On Saturday 10th November, we (Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Beth Kamunge and I) had a launch event for our new edited collection, The Fire Now: anti-racist scholarship in times of explicit racial violence. We got to hear from some of the contributors to this book, as well as engage in a discussion with Lowkey and Professor Akwugo Emejulu about future directions of anti-racist scholarship/activism.
We’re really excited to announce that the book is now available! It’s been a long time in the making, and we’re really proud that this thing that has been in our heads for so long is finally going to be out there.
We want to say thank you to Ed Emery (who created the index) and the people that worked with us at Zed Books – particularly Kim Walker who was so fantastic and supportive as we were thinking through what this book would look like. We also want to thank all of the authors who gave us such varied, excellent and thought-provoking pieces, making this process a real joy and learning experience.
Finally, I would personally like to thank my co-editors. From 2014-2017, Remi, Beth and I co-founded and ran CREN, the Critical Race and Ethnicities Network (based across University of Leeds, Sheffield and York) with Katie Markham, Muna Abdi, Leona Satchell-Samuels, Tasnim Alahdal, Katucha Bento, Siyang Cao and Ros Williams. That network continues to be one of the things I’m most proud of as it completely changed the course of my PhD, and what I thought was possible within academia. It led me to have a space to think and dream with bright and bold scholars like Remi and Beth. It led to friendships that I can’t ever show enough appreciation for. It led to this moment, and to this book. I mean, we made a book! Wild. And I couldn’t be prouder that this book was made with you two.
For a summary of what we hoped to achieve through the book, please check out this Media Diversified article!
Azeezat Johnson | Learning through Black feminism 