SEIN LIBRARY

In this inspirational volume of spoken word, social commentary, play, essay and memoir, Ros Martin peels apart the onion layers of our deeply fragmented society. By presenting the author’s personal journey, the book throws a harrowing spotlight on issues behind racial inequality. It achieves what so many other titles neglect or fail to do: rendering visible the lives of the otherwise unnoticed or stereotyped black woman, man and lowly other. Pushing out from the margins, the author writes with a passion to engage readers in issues that continue to impact those in ethnically diverse communities and other marginalised backgrounds. Every passage rings with the call for social justice and equal empowerment, whilst celebrating lives of struggle in creativity, resistance and survival.

Thanks to SEIN member the Arkbound Foundation for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Ros Martin (2022)

In this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean.

Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan ‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. It shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Black British history is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. It is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all.

Unflinching, confronting taboos and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how the lives of black and white Britons have been entwined for centuries.

David Olusoga (2017)

A short, essential introduction to Black British history for readers of 12+ by award-winning historian and broadcaster David Olusoga.

When did Africans first come to Britain?

Who are the well-dressed black children in Georgian paintings?

Why did the American Civil War disrupt the Industrial Revolution?

These and many other questions are answered in this essential introduction to 1800 years of the Black British history: from the Roman Africans who guarded Hadrian’s Wall right up to the present day.

This children’s version of the bestseller Black and British: A Forgotten History is Illustrated with maps, photos and portraits.

David Olusoga (2020)

What does it mean to be Black in Scotland today? How are notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness implicated in this? Why is it important to archive and understand Black Scottish history? Reflecting on the past to make sense of the present, Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill explore the history and contemporary lives of Black people in Scotland.

Based on intergenerational interviews, survey responses, photography, and analysis of media and archived material, this book offers a unique snapshot of Black Scottish history and recent 21st century realities. Focusing on a wide range of experiences of education, work, activism, media, creativity, public life, and politics, Black Oot Here presents a vital account of Black lives in Scotland, while carefully considering the future that may lie ahead.

Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill (2022)

Body of Land is a testament to two vital bodies of work made by Zimbabwean-Scottish artist Sekai Machache and Kenyan artist Awuor Onyango as they use the creative process to re-imagine the historical visibility of women of African origin and claim rich alternative futures for themselves. This book is produced by Focas Scotland and developed to coincide with the major exhibition ‘Body of Land’ on show at Street Level Photoworks and which coincided with Glasgow International’s ‘Across the City’ Programme 2021. It features new writing by Alberta Whittle, Kampire Bahana, Tiffany Boyle and Katherine Parhar.

Thanks to Street Level Photoworks for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Sekai Machache, Awuor Onyango, Alberta Whittle, Kampire Bahana, Tiffany Boyle and Katherine Parhar (2020)

After the revolutions of 1989, Isabel Fonseca lived and traveled with the Gypsies of Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Romainia, and Albania – listening to their stories and recording their attempts to become something more than despised outsiders.

In Bury Me Standing, alongside unforgettable portraits of individuals – the poet, the politician, the child prostitute – are vivid insights into the wit, language, wisdom, and taboos of the Roma.

In a compelling narrative account of this large and landless minority, Fonseca also traces their long-ago exodus out of India and their history of relentless persecution: enslaved by the princes of medieval Romania; massacred by the Nazis in what the Roma call “the Devouring”; forcibly assimilated by the communist regime; and, most recently, evicted from their settlements by nationalistic mobs in the new “democracies” of the East, and under violent attack in the Western countries to which many have fled.

Isabel Fonseca (1995)

Where is the world really heading, and what can we do about it? This book, edited by the Arkbound Foundation, takes an unflinching look at climate change – drawing upon the latest data to analyse what the next decades hold in store. With atmospheric CO2 at unprecedented levels and insufficient action being taken to prevent a rise in temperatures above 2 degrees centigrade, we are not just looking at significant disruption but the possibility of societal collapse. For the first time ever, the magnitude of this challenge is faced head on, with avenues to truly address it presented. Case studies and models from 16 authors around the world show ways that we can build adaptation and resilience, as well as what ‘zero emissions’ really mean.

