Dear All
I hope you can come along join some of the Wisewords Book festival at
The Women's Library over the next two days with many exciting writers
and new books to be debated and discussed, as well as some comedy with
Shazia Mirza, and a bar!
Full programme is attached with booking details - Highlights include:
FRIDAY 12 MARCH
2pm-3pm DOWRY
TAMSIN BRADLEY and EMMA TOMALIN and a panel of contributors discuss
their new book DOWRY (Zed Books) about a practice which is much
misunderstood and often regarded as synonymous with acts of violence
against women. This engaging volume highlights the particular role that
academic research can play through providing an understanding of a
widespread social practice in South Asia which has disempowered women
for so long and presents suggestions about the sorts of activism and
action necessary to end dowry injustice.
Tamsin Bradley Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Social Anthropology
(BSc) London Metropolitan University.
Emma Tomalin Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Leeds.
3.30pm-4.30pm BOLLYWOOD WEDDINGS
KAVITA RAMDYA presents her debut book BOLLYWOOD WEDDINGS: Dating,
Engagement and Marriage in Hindu America (Lexington Books). An
anthropological study of Indian-American Hindus in the tri-state New
York area.
By interviewing twenty couples and attending their weddings Kavita
Ramdya addresses the various methods of meeting a potential future
spouse as well as family tensions that arise with inter-marriage. The
Bollywood film industry emerges as a significant influence on
conceptions of love and marriage and a means by which couples can assert
their cultural identity.
SATURDAY 13 MARCH
6.30pm-7.30pm MEMOIRS
MAGGIE GEE and YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN discuss their lives & latest
autobiographical books.
Maggie Gee has published many novels to great acclaim including THE
WHITE FAMILY short listed for the Orange and IMPAC prizes. Her latest
book MY ANIMAL LIFE (Telegram Books) is a wise and witty memoir telling
the true story of becoming an adult in the 1960s and living through
dramatic changes in attitudes towards race, class and gender in the
second half of the twentieth century. Her latest novel MY DRIVER
(Telegram Books) is also just published in paperback.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown came to this country in 1972 from Uganda. She is a
journalist, broadcaster and author of several books and currently a
regular columnist on The Independent and London’s Evening Standard. In
2001 she was awarded an MBE but returned the honour in 2003 in protest
against the war in Iraq. Yasmin’s latest book THE SETTLERS COOKBOOK
(Portobello Books) is an enchanting memoir with recipes.
8pm-9pm SHAZIA MIRZA ‘Columnist of the Year’
SHAZIA MIRZA is a very funny award winning British Asian stand up
Comedian from Birmingham. Shazia could have married a rich man and lived
on Bishops Avenue in a mansion with servants, bidets and horses. But
instead she chose to drive up and down the country for as little as ten
pounds, staying in dirty lurid bed and breakfasts trying to make people
laugh. Shazia has toured the world with her ground breaking humour.
Currently she writes a delightfully irreverent column in the Guardian
Weekend magazine.
The Wisewords Bookfest is produced by Alternative Arts in association
with The Women’s Library.
--
Chandan Mahal
Head of Audience Development
The Women's Library
Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT
020 7320 3503
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