Cultural Identity

Between Here And There: Week 1 - The Experimental Certainty of Exploration Through Social Distance Dive deep into the vibrant heartbeat of New Orleans with a poetic journey that transcends time and space. Over 67 days, experience the magic, mystery, poetic inquiry, and musicality of NOLA, as each day unfolds with a series of poems capturing the essence of morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night. In this first week, delve into the "Experimental Certainty of Exploration Through Social Distance." As the world finds itself distanced, NOLA's spirit remains undimmed, her stories waiting to ...

The summer after her freshman year of college, Mariam is looking forward to working and hanging out with her best friends: irrepressible and beautiful Ghazala and religious but closeted Umar. But when a scandalous photo of Ghaz appears on a billboard in Times Square, Mariam and Umar come up with a plan to rescue her from her furious parents. And what could be a better escape than a spontaneous road trip down to New Orleans?

'Chinese' or 'Any other Asian'. The boxes that people of vastly varied East and South East Asian heritage have to tick when declaring their ethnicity on many forms in the UK. For the first time, author Anna Sulan Masing addresses these issues in a comprehensive way. She explores what it means to be East and South East Asian in Britain today, and celebrates the multiple elements and varied experiences that make up ESEA identity. Powerful, moving and illuminating, this will be a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the make-up of our multicultural society.

Laila knows how clever, kind, and funny her Mama and Baba are—but sometimes they need her help translating things from English. With English classes being too expensive, Laila decides to become her parents’ teacher, even though she’s just learning the language too. There’s lots that Laila knows (like you don’t pronounce the t in ballet) but there’s so much she doesn’t know too. Together, they embrace the joy and struggles of learning a new language.

With a Burmese mother and a white American father, Alex Wagner grew up thinking of herself as a "futureface" - an example of what the mixed-race future of America would look like. When Alex learns that her ancestry might be more mysterious than she believed, she becomes obsessed with learning everything there is to know about her ethnic and racial history. Through a blend of history, science, and sociology, Alex tries to solve the mysteries of her family and what it means to be American.

Anita is waiting for Adam to be released from prison. They met 20 years ago at a New Year's Eve party in Paris, a city where they both felt out of place - he as a recent arrival from the provinces, and she as an immigrant from the island of Mauritius. They quickly fell in love, married, and moved to a village in southwestern France, to live on the shores of the Atlantic with their little girl, Laura. Over time, the monotony of daily life begins to erode the bonds of their marriage.

SOME SECRETS ARE DARKER THAN OTHERS In 1881, 22-year-old Amelia Equiano wields a unique power: the ability to manipulate minds and dreams. With vengeance burning in her heart for the crimes against her family, she partners with Wilbert on a perilous journey from London to San Francisco. As they navigate a world rife with corruption, Amelia's extraordinary gift becomes both a weapon and a burden. Can she bring the guilty to justice without losing herself in the process? This gripping tale of revenge intertwines the supernatural with the stark realities of a society steeped in injustice, ...

Whether or not we trace our families from beyond the shores of Britain, we British people deserve a better understanding of our shared past, and opportunities to explore and recognise the complexities and contractions of empire. Careless or wilful amnesia has allowed the British migration narrative to begin in the mid-twentieth century, with migrants from India, Pakistan and the Caribbean forming the foundation of present-day multicultural Britain. For people of colour the questions: Where are you from? No, where are you really from? often imply more than simple curiosity.

For Lucy, marriage to Mark provides an anchor after several years of drifting casually across countries, into jobs and out of relationships. Now 42, prickly and restless, her anchor is working loose. Bewildered by the demands of motherhood, bored by her work, she has grown resentful of her husband: Mark has difficulties of his own and whilst harsh self-reliance has kept him sane and earned him success, it has alienated his wife.

When Johnny's family moves to California, he finds it hard to fit in at his new school until Rebecca, the half-human daughter of a vampire, begins to attend Johnny's school and the two of them become close friends, each facing their own personal demons.

Aziz's story is a story that is common to many but one that is rarely told. It is the story of growing up the child of immigrants and trying to progress in a society where the realities of racism and xenophobia are all too obvious. It gives voice to the experience of finding oneself caught between worlds and the concomitant feelings of shame, insecurity and powerlessness that this can engender. As he describes it, he found himself ‘a hyphenated man’ struggling to create an identity that fused East and West.

In his ground-breaking book, Gary Younge argues that we have recoiled into refuges of race or class, religion or national identity to survive in a state seemingly indifferent to our lives. Ranging from his Stevenage childhood to present day America, from the borders of Europe to division in South Africa, Younge explores the issues that bind the powerful elite and the poor immigrant, the fundamentalist and the conservative.

With chapters covering sexual and cultural identity, body hair, colourism and mental health, and a particular focus on the suffocating beauty standards South Asian women are expected to adhere to, Sharan Dhaliwal speaks openly about her journey toward loving herself, offering advice, support and comfort to people that are encountering the same issues.

By the time Brittany Penner is seven years old, she has loved and lost twenty-one foster siblings who have come into her family and left—all of them Indigenous like her. "When will it be my turn?" she asks her mother time and time again. "When will I be taken away?" You won't be, she is told. You're adopted. You're here to stay. You're the lucky one.