Isolation Reading for the Week of June 15

We’re bringing you some great books chosen by our staff for your work-from-home reading. Check in with us every Monday for some fantastic book recommendations. This week’s selection comes from our acquisitions editor Carli Hansen who has chosen Queering Urban Justice: Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto as her staff pick, a book that is currently 50% off in our Pride Month Sale.

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In the wake of national and international protests to support Black Lives Matter, and at the beginning of Pride Month when we commemorate the Stonewall riots, I find myself searching for books that take a closer look at the intersections of race and sexuality. It was in this search that I discovered Queering Urban Justice: Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto, edited by Jin Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, and Syrus Marcus Ware, with Río Rodríguez.

This collection of new and unpublished work examines what it means to map space in ways that address very real histories of displacement and erasure. Written by community leaders and activist scholars in Toronto, the book presents powerful reflections that transgress national boundaries. Each chapter explores unique contributions that Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (QTBIPOC) have made to artistic, social, and political life in the city, and the lessons that they offer to social movements across borders.

Curated by Marvellous Grounds, a QTBIPOC archiving collective founded in 2015, the book opens with a roundtable discussion of queer of colour politics in Toronto, alongside cities such as New York and Philadelphia. Other resonant chapters include “Black Lives Matter Toronto Teach-In,” by Janaya Khan and LeRoi Newbold, co-founders of Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM-TO), and “Black Picket Signs/White Picket Fences: Racism, Space, and Solidarity” by Tara Atluri.

Taken together, the chapters in this book offer an indispensable account of QTBIPOC spaces in Toronto and beyond. The writers show new ways of thinking and enacting the city that contribute to community building, healing, and survival. Highly recommended reading.

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Interested in finding out more about Queering Urban Justice: Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto? Click here to read an excerpt from the book.

Click here to order your copy of Queering Urban Justice: Queer of Colour Formations in Toronto.

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