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Notes on Home: Resources

9 August 2024

” Where do we find the words and actions to continually fight racism, Islamophobia and fascism? How can we collectively make spaces of belonging through culture? ” 

– Notes on Home, iniva.

 

The following is a small but growing list of resources the iniva team has compiled in response to the recent violent riots across the UK. 

Stuart Hall Library

 

  •  ‘So, Where Are You Really From?’: Championing Creatives of Colour in the North of England by Pennycress
    [ZIN PEN (1)]People talk a lot about where you come from. When you’re black, mixed race or of another ethnic minority, you’ll likely be asked it, several times a year, in tones ranging from camaraderie and general interest to suspicion, derision and even shock. But where someone is from means a lot more than DNA or parentage- it’s about the circumstances one has to grow through, the emotions that drive our decisions, all the little experiences that add up to world perspective we call our own. It also relates to the city we call home – Leeds. For Pennycress’s inaugural issue, 32 creatives share art, writing, photography and more to interpret where they’re REALLY from; reflections on their heritage, the place they live, and the passions that say far more about themselves than their skintone.The zine was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  •  ‘What Would Auntie Do?’: Creatives of Colour Exploring, Celebrating and Subverting Cultural Traditions by Pennycress
    [ZIN PEN (2)]As People Of Colour, there is often a pressure to work twice as hard as our white counterparts, to follow the established path in order to achieve ‘success’, be that pleasing God, parents or wider society. Has your path in life reflected what your family wanted for you? Are you actively trying to escape the pressures of cultural tradition, or are you proud to follow in the footsteps of your ancestors? What calendar events do you never miss? What doesn’t line up with your millennial lifestyle? In times of struggle or celebration, who do you look to for inspiration and advice? The world today is different place to the one our parents grew up in – put in your shoes, what would Auntie Do? This issues theme is all about the idea of cultural tradition – how the legacies of our families are upheld, subverted and re-imagined to suit the responsibilities and priorities of our modern world. Through artwork, photography, poetry and longform writing, 28 different Northern creatives explore matters ranging from sexuality and self-representation to the importance of Carnival and Church in the Black community. We talk home remedies, raising biracial children, and living up to expectations of inspirational elders. We talk about sadness and suffering, but also about joy and hope.The zine was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  •  Alien Nation by John Gill (John Joseph)
    [410.111 ICA ALI]Published on the occasion of the inIVA/ ICA exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), 17th November 2006 – 14th January 2007. Alien nation, curated by John Gill, Jens Hoffmann and Gilane Tawadros, explores the complex relationship between science fiction, race and contemporary art. With contributions from: Greg Tate; David alan Melloe; Cylena Simonds; Claire Fitzsimmons., Artists include: Laylah Ali; Hamad Butt; Edgar Cleijne; Ellen Gallagher; David Huffman; Hew Locke; Marepe; Henna Nadeem; Kori Newkirk; Yinka Shonibare; Eric Wesley; Mario YBarra Jr.The catalogue was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  • At Home with Vanley Burke edited by Jonathan Watkins
    [AS BUR]Published on the occasion of the exhibition at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 22 July – 27 September 2015. Vanley Burke, b. Jamaica 1951, resident in Birmingham since 1965, is a photographer concerned with black culture in Britain. For this exhibition, the entire contents of Burke’s flat and archive were moved to the gallery, including artworks, souvenirs and objects that reflect the lives and histories of black people. The artist is revealed as a subject of his own enquiry through what he has collected. With text contributions by Pete James, Marlene Smith and Jonathan Watkins.The artist monograph was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

 