Thanks to SEIN member the Arkbound Foundation for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Edited by Arkbound Foundation (2021)

What if my own multilingualism is simply that of one who is fluent in way too many colonial languages?

If we are going to do this, if we are going to decolonise multilingualism, let’s do it as an attempt at a way of doing it.

If we are going to do this, let’s cite with an eye to decolonising.

If we are going to do this, let’s cite with an eye to decolonising.

If we are going to do this then let’s improvise and devise. This is how we might learn the arts of decolonising.

If we are going to do this we will need artists and poetic activists.

If we are going to do this, let’s do it in a way which is as local as it is global; which affirms the granulations of the way peoples name their worlds.

Finally, if we are going to do this, let’s do it multilingually.

If we are going to do this then we need different companions.

Alison Phipps (2019)

Arising from a National Writing Competition in 2022-3 on the theme of ‘Endurance’, this collection of works by serving prisoners relates both to the deepest of human tragedies and the greatest of triumphs. Contributors describe what endurance means for them; not just of the prison system, whose efficacy this collection brings into question, but of the lives that led them there. Victor Frankl, the psychologist and Jewish WWII concentration camp survivor, is referenced independently by two contributors. In his words: “He, who has a why to live for, can bear with almost any how.”

The ‘why’s’ in this collection are sometimes obscure, sometimes inspiring, and always heart-rending. Sometimes, it is Nature’s touch or vision that helps the authors endure. Often, it is meaningful relationships with others. Readers can extend such meaningful connection further, by receiving these touching passages with a spirit of compassion and a desire to understand.

Thanks to SEIN member the Arkbound Foundation for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Edited by Arkbound Foundation (2023)

For The Love of Teaching gives an account of experienced teacher Mary Osei-Oppong in her quest of fighting Institutionalised Racism and her relentless campaign for Diversity in The Teaching Profession. The hard work put in to encourage and promote Multiculturalism, Equality and Inclusion in her classroom at a higher level and shares her experiences with all readers. This book offers help and advice to educators at all levels and urge all of us to work together to bring about change and harmony in the workplace and to make the world a better place for all!

Mary Osei-Oppong (2020)

Over the past decade, interest in Gypsies, Roma and Travellers (GRT) has risen up the political and media agendas, but they remain relatively unknown.

This topical book is the first to chart the history and contemporary developments in GRT community activism, and the community and voluntary organisations and coalitions which support it.

Underpinned by radical community development and equality theories, it describes the communities’ struggle for rights against a backdrop of intense intersectional discrimination across Europe, and critiques the ambivalent role of community development in fostering these campaigns.

Much of it co-written by community activists, it is a vehicle for otherwise marginalised voices, and an essential resource and inspiration for practitioners, lecturers, researchers and members of GRT communities.

Edited by Andrew Ryder, Sarah Cemlyn & Thomas Acton (2014)

This book, which focuses on the buildings and streets of the Merchant City, highlights Glasgow’s tangible links with slavery. Glasgow street names pay tribute to the plantation colonies and the merchants who gained vast fortunes in trading with them.

Historical explanation also tells the story of why and how Glasgow, the centre of the colonial trade in eighteenth century Britain, became the fulcrum of the anti-slavery movement in the half-century after 1780. In these pages Stephen Mullen considers Glasgow’s role in both the malaise and the attempted remedy.

Thanks to the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

View the accompanying website for this book here.

Stephen Mullen (2009)

In 2016, Mariam Khan read that David Cameron had linked the radicalization of Muslim men to the ‘traditional submissiveness’ of Muslim women. Mariam felt pretty sure she didn’t know a single Muslim woman who would describe herself that way. Why was she hearing about Muslim women from people who were neither Muslim, nor female?

