UNCOMMON GROUND:
BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism
Edited by Shizue Seigel • Pease Press
$22.95. 284 pp (with 140 color images)
2022
ISBN: 978-1-7330590-3-9
View the SF Main Library Book Launch HERE
Write Now! SF Bay's 5th anthology, Uncommon Ground: BIPOC Journeys to Creative Activism, traces the creative trajectories of 22 of Bay Area’s leading writers and artists of color through prose, poetry and visual art.
“Many writers and artists of color are deeply familiar with adversity and change.
Our DNA is suffused with profound lessons on how to cope with challenging times.
And our writing is linked with daily activism in large and small ways.”
What emotional, cultural and practical skills are needed to sustain a career as a creative activist of color? Seigel asked seasoned BIPOC creative activists for to respond to these questions:
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What inspired you to pursue art, creative writing, and activism?
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What cultural, spiritual, and community values did you grow up with?
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What sustains your creative practice in turbulent times?
Contributors with roots in Native America, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Muslim world wrote from lived experience as teachers, journalists, poets, muralists, physicians, culture bearers, survivors of cancer, sexual abuse, and multi-generational trauma, and more. The breadth and depth of their experience brings authenticity and humanity to issues of equity and engagement.
"Emblematic of the struggles, triumphs, and the work of art and culture
we carry on our backs as Brown and Black creatives in this time and in this place.
This book is essential and akin to the act of breathing.
It needs to sit prominently on your table."
—Truong Tran, book of the other, 2022 American Book Award
CONTRIBUTORS (Bios & photos here)
Faith Adiele • Salma Arastu • Adrian Arias• Avotcja • Lorraine Bonner• Karla Brundage
Charles Dixon • Rafael Jesús González • Mark Harris • C. K. Itamura
Tehmina Khan • Tureeda Mikell • Josué Rojas • Wanda Sabir • Shizue Seigel
Sriram Shamasunder, MD • Kim Shuck • Kimi Sugioka • Elizabeth Travelslight
Twin Walls Mural Company : Elaine Chu & Marina Perez-Wong • André Le Mont Wilson