Merry Christmas

Young, Christian and Black

While I love Black History Month I am beginning to have my reservations about the celebrations. Don’t get me wrong I love being able to talk about race, decolonisation and creating a more racial diverse community. I think it is vital to celebrate and know one’s history my reservations come from a different place. I am a Christian and a woman of colour. In woke black circles those two identities seem an anathema. To be a Christian in politically conscious black circles is seen as a being of lower intelligence. I have been told I am a brainwashed person who follows the colonisers religion the theology (or rather lack of) to support that argument is shoddy at best.

Christianity in Africa and Asia go back to the early era of the religion. I wont elaborate on this point now but use your common sense. My issue with equating my religious identity with colonisation colludes with right wing elements in the global south and takes agency away from my decisions.  One of my on going problems with a lot of post colonialism has been the way agency has been taken away from colonial subjects, this does a great injustice to post colonials who devoid of agency can only be thought of in relation to their colonisation. Never being able to exert ones free will or take ownership of one’s decisions the west becomes a site of untold anxiety.

As a Christian woman from the global south I embody those anxieties. I have never been patriotic enough for the country of my birth nor assimilated enough. In the UK I am an anomaly as my ethnic identity is not congruent with my religious identity to most people. In black circles I can only be an enemy of all things libratory. The exclusion hurts because it shuts off all dialogue, it colludes with those who kill Christians because they are too foreign, too anti national, too different.   

Life of a flower

Tomato cous cous

         

Ingredients

Tomato paste

Onions

Spring onions

Peppers

Coriander

Chickpeas

Spices

Heat oil in a deep pot throw in the onions and fry them till translucent. Add the tomato paste and spices with a pinch of sugar. I used bay leaves, cumin and a veggie stock cube use spices you like. Add a little water and let the stew simmer till the oil and tomatoes separate. The longer the tomatoes cook the redder the finished product will be. Give the stew 30 mins to simmer adding water gradually to make a sauce that will can be absorbed by the cous cous. Add the chickpeas and give them 5 minutes to cook .

In a deep dish add the cous cous with a bit of olive oil or butter throw in the rest of the chopped vegetables. Pour most of the sauce on the cous cous reserving some for garnishing. Allow the cous cous time to absorb the sauce fluff with a fork. Serve with the remaining sauce and dressing of your choice. 

September is here

August is here

July is here

Sparkle in the Cathedral

We would like to invite you to Sparkle in the Cathedral (10th July 2016). We are hoping to reach a wider transgender congregation this year. Allies are welcome too. This is the third year we are running the Sparkle service. This is not a separate event but the regular Sunday morning worship service which will welcome Sparkle visitors. We are hoping to initiate a dialogue and bring awareness about the transgender community within the Church. This year we also have a local transgender artist exhibiting her paintings at the Cathedral. Please do spread the word. Thank you.

June is here

The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House- Audre Lorde

Found this essay online thought of sharing it. The phrase 'The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House' has become rather common however reading this essay contextualises the intersectional racist and sexist masters Lorde is speaking about. The call to dismantle is not an abstract one but one that is based on action.

Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” 1984.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Ed. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press. 110-

114. 2007. Print. http://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf

May is here

Of drunk men, national struggle and renaissance.

While writing about addiction in cinema I could not help but write about Devdas.  Based on the Bengali novella of the same name by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay 15^th September 1876 – 16^th January 1938). Published in 1917 the novella was written in 1901. Depicting the life of an indecisive obsessive man with little courage. Turned into a romantic tale over the years the film evokes pity-turning Devdas into the ultimate fallen hero of Indian cinema.  In over one century Devdas has been Adapted for film, theater and television and translated into several Indian languages. The earliest film based on the book was made in 1928. 

The 2002 Bollywood version of the film brought the story back to popularity. However the film was more about the visual effects and nostalgia than the original abject nature of the titular character of book.  Chattopadhyay makes a scathing commentary about the modern educated man of his time. Torn between a stereotype and being a rational man this book continues to provide an analysis of human emotions. 

