“Save this Journal”

Soudanese woman

Words on cover:
“save this journal”
”suspend publication”

When did you start selling your secrets?
When did you learn to commercialize your story?

Details:
120pp.
5.5x8.5”

Materials: glass beads, synthetic hair, Capiz shell, various paper, eucalyptus leaves

Notes:
One of the greatest lies of Western culture is that our stories and cultural secrets are another product to be bought and sold. Did our cultures “publish” books like they do in the west? In Mali when French colonized and occupied, the natives HID their books. The US told India they’d help feed their starving people in exchange for India’s books. The Vatican has catacombs of books from Black, African, and Indigenous peoples—holy books, calendars, etc. Why do they want our books? Today storytelling and story sharing seem to be humanizing opportunities but to the discerning mind they are a new form of exploitation. When we see how they have thrived on our secrets, we see it’s all a setup.

The response? Keep your books to yourself.