Het boek dat Emma gaat lezen voor haar boekclub ‘Our Shared Shelf’ in januari en februari is bekend. Dit zal het boek ‘The Vagina Monologues’ van schrijfster Eve Ensler zijn. Dit boek is vertaald naar het Nederlands als ‘De Vagina Monologen’ en te koop bij bol.com.

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

This book isn’t strictly just a book – it’s a play that became a political movement that became a world-wide phenomenon. Just say the title The Vagina Monologues and, even now, twenty years after Eve Ensler first performed her ground-breaking show, the words feel radical. I’m very excited about spending the months of January and February reading and discussing a book/play that has literally changed lives.

The first person’s life it changed was the feminist playwright Eve Ensler’s. She says she didn’t so much ‘write’ her play as act as a conduit for other women’s stories. She had become fascinated by how the word ‘vagina’ was never spoken, and how the vagina itself was kept in the dark as if it was something shameful to discuss. So she started interviewing women about their vaginas – getting them to open up to her. Once women started talking, the stories came thick and fast, and Eve put them together into a series of monologues to be performed on stage.

When the play was first performed in 1996, it was a small, off Broadway production. But soon it began to make huge and controversial waves. It was the time of the Bosnian war and terrible stories were emerging of the systematic rape of Bosnian women. One of the monologues was inspired by these stories, and out of those first performances of The Vagina Monologues grew the V-Day movement to stop violence against women. The first V-Day was on Valentine’s Day 1998 when a group of well-known actresses got together to perform Eve’s monologues. Since then the V-Day movement has become international, with The Vagina Monologues being performed in theatres and on college campuses worldwide. Even today there are people trying to ban those performances.

I’m so interested to see which monologues we all like best, and which ones still shock us. Has the world moved on in twenty years, or are there still aspects of women’s sexuality we can’t talk about, through our own fears or because others try to stop us? Do we think art can change the world?

Emma x

Emma is inmiddels in New York en ook hier verstoptte ze exemplaren van het boek ‘Mom & Me & Mom’ in de metro. Het boek dat ze momenteel leest voor haar boekenclub ‘Our Shared Shelf’.

@booksonthesubway @booksontheunderground @oursharedshelf #Mom&Me&Mom

Afgelopen week poste de familie van de overleden schrijfster Maya Angelou een bericht op facebook om Emma te bedanken. Het uitdelen van het boek in onderdeel van de Books on the Underground project.

“My mother’s gifts of courage to me were both large and small. The latter are woven so subtly into the fabric of my psyche that I can hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin.” Maya Angelou from Mom & Me & Mom.
We the Angelou Johnson Family personally thank the wonderful actor Emma Watson for giving away 100 copies of Maya Angelou’s book “Mom & Me & Mom” in the London Underground this week. As part of the Books on the Underground project and Ms. Watson’s own feminist book club Our Shared Shelf our Matriarch’s book is being featured now through December. Books have even surfaced in New York City subways and hopefully in other cities around the world! The best part is after people find the book and read it, they are to leave it in the subway for another person to read and so on and so on. Keep sharing, giving and loving each other through these acts of immense kindness.

Galerij Links:
http//: Instagram 2016

Het boek dat Emma gaat lezen voor haar boekclub ‘Our Shared Shelf’ in november en december is bekend. Dit zal het boek ‘Mom & Me & Mom’ van schrijfster Maya Angelou zijn. Dit boek is niet vertaald naar het Nederlands maar wel te koop bij bol.com. Enkele andere boeken van de schrijfster zijn wel vertaald naar het Nederlands.

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

November and December’s book will be Mom & Me & Mom, Maya Angelou’s final work, published a year before her death, in 2013, when she was 85 years old. It was the first book to focus on her mother, Vivian Baxter, who abandoned Angelou when she was a child and it portrays their complicated relationship. The story is about the special connection between mother and child; both women found a way to move on and form a profound and enduring bond of love and support.

Many of you may be familiar with Angelou’s 1969 classic, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but that was just the first of seven works of autobiography. And, despite the length of time between their publications, some have referred to Mom & Me & Mom as a spiritual sequel to this first book. Angelou revisits episodes and people in her life mentioned in her previous works in a different context and all focused around her relationship with her mother.

Vivian Baxter cuts a fiercely unapologetic figure, imperfect but admirable, and we discover not just how she had a hand in Angelou’s evolution as a black woman but also in her feminist perspective, her independence and self-awareness, all of which contributed to her unique way of looking at the world and the way she expressed herself on the page. As a result, this is perhaps the greatest window into what shaped Angelou as a writer and poet and a fitting end to a lifetime of amazing works.

This book is one I have read before and is one of my favourites – I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Emma x

Het boek dat Emma gaat lezen voor haar boekclub ‘Our Shared Shelf’ in september en oktober is bekend. Dit zal het boek ‘Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide’ van schrijver Nicholas D Kristof en schrijfster Sheryl Wudunn zijn. Dit boek is niet vertaald naar het Nederlands maar wel te koop bij bol.com.

Dear Our Shared Shelf,

For September & October, I’ve chosen a book that tackles inequality and women’s rights head-on: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Half the Sky depicts, in eye-opening detail, the various cultures and customs that suppress women and gives a voice to those individuals who need to be heard the most. Traversing through Africa and Asia, Kristof and WuDunn introduce us to some incredibly strong women and describe their stories of suffering and survival. Most importantly, the book spotlights how these women were able to stand up and transform their lives and, through their inspiring examples, we learn that the key to enabling change and economic growth is in unleashing women’s potential (the title of the book, after all, comes from the ancient Chinese proverb, “Women hold up half the sky”). Kristof and WuDunn dare us, as readers, to join the cause and Half the Sky shows us how, by doing even a very small amount, we each have the power to change other women’s lives.

Since its publication in 2009 it has started a global movement (www.halftheskymovement.org).

Hope you like,

love,

Emma