Years later the state of the national discourse has deteriorated even further, and Muslim women’s voices are still pushed to the fringes – the figures leading the discussion are white and male.

Taking one of the most politicized and misused words associated with Muslim women and Islamophobia, It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that.

Here are voices you won’t see represented in the national news headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country.

With a mix of British and international women writers, from activist Mona Eltahawy’s definition of a revolution to journalist and broadcaster Saima Mir telling the story of her experience of arranged marriage, from author Sufiya Ahmed on her Islamic feminist icon to playwright Afshan D’souza-Lodhi’s moving piece about her relationship with her hijab, these essays are funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, and each of them is a passionate declaration calling time on the oppression, the lazy stereotyping, the misogyny and the Islamophobia.

Edited by Mariam Khan (2018)

The newest title in the Emergent Strategy Series, Liberated to the Bone, addresses the intersections between healing our physical bodies and healing our social relations which are shaped by violence. Bodyworker and cultural worker Susan Raffo addresses intergenerational trauma, social justice, organizing, and how all of these things are relevant to our bodies. The book illuminates three different approaches to healing: ending violence, the significance of being rooted in the present, and creating the conditions to address unfinished histories and generational trauma. By showing how these approaches are intricately connected--physically and emotionally--Raffo interrupts the traumatic binaries of the political and spiritual, the physical and intellectual, and healing and organizing.

Susan Raffo (2022)

Maud Sulter (1960–2008) was an award-winning artist and writer, curator and gallerist of Ghanain and Scottish heritage who lived and worked in Britain.

‘She exhibited widely and represented Britain at Africus, the Johannesburg Biennale of 1995. Her art has been acquired by numerous private and public collections, including the Scottish Parliament, the Arts Council Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Council Collection, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. She wrote several collections of poetry, and edited a pioneering collection of writings and images, Passion: Discourses on Blackwomen’s Creativity. This was published by the imprint she founded, Urban Fox Press, ‘a revolutionary new press for the more radical 90s’. She was active in the Black feminist and lesbian movements, often inspired by African-American activists, artists and writers. She curated nearly 20 exhibitions, and set up a gallery, Rich Women of Zurich in London’s Clerkenwell.

Maud Sulter: Passion includes key chapters in her multilayered photographic art practice: works from the critically acclaimed Zabat (1989), and for the first time since their initial exhibitions across Britain, several works from each of the projects Hysteria, Syrcas and Les Bijoux. This exhibition represents the first detailed examination and exhibition of Sulter’s work since 2003, with exclusive and unique access by the curators to the Sulter archive. The exhibition draws upon individual private collections, as well as works in the public holdings of Harris Museum and Art Gallery (Preston), The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum, and City Arts Centre, Edinburgh.

Thanks to Street Level Photoworks for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Edited by Deborah Cherry (2015)

Me and White Supremacy teaches readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.

When Layla Saad began an Instagram challenge called #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, she never predicted it would spread as widely as it did. She encouraged people to own up and share their racist behaviors, big and small. She was looking for truth, and she got it. Thousands of people participated in the challenge, and over 90,000 people downloaded the Me and White Supremacy Workbook.

The updated and expanded Me and White Supremacy takes the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources.

Layla F Saad (2020)

The history of migration from prehistoric man’s first steps out of the Rift Valley to the present-day exodus from Syria, and the effects migration has had on language and culture, artistic and scientific advancement throughout history.

While recognizing that distinctions between categories are often fuzzy, Migration covers many types of migrants including explorers, slaves, pilgrims, mineworkers, laborers, exiles, refugees, sex workers, students, tourists, retirees and expatriates. Cohen covers a long span of history and many regions and themes, giving context and colour to one of the most pressing issues of our time. The text is supplemented by a series of vivid maps, evocative photographs and powerful graphics.

Migration is present at the dawn of human history – the phenomena of hunting and gathering, seeking seasonal pasture and nomadism being as old as human social organization itself. The flight from natural disasters, adverse climatic changes, famine, and territorial aggression by other communities or other species were also common occurrences.

