s cortege-
It’s green-atomed dervish,
And entranced succuba –
He arrived in the cicatrix of a rose