  • Folkestone Triennial: A Million Miles from Home edited by Andrea Schlieker
    [410.112 FOL 2011]Published in conjunction with the exhibition Folkestone Triennial: A Million Miles from Home, 25 June – 25 September 2011, Folkestone, Kent, England. Artists include: Tonico Lemos Auad; Charles Avery; Camp; Martin Creed; A.K. Dolven; Smadar Dreyfus; Hala Elkoussy; Ruth Ewan; Spencer Finch; Hamish Fulton; Cristina Iglesias; Nikolaj B.S. Larsen; Hew Locke; Cornelia Parker; Olivia Plender; Zineb Sedira; Erzen Shkololli; Strange Cargo; Paloma Varga Weisz. Curated by Andrea Schlieker.The catalogue was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  •  Ingrid Pollard: Postcards Home by Ingrid Pollard
    [AS POL]Ingrid Pollard first came to widespread attention in 1987 with Pastoral Interlude, a series of photographs about black people’s experience of the English countryside. Steeped in the heritage of Wordsworth and the Romantic Poets, her photographs explore the beauty of the English landscape and coastline, alongside the memories hidden within England’s history and its relationship to Africa and the Caribbean. Her interest in the layers of history is echoed in the accomplished use of 19th century photographic techniques. As Mark Haworth-Booth has noted: “Her work is grounded (almost literally) in her own experience, combined with a knowledge of history and theory and expressed with refreshing and earthy frankness, rare personal modesty and engaging wit.” This monograph covers Pollard’s work from her documentary images for magazines such as Spare Rib in the 1980s through to her commissioned work for galleries up to 2002. Each piece of work is introduced with text by the artist.The artist monograph was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  •  Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting by Jess Bailey
    [ZIN BAI]Taking radical action is nurtured by quilting. Quilts are tender, fierce, and reliable. They are provocative and reparative. Quilts hold people and stories. As they conform to the unique shape of a body beneath their cascading surface, they affirm the vitality of love and safety. Throughout history, communities have turned to the collective intimacies of quilting in moments of need. This zine tells those stories.The zine was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  •  The Place is Here: The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain edited by Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles
    [410.146 THE]This publication developed from the exhibition and research project The Place Is Here (2016–19), which traced the urgent and wide-ranging conversations taking place between black artists, writers, and thinkers in Britain during the 1980s. Within the context of Thatcherism and a racist art establishment, a new generation of black artists and intellectuals produced some of the most compelling ideas and images in recent British cultural history. Across four exhibitions, The Place Is Here brought together over one hundred works by forty artists and collectives, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, and expanded archival displays. Richly illustrated, the book includes thematic essays, close readings of works, and a series of panel discussions bringing together key scholarly, critical, and artistic voices foundational to art in Britain in the 1980s. The result is an intergenerational dialogue around pressing intellectual, political, and aesthetic debates, highlighting the significance of the work of these artists for the present.The catalogue was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  •  West Indian Front Room by Michael McMillan
    [410.176 MCM]Installation commissioned by the Black Arts Alliance, Manchester brings the private into the public, featuring the West Indian front room interior as an icon of kitsch furniture and consumer fetish. The installation was shown at the Zion Arts Centre, Manchester in 2003.The catalogue was featured at the lunchtime talk On Our Table: Finding Home.

 

  • Kiahan (A Tale of Migration) by Carrie MacKinnon
    [ZIN KIA]A comic about the harrowing experience of fleeing Afghanistan and seeking asylum in the UK, told from the perspective of a 14 year old boy, Kiahan who MacKinnon met at a detention camp in Calais.

 

 

  • Creating Futures: Free of Islamophobia by Sabba Khan
    [ZIN KHA]‘Creating Futures Free of Islamophobia’ is Newham Council’s programme of events for Islamophobia Awareness Month 2022. This zine has been created by Sabba Khan to capture the special moments and heartfelt conversations during the programme.

 

 

  • Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia by Suhaiyah Manzoor-Khan
    [ESS MAN]Islamophobia is everywhere. It is a narrative and history woven so deeply into our everyday lives that we don’t even notice it – in our education, how we travel, our healthcare, legal system and at work. Behind the scenes it affects the most vulnerable, at the border and in prisons. Despite this, the conversation about Islamophobia is relegated to microaggressions and slurs. Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan reveals how Islamophobia not only lives under the skin of those who it marks, but is an international political project designed to divide people in the name of security, in order to materially benefit global stakeholders. It can only be truly uprooted when we focus not on what it is but what it does. Tangled in Terror shows that until the most marginalised Muslims are safe, nobody is safe.

 

  • daikon* Issue #5 Summer: Migration
    [ZIN DAI(5)]A zine created by East and Southeast Asian women and non-binary people, containing photography, essays, personal experiences, poetry, and illustrations on the subject of ‘Migration‘, LGBTQ+ migrants, colonialism and the politics of migration.

 

  •  Don’t Calm Down by Artists Union England
    [ZIN DON]This zine was produced as part of an anti-racist project and workshop at Durham Sixth Form College on 30th March 2022 to discuss the booklet African Lives in Northern England as a starting point to help young people explore anti-racism and anti-racism activism.

