The Miracle of Our Shared Space

Nigerian-American writer, art historian, photographer, and cultural critic Teju Cole reads from his books to highlight the advantages of diverse peoples coming together to exchange ideas

‘Mixed Messages’

Book review of Fiona Peters, Fostering Mixed Race Children: Everyday Experiences of Foster Care, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, 978-1-137-54183-3, and Natasha Marshall, Half Breed, Samuel French, 2017, 978-0-573-11500-4

Novel Dialogue 1.1: Do Great Novels Set the Standard or Challenge it?: Kelly Rich and Teju Cole (AV)

Novel Dialogue kicks off with the writer and photographer Teju Cole and literary critic Kelly Rich of Harvard University talking about "saying yes to the text" as the first rule of good literary critical reading. But they also consider what happens when the urge to affirm a text gets swept up in the larger social and political dilemmas of our time. How do we celebrate great works of literature and art while also questioning the standards that have historically granted some writers "greatness" and left others out due to race, gender, and national background? In this episode, we look for ways of preserving excellence while also questioning greatness

As We Rise : Photography from the Black Atlantic

"As We Rise presents an exciting compilation of photographs from African diasporic culture. With over one hundred works by Black artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, the United States, South America, as well as throughout the African continent, this volume provides a timely exploration of Black identity on both sides of the Atlantic. As Teju Cole describes in his preface, “Too often in the larger culture, we see images of Black people in attitudes of despair, pain, or brutal isolation. As We Rise gently refuses that. It is not that people are always in an attitude of celebration—no, that would be a reverse but corresponding falsehood—but rather that they are present as human beings, credible, fully engaged in their world.” Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Wedge Collection in Toronto—a Black-owned collection dedicated to artists of African descent—As We Rise looks at the multifaceted ideas of Black life through the lenses of community, identity, and power." -- Publisher's website