But if migration is as old as the hills, why is it now so politically sensitive? Why do migrants leave? Where do they go, in what numbers and for what reasons? Do migrants represent a threat to the social and political order? Are they none-the-less necessary to provide labour, develop their home countries, increase consumer demand and generate wealth? Can migration be stopped? All these questions are probed in an authoritative text by one of Britain’s leading migration scholars.

Robert Cohen (2019)

The experience of being a Muslim in Scotland today is shaped by the global and national post-9/11 shift in public attitudes towards Muslims, and is infused by the particular social, cultural and political Scottish ways of dealing with minorities, diversity and integration.

This book explores the settlement and development of Muslim communities in Scotland, highlighting the ongoing changes in their structure and the move towards a Scottish experience of being Muslim.

This experience combines a sense of civic and social belonging to Scotland with a strong religious and ideological commitment to Islam.

Stefano Bonino (2017)

A searing modern polemic from musician and political commentator, Akala

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers – race and class have shaped Akala’s life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, objectification and the far right, Natives will speak directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain’s racialised empire.

Akala (2019)

Street Level Photoworks, in collaboration with the African and Caribbean Women’s Association (ACWA), are delighted to launch the second volume of New Shoots Old Roots – a publication that captures African and Caribbean women’s experiences of coming to and living in Scotland from the 1950’s to the present day. The publication builds on the previous contributions to include 20 women’s experiences, adding to the rich narratives and tapestry of experiences that reflect African and Caribbean women in Scotland..

This project is a creative collaboration reflecting on a significant part of Scotland’s history, the publication combines interview extracts with archive and contemporary photographs from the contributors over 150 pages.

Thanks to Street Level Photoworks for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Street Level Photoworks and The African and Caribbean Women’s Association (2020)

With its ‘civic nationalism’ and ‘welcoming’ attitude towards migrants and refugees, Scotland is understood to be relatively free of structural and institutional racism.

As the contributors to this book show, such generalisations fail to withstand serious investigation. Their research into the historical record and contemporary reality tells a very different story.

Opening up debate on a subject that has been shut down for too long, No Problem Here gathers together the views of academics, activists and anti-racism campaigners who argue that it is vital that the issue of racism be brought into the centre of public discourse.

Scotland’s role in maintaining and extending slavery across the British Empire is finally beginning to receive the attention it deserves. Yet there is much more that needs to be said about racism in Scotland today.

Edited by Neil Davidson, Minna Liinpää, Maureen McBride, Satnam Virdee (2018)

Part of the Emergent Strategy Series, Practicing New Worlds explores how principles of emergence, adaptation, iteration, resilience, transformation, interdependence, decentralization and fractalization can shape organizing toward a world without the violence of surveillance, police, prisons, jails, or cages of any kind, in which we collectively have everything we need to survive and thrive.

Drawing on decades of experience as an abolitionist organizer, policy advocate, and litigator in movements for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice and the principles articulated by adrienne maree brown in  Emergent Shaping Change, Changing Worlds , Ritchie invites us to think beyond traditional legislative and policy change to create more possibilities for survival and resistance in the midst of the ongoing catastrophes of racial capitalism—and the cataclysms to come. Rooted in analysis of current abolitionist practices and interviews with on-the-ground organizers resisting state violence, building networks to support people in need of abortion care, and nurturing organizations and convergences that can grow transformative cities and movements,  Practicing New Worlds  takes readers on a journey of learning, unlearning, experimentation, and imagination to dream the worlds we long for into being. 

Andrea J. Ritchie (2023)

Taking the reader from Glasgow to Lagos and beyond, Red Dust Road is a heart-stopping memoir, a story of parents and siblings, friends and strangers, belonging and beliefs, biology and destiny.

From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay’s journey in Red Dust Road is one of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions. In a book remarkable for its warmth and candour, she discovers that inheritance is about much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that what triumphs, ultimately, is love.

