Ultra-Black Fish: By No Means Strangers to Ourselves

For Black and POC identifying women/non-binary folx only

The fourth Black Feminist Friends write-with session will take place on Thursday 30th May 2024. Hosted and facilitated by therapist*writer and author Foluke Taylor, these reflective writing sessions provide an opportunity to come into closer contact with our hearts, with Black feminist thought, and with what we know and where we know from. Participants are guided through writing activities from and with texts chosen by the BFF guest for the month. For this month’s gathering—a reunion of previous BFF guests Dr Eiman Hussein, Dr Gail Lewis and Dr Barby Asante—we take inspiration from Victoria Adukwei-Bulley’s Ultra-Black Fish (who are “…by no means strangers to themselves”). Each BFF has also suggested a text/recording for our processes of writing-with. Join us to find out more. All proceeds from this event will go to help Nourhan and her three children LINK: GO FUND ME

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-nourhan-and-her-three-children-leave-gaza

The BFF series is an offering for the carers and helpers; for the therapists, healers, teachers, and activists; for the family and friends; for all of us who offer support to others; for WE who understand that engaging in creative practice together—and keeping our breaking hearts open—gives life to our work. This series centres the intellectual and creative production and lived experiences of Black women. Some sessions will be open to Black women only. Others will be open to all. This session is open only to Black and POC identifying women/non-binary folx.

For previous BFF gatherings click HERE

Dr Eiman Hussein is an integrative psychotherapist and an academic lecturer at Metanoia Institute. In therapy, she works in private practice as well as providing therapeutic support to women survivors of different forms of Violence against women and girls (VAWG), specifically FGM within an African led organization in the UK. Eiman has a background in Medicine and an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries, with more than 15 years of experience working in the charity sector on issues of women’s reproductive health and rights and specifically on the issue of FGM. In practice and in teaching, Eiman draws from her own self, her multitude of identities and past experiences in life and in work to enrichen her work. She is also a very occasional poet/writer.

Gail Lewis is Visiting Professor at Yale University and Reader Emerita in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College.  Gail has written, but is trying to become a writer; Gail likes to speak, but is still seeking her tonalities; Gail sometimes feels lonely, inept and scared; but Gail is brought into being in and by the company, care and joy of black/women of colour feminisms and queer knowings and livings.  Gail's publications include ‘Race, Gender and Social Welfare: encounters in a postcolonial society’ (2000), Polity Press; ‘Citizenship: personal lives and social policy’ (2004), ed. Polity Press; ‘Birthing Racial Difference: conversations with my mother and others’ (2009) Studies in the Maternal; ‘Unsafe Travel: experiencing intersectionality and feminist displacements’ (2013) Signs: journal of women in culture and society; ‘Where Might I Find You’: Popular Music and the Internal Space of the Father’, (2012) Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society; ‘Questions of Presence’, (2017) Feminist Review, Issue 117; Once More With My Sistren: Black Feminism and the Challenge of Object Use. (2020) Feminist Review. Gail believes that open and honest conversations across differences, including intergenerational conversations, are the pressing issues of this moment of hate-filled crisis.

Barby Asante is an artist, curator and educator working in social practice, film, performance, collective writing, and creating transformative spaces for ritual and healing. Through her research, pedagogical and artistic practice she delves into the intricate dynamics of place, space, and memory to explore, reveal and undo the enduring impacts of slavery and colonialism in our contemporary experiences, incorporating practices of collective study, diverse ways of knowing, and dialogical practices that create space to explore how we connect in solidarity and shared breath, inviting collaborators, contributors and viewers of her work to reflect on the intricate politics of place and the nuanced histories embedded within them. Grounding her work in black feminist and decolonial methodologies, Asante also draws from her Akan heritage, family stories and the histories that have created an African Diaspora, connecting these roots/ routes with postcolonial migrations that create many intersecting diasporas. Asante's work is a thought-provoking platform for dialogue, encouraging discussions about history, identity, and transformation. By navigating the intersections of art, activism, and healing, she contributes to a broader discourse on social justice and emphasises the importance of acknowledging and addressing historical injustices.

Foluke Taylor : therapist*writer, working with an asterisk to signal black feminist modes of creation, space-making, and care. She is interested in facilitating emergence – in the what-is-not-yet-but-is-coming-to-be and the therapeutics that usher it in to being. Foluke is the author of How the Hiding Seek (2018) an experiment with the intermediary agency of creative writing to counter hierarchy, categorical difference, and separation. She is a troubler of borders including, but not limited to, those erected between mind/body, human/ ‘nature’, now/then, and fiction/non-fiction. After spending several years doing some adult growing up in The Gambia, Foluke returned, with her partner and children, to the city of London where she is now based. Unruly Therapeutic: Black Feminist Writings and Practices in Living Room, was published by W.W. Norton in 2023. Unruly Therapeutic: Black Feminist Space-making and Living the Change We Want to Be