Emma heeft aangekondigd een andere richting op te gaan met haar boekclub ‘Our Shared Shelf’. On de onderstaande bericht laat Emma weten dat ze meer tijd gaan nemen op zich te richten of persoonlijke en professionele kansen. Dit houd in dat ze geen tijd meer heeft om ‘Our Shared Shelf’ forum bij te houden en vanaf nu nieuwe boeken zal aanbevelen via instagram met de hashtag #oursharedshelf. Ze zal niet meer elke twee maanden een boek aanbeveling via het forum zoals ze hiervoor deed. Het forum zal open blijven voor fans zodat iedereen elkaar boeken kan aanraden of dit ook met de hashtag #oursharedshelf op instagram doen.

Our Shared Shelf was a title dreamed up by YOU, all of the amazing individuals who support and contribute to creating conversations around intersectionality, feminism and equal rights. It was important to me that Our Shared Shelf was not owned by me, but indeed, SHARED! You offered me the perfect title, and I have been astonished, humbled and filled with gratitude by how shared it has felt, with over a million people all over the world now active in the club. To those who’ve written long thoughtful threads, to the incredible authors who’ve answered Our Shared Shelf questions, to the hundreds of people globally who’ve hidden feminist titles alongside me over these last three years, you’ve made my wishes come true; I am truly part of the greatest feminist ninja gang the world has ever seen! Most importantly a massive THANK YOU for being part of my little piece of mischief. To sum up all that I have learned from this community would be an impossible task.

Circling back to the title for a moment. It annoyed me that Our Shared Shelf was constantly abbreviated to “O.S.S.”. The same letters (different order) as the international symbol for distress! However, over the years the three letters have developed their own beautiful meaning for me. This book club initially was my own kind of distress signal! Life, it turns out, can be difficult to navigate. We are often caught in the storm and lost at sea. The journey to becoming an independent thinker, activist and mischief maker is treacherous! OSS was my distress signal and call for help – and it came! It has become a beacon and guiding light. If you know someone sending out a jumbled distress signal, please pass on or tell them about OSS. Activism and change making can feel lonely. This is your tribe, this is your collective consciousness and we are raising it together.

At the beginning of every new year, and particularly so now as it is the beginning of a new decade, I’ve been prompted to look at my next steps. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking! First of all Happy 2020, it’s going to be an amazing year for all of you. This year I want to focus my energy on some new personal and professional opportunities and while I want to say YES to everything – it’s IMPOSSIBLE.

What does this mean? Moving forward the OSS board will be unmoderated but remain open keeping intact all previous conversations. I will not be making the regular bi-monthly book announcement via the board, I will be making future book recommendations through Instagram using the hashtag #oursharedshelf instead. My wish is that this community continues to share and announce their own book recommendations with this hashtag keeping what we’ve built together alive and well for the future. I am excited to see it continue to grow and mature. I might just be reading along with you! Keep your eyes peeled as I announce other books later this year.

Love

Emma

Emma heeft het voorwoord in de de 3e uitgave van Gloria Steinem’s boek ‘Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions’ uit 1983. Naast het voorwoord van Emma heeft Gloria ook wat nieuwe teksten toegevoegd. In 2016 was ‘My Life On The Road’ van de schijfster Emma’s eerste boek voor haar boekenclub, sindsdien zijn de twee goede vrienden en heeft Emma haar ook geinterviewd.

“Why do I love Gloria’s writing so much? She makes what otherwise can be arduous and depressing reading, into something not only relatable but enjoyable…She believes in personal testimony – the sharing and passing on of women’s stories…She uncovers things that are obscured by today’s conditioning and normalizing which when exposed, are absolutely fascinating…Her plain common sense – calling things out as they are – will make you laugh out loud…
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Sometimes the world she envisions seems so far out and impossible to me or just wildly optimistic. But I have come to believe it is through radical feminism and the radical nature of Gloria’s message, that the job of equality will get done. I used to think the citadel didn’t have to topple. Now I believe it just might and should, and that we need to let old ways of being die for something new to be born. This book contains ideas for that new road, even though some were written almost forty years ago.
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People have asked me what the feminist movement needs to succeed. A new word? More men involved? I would rephrase the question. What obstacles need to be removed for us to succeed? In order to win our full humanity, in life, we have to confront the biggest superpower in the world: the patriarchy…
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I never liked the idea of being a rebel. I played Hermione Granger, for goodness sake, who once famously compared the notion of being expelled to death! I remember thinking my first detention was the end of the world. But of all the things to fight for, I’d say freedom and respect are pretty good ones! And if I can do it with, and in the wake of, women like Gloria, all the better. And actually, as Hermione and I learned, being disruptive was quite fun after all.
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So, have your mind blown, laugh out loud, think in new ways, get angry, feel the feminist affinity…This was the first collection of feminist writing Gloria ever published…I hope they become as precious to you.”

Emma viert het 3-jarig bestaan van Our Shared Shelf, haar online boekenclub voor Goodreads. In de afgelopen jaren raadde ze verschillende feministe boeken aan en interviewde ze ook verschillende schrijvers om andere te inspireren.

Galerij Links:
http//: Instagramfoto’s 2019