Thanks to a member of our community for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Jackie Kay (2017)

Red Nation Rising is the first book ever to investigate and explain the violent dynamics of bordertowns. Bordertowns are white-dominated towns and cities that operate according to the same political and spatial logics as all other American towns and cities. The difference is that these settlements get their name from their location at the borders of current-day reservation boundaries, which separates the territory of sovereign Native nations from lands claimed by the United States.

Bordertowns came into existence when the first US military forts and trading posts were strategically placed along expanding imperial frontiers to extinguish indigenous resistance and incorporate captured indigenous territories into the burgeoning nation-state. To this day, the US settler state continues to wage violence on Native life and land in these spaces out of desperation to eliminate the threat of Native presence and complete its vision of national consolidation 'from sea to shining sea.' This explains why some of the most important Native-led rebellions in US history originated in bordertowns and why they are zones of ongoing confrontation between Native nations and their colonial occupier, the United States.

Nick Estes, Melanie K. Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, David Correia (2021)

Based on first-hand accounts from Roma communities, Romaphobia is an examination of the discrimination faced by one of the most persecuted groups in Europe. Well-researched and informative, it shows that this discrimination has its roots in the early history of the European nation-state, and the ways in which the landless Roma have been excluded from national communities founded upon a notion of belonging to a particular territory.

Romaphobia allows us to unpick this relationship between identity and belonging, and shows the way towards the inclusion of Roma in society, providing vital insights for other marginalized communities.

Aidan McGarry (2017)

Everyone who has lived on the street has their own story. Some have made bad decisions, others have been a victim of foul circumstance, but for most it is a bit of both. Roofless tells the harrowing true stories of seven people’s descent into homelessness and the ways in which they have confronted issues, faced obstacles, and emerged from the experience. This poignant collection leaves you in no doubt that change is needed, whilst reminding us all that tragedy can sometimes open the doorway to hope.

Thanks to SEIN member the Arkbound Foundation for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Stuart Harvey and First Stop Darlington (2017)

She Settles in the Shields provides a unique opportunity to meet the women who travelled to Scotland from all over the world, in search of family, love and security.

Told in their own words, the women reveal a fascinating story of hope, isolation, warm welcomes, cold weather, racism and the quest for acceptance and integration. Many of these women have made significant contributions to the Pollokshields community, witnessing major changes along the way.

Glasgow Women’s Library (2011)

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don’t dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.

Ijeoma Oluo (2018)

Visiting Glasgow for the first time, or a local who wants to explore further? This guide is a must-have for anyone who wants to learn more about the local history and visitor attractions of the Southside.

The heritage trails range across seven areas of South Glasgow, mapping out the vibrant mix of industrial, architectural and multicultural heritage south of the Clyde. Taking in villas and tenements by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, public baths, mosques, libraries, synagogues, castles, old cinemas, parks and more, each chapter brings the heritage of the Southside into focus as never before.

See the homes, grand civic buildings and artworks connected to actors, sportspeople, politicians, artists, philanthropists and other local characters. Enjoy stunning archival photographs of the Southside in every section along with handy tips about hidden local gems. Learn all about the people, places and events that make South Glasgow the fascinating place it is today.

South Glasgow Heritage & Environment Trust, edited by Saskia McCracken (2019)

The voices of Moria Refugee Camp are unified in their grief. Homes, hope, and dignity are lost in amongst squalid living conditions and the omnipresent void where the illusion of salvation once lived.

Based on true stories, The Five Stages of Moria resurrects the largest refugee camp in Europe and bears witness to the monolithic trauma held within. In this blend of autobiography and fiction, the inhabitants of Moria not only grapple with the stages of grief, but also with the reality of a camp, and a world, in which they would otherwise be forgotten.

Thanks to SEIN member the Arkbound Foundation for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Elika Ansari (2022)

Do you have a nationality?

Could you be stateless?

What can you do about it?

Join Neha as she travels around the world in an amazing adventure of discovery, visiting new countries, making new friends, learning about statelessness and all the while, piecing together bits of the puzzle about her own nationality.

