Committee Reads — April edition

Jeda

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

It’s incredibly moving – captures so much of fresh and maturing grief, but also loved the creole language, the poetic imagery, as well as the speculative, mythical elements and just fantastic storytelling.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

Catching up on the poem-films on StAnza’s YouTube and reading Eliza Chan’s Tideborn (I loved Fathomfolk!)

Sumayya

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

Shattered Lands / Sam Dalrymple

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

Great for my research! Learning so much about how British colonisation divided the entire region / Burma, UAE, India etc into 5 separate partitions.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

Can’t think but am sure there are :)

Kelly

A lot of comics that satirize capitalism tend to aim for on-the-nose humour and easy catharsis: hilarious caricatures of specific evil billionaires, thinly disguised fictionalizations of real companies, and so on. Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch is not that.

Instead of going for the simple targets, Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch presents a damning, sharp critique of Western, whiteness-centred capitalism as a violent engine of consumption and destruction, particularly when it comes to people outside of its hegemony – whether on an individual, community, or national level.

This is not the capitalism of superficial delights enjoyed by the privileged. This is capitalism that kills, that sells its victims a false vision of power where to defeat capitalism, you must become capitalism.

In one issue there’s a full-page drawing of various symbols, including several associated with marginalized groups – a rainbow pride flag, a black power fist, the Venus zodiac symbol – all heaped together in a bloody meat grinder, with raw ground meat spilling into a can. It’s a great summary of what capitalism looks like in the 2020s: instead of abjuring these symbols, capitalism appropriates them and turns them into product, grinding all significance out of them in the process.

Writer and artist Juni Ba grew up in Senegal but now lives in France, which may explain why the satire here comes across as genuinely heartfelt and angry. It’s less of a “gotcha” for capitalism and more of a fantastical exposé, saying look, see, this is what the machine *really* runs on. Money is never the end goal; it’s merely a means to an end. Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch lays bare the ultimate aim of capitalism, which is to possess and destroy all that makes us human.

Ba’s gorgeous art style, drawing heavily on West African folklore and visual motifs, emphasizes how these actions disproportionately affect the Global South. Each issue also comes with a recommendation of a piece of art (film, sculpture, etc) made by creators from Francophone parts of Africa. Not only are these a refreshing contrast to the stories in the comic, they’re a reminder that, as Ba puts it:

“…in these big world events seemingly ruled by Western interests, the Global South often ends up the life blood and tide-turning influence. And as such, their perspective is key.”

It’s a particularly resonant message for me as a reader and creator of colour. To defeat capitalism, we must not become it but instead, must create and listen to and celebrate our own stories – on our own terms – because that is where our power lies.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

I’m looking forward to the May release of Philip Ardagh and Ben Mantle’s book Bunnies in a Rocket! It’s the latest in a rhyming picture book series for young children about bunnies causing mayhem on various forms of transport. (Excerpt: “Little Bunny at the wheel!/ Little Bunny at the wheel!/ He’s swerving round the corners/ To make the others SQUEAL!”)

My son loves these books – he’s even picked up the phrase “silly billy” from one of them – and I love reading them to him. Not just because he enjoys it or because the rhymes actually scan, although the latter is an increasingly rare occurrence these days in children’s books. What I love is the joyful chaos these books depict: a group of friends (the titular bunnies) acting in fun and camaraderie rather than in malice, with the effects of that chaos exaggerated for comic effect so as to remind young readers – albeit in a very funny way – that acting without regard for others around you does have potentially destructive consequences. It gently instructs without moralizing and gives active kids a dose of the enjoyable disorder they often crave, in a format that provides a counterpoint of safety and control/autonomy over their interactions with said disorder.

Also, thanks to one of the drawings in the first book, Bunnies on the Bus, my son now knows the phrase “breeks on heid”, and every time he says it the world feels a bit brighter.

Nailah

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen (audiobook); Demoliton Man by Boko Yout (music)

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

I wanted to try audiobooks and found this one on BookBeat (not spon con) and the story is a gripping, heartbreaking grief horror that came alive with the narration and I’m glad I read *this* story in this format. It’s backlist horror, but I think stories find us when we are ready and even though this book was devastating, I’m glad I chose now to read it. Boko Yout is a recent discovery and what can I say, I love a garage band.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

My anticipated 2026 upcoming releases is a mile long, but at the top of the list, at least right now, I’m most excited for the conclusion to the Harlem series, Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead.

Debbie

What are you enjoying at the moment/wish to recommend?

Not one specific book, but I have been reading a lot of Creative Non-fiction for one of my third year modules. I have always been a fiction reader, so this has been a surprisingly enjoyable experience. There is so much reflection, soul-bearing, and introspection that seems to go into these pieces! 

A few of my favourites: Visiting the Past, by Sejal H. Patel: A daughter travels to the rural Indian village where her father grew up and uses her skills as a trial lawyer to build a complete picture of her father’s past; Kaveh Akbar: How I Found Poetry in Childhood Prayer: “This music, this way of hymning directly to God, was my first conscious experience of mellifluous charged language, and it’s the bedrock upon which I’ve built my understanding of poetry as a craft and as a meditative practice.”; and Everybody wants to be a DJ, no one wants to dance by Dani Offline “I don’t want to absorb art to fulfill my own ego, I want to experiment with ways to be absorbed by it all.”

Why is this particularly enjoyable/relevant to you now?

I have been trying to get rid of my doomscrolling bad habits, and reading CW non-fiction is my go to for when I find myself picking my phone up for no reason. These pieces are a shorter commitment than a novel, but still leave me inspired and keep my mind engaged.

It’s also an opportunity to not only learn about other cultures, but to find bridges connecting my experiences as an immigrant, a woman, a mother, etc, with that of others. To feel a part of a community. 

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? (ie book releases, upcoming theatre productions, etc) And why?

I’m looking forward to having some time off from academic reading and writing, and my TBR is a clear reflection of it: Kawaguchi’s Before I knew I loved you (bring on the tears),  the next installment in the Cemetery Boys series by Aiden Thomas (queer paranormal romance/mystery goodness), and The body by Bethany C. Morrow (church horror? Yes, please). 

These are just some of the works inspiring us right now, and we hope they spark something for you too. Conversation around art is always richer when it’s shared, so share this with your community, and feel free to drop your current favourites here!