London, October 29th– The Arab British Centre hosted an event on Memory with four displaced Palestinian artists. During a brief presentation, I learnt that the ABC is a registered charity which promotes Arabic culture, language and knowledge in the UK and aims to enhance relationships of respect, support and collaboration. In fact, it is one of…
I am going to call this out with a bit of vehemence, as I am not sure it currently has the attention it deserves. I would love to have known the New Beacon probably back a decade ago, when I happened to be in a London short-stay, conducting researches for my dissertation in Caribbean literature.…
Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TedTalk 2009. Since I started this little blog I have got to play around with social media and discovered the power of cyber communication, #AshTags, connections and sharing. In fact, there are plenty of ways…
Traveling across the borders of languages, are there any constraints at all? I think I considered this a little personal challenge but I realised I was just not fit for it: translating a poem from Italian into English. I suppose a good translation is possible if translators are able bring pieces of information from another…
This is a extract from 2016 novel The Handsworth Times by Sharon Duggal, set in the early ’80s in the rioting Birmingham area and in the middle of a job crisis. I found it quite an easy reading, although I got somehow absorbed into this family tragedy some controversial aspects came out of it and…
Little Aunt Crane is a novel written by the award-winning Chinese novelist and screenwriter Geling Yan, published in 2008 and its first English translation came out in 2015 by Esther Tyldesley. I didn’t know the author before reading this book but this is not the first novel she wrote and I read that some of her…
I was pleased to read on the author’s blog that one of her recent books, Il Segreto degli Annwyn, has been translated from Italian into English. The Annwyn’s Secret is a novel set in the XXIII century and the future scenario it presents is not as positive as one could possibly hope for. In fairness, some may find…
The Central Club mural in London Street (Reading, GB), was completed in 1990 and depicts the history of black culture blending figures such as Malcolm X with representatives from the local black community. One of these figures is Terrance ‘Jeff’ Allamby, a campaigner who lobbied for the club to open, who was shot dead in 1996. He is pictured…
Non so se sia realmente uno dei suoi intenzionali scopi, ma leggendo la seguente poesia ho percepito un riferimento alle lingue europee imposte nel mondo. Secondo meccanismi di potere e supremazia, fu data la lingua a chi ne aveva già una (o più di una) e non ne aveva un reale bisogno. Tuttavia, le lingue e le…
This is something I thought I would share. Any reference to real facts or persons is not purely coincidental. The recent episodes have been pushing it under the spotlight but, in all fairness, it doesn’t seem that racism is spreading out “again” just like a contagious virus. It’s always been there and it has never…
Even people whose lives have been made various by learning sometimes find it hard to keep a fast hold on their habitual views of life, on their faith in the Invisible – nay, on the sense that their past joys and sorrows are a real experience, when they are suddenly transported to a new land,…
Foreword I am a reader. Being a reader, especially an avid and a passionate one, influences your life experience and your approach to things in general. I have created this blog primarily to collect personal reflections, thoughts and notes on my readings. From my point of view, a blog is a resourceful platform which may be used to open up a dialogue…