This book has been designed to help children explore not just how nationality works and what role it plays in our day-to-day lives, but also build their understanding of the rights they hold as children. Find out more

Thanks to The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Amal de Chickera & Deirdre Brennan (2018)

We’re told that we live in a multicultural melting pot – that we’re post-racial. Yet, studies show that throughout the UK, people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are much more likely to live in poverty than white British people (Institute of Race Relations).

It’s a hard time to be an immigrant, or the child of one, or even the grandchild of one. ‘The Good Immigrant’ brings together twenty emerging British BAME writers, poets, journalists, and artists to confront this issue.

In these essays about race and immigration, they paint a picture of what it means to be ‘other’ in a country that wants you, doesn’t want you, doesn’t accept you, needs you for its equality monitoring forms and would prefer you if you won a major reality show competition.

Edited by Nikesh Shukla (2018)

“I look up to the birds that seem to be following us. They are migrating just like us. And their journey, like ours, is very long, but they don’t have to cross any borders.”

What is it like to have to leave everything behind and travel many miles to somewhere unfamiliar and strange? A mother and her two children set out on such a journey; one filled with fear of the unknown, but also great hope.

Based on her own interactions with people forced to seek a new home, and told from the perspective of a young child, Francesca Sanna has created a beautiful and sensitive book that is full of significance for our time.

With haunting echoes of current affairs this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war. This book will stay with you long after the last page is turned.

For ages 3-7

by Francesca Sanna

The Moon Spins the Dead Prison brings together a collection of new essays that explore the meaning, practices, and politics of prison abolition from local, national and global positions and perspectives.

The publication includes new texts by Harry Josephine Giles, Che Gossett, Hussein Mitha, Lola Olufemi, Koshka Duff & Connor Woodman, accompanied by a collection of new drawings by artist Jamie Crewe and an introduction by Thomas Abercromby, Rosie Roberts & Phil Crockett Thomas.

Thanks to a member of our community for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Part of the School of Abolition Project (2022)

This storybook was created as part of a collaboration between Dinna Gwedeza Likonde, originally from Malawi, and the Glasgow Community Food Network.

The contents of the book are informed by activities carried out by Zam’Munda, a community garden in Glasgow which showcases traditional African knowledge and cultivation practices, and their application in Scotland. It also includes words from Chichewa, one of the languages of Malawi.

Photographs and paintings have been contributed by those who look after the Zam’muda garden.

By Dinna Gwedeza Likonde and Ebany Dohle (2023)

From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honouring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.

Thanks to a member of our community for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Rupi Kaur (2017)

The Things I Would Tell You brings together the works of over thirty established women writers of Muslim heritage, as well as young emerging artists currently leading the way on the UK’s spoken word scene.

Adhaf Soueif, Leila Aboulela, Warsan Shire, Kamila Shamsie and many others explore the universal themes of love, loss, identity, belonging and freedom in new fiction, poetry and prose specially written for this unique and timely anthology.

Edited by award-winning poet and playwright Sabrina Mahfouz, The Things I Would Tell You showcases the talent and variety of female voices and is a creative call to arms for young women struggling to be heard.

Edited by Sabrina Mahfouz (2017)

Who are you? What is your identity? How can you take action against racism?

Learn about identities, true histories, and anti-racist work in 20 carefully laid-out chapters. This book is written so young people will feel empowered to stand up to the adults in their lives. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it.

In short, this book is for everyone.

Tiffany Jewell & Aurélia Durand (2020)

The author, who is himself a Romani, speaks directly to the gadze (non-Gypsy) reader about his people, their history since leaving India one thousand years ago and their rejection and exclusion from society in the countries where they settled, their health, food, culture and society. He offers candid frank advice on rejecting prejudices and stereotypes and getting to know Roma as individuals.

Ian Hancock (2017)

What if social transformation and liberation isn't about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle.