 

 

  • Common Ground: Aspects of Contemporary British Muslim Experience
    [410.111 BRI COM]Exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the Common Ground: Aspects of Contemporary British Muslim Experience. Eight young British photographers were asked to explore issues relating to Muslim identity in the UK. Featuring artists Amyandtanveer, Clement Cooper, Suki Dhanda, Rehan Jamil, Anthony Lam, Sam Piyasena, The Belle Vue Studio, Jagtar Semplay, Tim Smith. Box set with 10 pamphlets featuring photographs and an essay by Yudhi Soerjoatmodjo.

 

  •  Sisters: A Celebration of British Female Muslim Identity 1999-2004
    [410.176 SIS]’Sisters’ reveals the personal thoughts and feelings of young hijab wearing Muslim women living in the northwest of England. Published to accompany the exhibition ‘Sisters’ held at the Oldham Gallery in 2004 incorporating portrait photographs by Clement Cooper plus audio-recordings of participants.

 

  • Black Voice: Black Unity and Freedom Party
    [Journal]A tabloid newspaper printed between 1970 and 1999 by the Black Unity and Freedom Party. The newspaper took on a radical anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and pro-socialist stance and was heavily critical of British and US government policies.

 

  •  Be Like Teflon by Jasleen Kaur
    [ESS KAU]In a collection of conversations between Jasleen and women of Indian heritage living in the UK, arise themes of labour, duty, sustenance and loss.

 

  •  Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks
    [ESS HOO]What does it mean to call a place home? Who is allowed to become a member of a community? When can we say that we truly belong? These are some of the questions of place and belonging that cultural critic bell hooks examines in her this book. Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to end where she began–her old Kentucky home. hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership. Reflecting on the fact that 90% of all black people lived in the agrarian South before mass migration to northern cities in the early 1900s, she writes about black farmers, about black folks who have been committed both in the past and in the present to local food production, to being organic, and to finding solace in nature. Naturally, it would be impossible to contemplate these issues without thinking about the politics of race and class. Reflecting on the racism that continues to find expression in the world of real estate, she writes about segregation in housing and economic racialized zoning. In these critical essays, hooks finds surprising connections that link of the environment and sustainability to the politics of race and class that reach far beyond Kentucky.

 

  •  Sikhs in Britain: The Making of a Community by Gurharpal Singh
    [ESS SIK]The history of Sikhs in Britain provides important clues into the evolution of Britain as a multicultural society and the challenges it faces today. The authors examine the complex Anglo-Sikh relationship that led to the initial Sikh settlement and the processes of community-building around Sikh institutions such as gurdwaras. They explore the nature of British Sikh society as reflected in the performance of Sikhs in the labour markets, the changing characteristics of the Sikh family and issues of cultural transmission to the young. They provide an….account of a community transformed from the site of radical immigrant class politics to a leader of the Sikh diaspora in its search for a separate Sikh state.- provided by the publisher.

 

  •  The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla
    [ESS GOO]Twenty one writers explore what it means to be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic in Britain today. Bringing together 21 exciting black, Asian and minority ethnic voices emerging in Britain today, The Good Immigrant explores why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay and what it means to be ‘other’ in a country that doesn’t seem to want you, doesn’t truly accept you – however many generations you’ve been here – but still needs you for its diversity monitoring forms. Inspired by discussion around why society appears to deem people of colour as bad immigrants – job stealers, benefit scroungers, undeserving refugees – until, by winning Olympic races or baking good cakes, or being conscientious doctors, they cross over and become good immigrants. Contributors include: Musa Okwonga (poet/broadcaster), Chimene Suleyman (poet/columnist), Vinay Patel (playwright), Bim Adewumni (Buzzfeed), Salena Godden (poet/writer), Sabrina Mahfouz (playwright), Kieran Yates (journalist), Coco Khan (journalist), Sarah Sahim (journalist), Reni Eddo Lodge (journalist), Varaidzo (student), Darren Chetty (teacher), Himesh Patel (Tamwar from Eastenders), Nish Kumar (comedian), Miss L from Casting Call Woe (actor), Daniel York Loh (playwright and actor), Vera Chok (actor/writer), Riz Ahmed (actor/rapper), Inua Ellams (poet/playwright) and Wei Ming Kam (writer).
  •  New Formations No. 17 : The Question of ‘Home’ (Summer 1992)
    [Journal]
    In an extended issue, New Formations No. 17 explores the manifold issues of language, migrancy, domesticity, homelessness and exile. With a rich ensemble of essays, poems, photo-essays, and photographs, New Formations tackles one of the most pressing cultural and political controversies of our time, the question of ‘home’

 

Last updated 22 August 2024.