CURRENTLY READING is a series of posts I will be writing about books I read. They are like creative book reviews. I will leave journal prompts at the end based on questions the books made me muse on.
A Long Song + The Art Of Belonging.
Traveling in the bus means that some nights we stay in caravan parks with free book swaps + i pick up random books i would not normally read or come across.
Somehow the books I pick up tend to have a connection to one another even if they seem to be talking about completely different things
The common thread here is using research of factual events to tell fictional stories that allow unheard stories to be told.
The long song brings a voice to jamacian ancestors who were enslaved that have had their point of view cut out of history.
(writing as resistance)
Andrea Levy says : "But what I wanted to explore isn't in our history books. I wanted to put back in the voices of everyday life for black Jamaicans that are so silent in the record...I was trying to breathe back the life of ordinary peopleinto the skeleton of recorded events. And that requires imagination as well as research."
I am still reading the art of belonging, but a few standout quotes so far:
"We're tribal. We're social. We're communal. We need to BELONG."
"It's not only children: it takes a village to keep an adult sane and sensible, too"
"The way we respond to people who are UNLIKE us is the best test of our moral integrity."
Journal Prompt: How does my imagination change the story of my day, my life, my history? is my point of view basically run by my IMAGINATION?
be wonderful
♡
LaToya