With chapters on seeking justice beyond the punishment system, transforming how we deal with harm and accountability, and finding hope in collective struggle for abolition, Kaba's work is deeply rooted in the relentless belief that we can fundamentally change the world. As Kaba writes, "Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone."

Thanks to a member of our community for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Mariame Kaba (2021)

It looks at belonging and identity, the damaging effects of stereotyping and the benefits of positive representation. The authors talk sensitively about how to identify and challenge racism, and how to protect against and stop racist behaviour. Aimed at young people aged 10 and upwards.

Claire Heuchan & Nikesh Shukla (2018)

This explosive book of history and cultural criticism argues that white feminism has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women and all colonized women. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of colour.

Taking us from the slave era—when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves—through the centuries of colonialism—when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics—to the modern workplace.

Thanks to a member of our community for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Ruby Hamad (2019)

What does it mean for people to have to leave their homes, and what happens when they seek entry to another country?

This book explores the history of refugees and migration around the world and the effects on people of never-ending war and conflict.

It compares the effects on society of diversity and interculturalism with historical attempts to create a racially ‘pure’ culture. It takes an international perspective, and offers a range of views from people who have personal experience of migration, including the campaigners Meltem Avcil and Muzoon Almellehan, the comedian and actor Omid Djalili and the poet Benjamin Zephaniah.

Aimed at young people aged 10 and upwards, the book encourages readers to think for themselves about the issues involved.

Michael Rosen & Annemarie Young (2018)

Why are there so many Italian hairdressers and Chinese restaurants in Glasgow? Who’s more Glaswegian: an Irishman, a Highlander or a Pole? Who’s city is this anyway? For the past 200 years, immigrants to Glasgow have found prosperity and poverty in its streets and closes.

Mary Edward investigates their history, and the contribution they have brought to the city. With clear-sighted social analysis and an impressive assembly of historical evidence, Edward weaves a vivid tapestry of the many peoples and cultures that have created contemporary Glasgow.

The staggering diversity of languages, religions and ethnicities is no new phenomenon in this city on the Clyde. Today’s Glasweigans are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of yesterday’s incomers, all of whom have chosen this great Scottish melting pot as their own. This book will be an education and a delight to generations of Glasweigans – and all those proud to belong to Glasgow.

Mary Edward (1993)

The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.

Reni Eddo-Lodge (2017)

On Sunday 10 June 2018, tens of thousands of women wearing scarves of green, white and violet took to the streets in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London as part of PROCESSIONS, a mass artwork to mark 100 years since the first women were allowed to vote in the UK.

Produced by arts charity Artichoke and commissioned by 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary, PROCESSIONS was a moment for celebration and reflection on what it means to be a woman today. In the months leading up to 10 June, 100 artists were commissioned to work with arts and community organisations across the country to make banners: original artworks inspired by the banners made by the suffragists and suffragettes who had campaigned for votes for women a century before. These twenty-first-century banners were powerful statements made in text and textile, referencing the earlier struggles for equality and reflecting the modern-day concerns of women and those identifying as women. Women Making History is the first opportunity to see each of these banners up close in all their glorious detail and to observe a historic moment, when a mass artwork made by women in all their diversity transformed the central streets of our four capital cities.

With contributions from Dame Helen Pankhurst, June Sarpong and Saoirse Monica Jackson, and many other collaborators, artists and participants from across the country, this fully illustrated book shows how art can both make and bring history alive.

Edited by Anna Vingrad (2020)

Writing Our Space is a collection of personal essays, short stories, poems, and scripts written by members of the LGBTQ+ community across the UK. This collection spans from heartbreak on buses to loving our childhood selves; from tiger print skirts to reflections on a HIV diagnosis. This insight into modern queerness speaks to our love, our grief, and our resilience, as both individuals and a community. To the LGBTQ+ community, from the LGBTQ+ community – in our own words.

Thanks to SEIN member the Arkbound Foundation for the donation of this book to the SEIN library.

Edited by Eilidh Akilade & Ross Tanner (2021)