April is here

Blessed Good Friday

Review of Miss Hokusai

I recently watched Miss Hokusai and was mesmerized by the beauty of the animation. The film depicts the life of the Hokusai family focusing not on Katsushika Hokusai  (1760 – 1849) the famous woodblock print artist but on his artist daughter. The film incorporates Hokusai's artworks into the narrative giving the work context and the plot meaning.

 

What I found fascinating about the film was the lack of romance and a simple narrative which explored the characters more deeply. The film portrays a determined and sensitive young woman who keenly observes the world around her incorporating it into her painting. Her young blind sister brings out the maternal in her. 

 

As mentioned before the lack of  a romantic subplot allows the film to develop and the characters to grow in maturity without being distracted. Miss Hokusai is a single woman whose talent while admirable seems to intimidate the men around her who admire her but don't see her as a romantic partner. Her strong sense of duty coupled with her talent make her content within herself and her world.

 

The animation is beautiful conveying a range of emotions and providing a breathtaking experience. The changing seasons an little detail from Hokusai's prints were cleverly woven into the story and provided animation to prints we have only seen as still.

What I personally found interesting was the way a story of two artists were told in a historical setting with the focus not on Hokusai the artist but his daughter. The stories within the stories were equally compelling and animated with skill.

PS: This film passes the Bechdel test. 

 

doodles

Asylum magazine 30th Anniversary issue

New issue out now.  Thank you to our contributors whose work has kept us going for 30 years. We appreciate your writing and art and look forward to more.

Contributions include artist/writer  Sanchita Islam . You can read her article titled Should mental health patients be forced to take medication? Here  

To subscribe to the magazine click here.

March is here

Books from the past

Found this book in a second hand bookshop loved the design on the cover.

Not all colonials are equal.

I was at the British museum a month ago watching an exhibition on colonialism. What fascinated me is how India was given a certain dignity in the art Indian women were exotic, royal and in their finest clothing (nakedness is seen as a means of shaming and not eroticism). The African subject by contrast was less autonomous, the women naked and objects of sexualisation. There was a stark contrast in how the African and Asian subject was treated. One was given almost the same dignity as the British subject even imitated. Several paintings of white colonisers in Indian (royal) clothing were seen yet none of these existed for their African counterparts. Colonialism was and isn’t equal. While one continent was exoticised the other was thought of in terms of savagery. These ideas have not vanished but continue to haunt us in the present in the way we talk about Asians and Africans. 

Healing Voices

Sparkle in Manchester Cathedral 2016

Sparkle  2016 is the 12th annual National Transgender celebration, taking place on the weekend of July 8th to 10th in Manchester. It is similar to pride and  a free event, open to all. There are lots of activities through the weekend. This is an invite to Sunday morning at Manchester Cathedral service with the Cathedral community it is part of the many activities over the weekend (8th- 10th July). Transgender people their friends families and allies are welcome to join in.

Date - 10th July 2016
Time- 10.30 am
Venue - Manchester Cathedral, Victoria Street, Manchester, M3 1SX


Free admission
For a link to the Cathedral website click here

Here is a link to what the Cathedral choir sounds like.

2nd Week of Lent

Chinese New Year

February is here

In solidarity with Hong Kong

One of the things I like about living in Manchester is being surrounded by art. Its not just the galleries that have displays of art but sometimes in a little corner of the city one can find a display of art that will make you stop and ponder.

My friend and artist Mei Yuk Wong invited me to an art exhibition recently. Tucked away on the first floor of Jun Salon in Manchester's China Town is the exhibition made up of hand sewn and hand embroidered messages for the people of Hong Kong. The message is a means of showing solidarity with the people of Hong Kong fighting for democracy.

The most poignant idea I remember from the exhibition was the artist seeing hope in the future. I would recommend this exhibition to anyone who is curious to know more about the situation in Hong Kong to anyone who feels strongly about justice. The staff at the salon are friendly and helpful in translating the Chinese text. My friend and I popped in on a Sunday afternoon the staff were than willing to talk about the situation and update us on the situation in Hong Kong. Altogether it was an educative experience.

Details

Jun Salon, 93a Princess Street, Manchester M1 4HT. Opening time 12:00-19:00

January is here- Happy New Year