Kuchenga Shenjé

The book I’m writing is titled HOME OUT THERE. It’s about black queer people leaving home to find home. I weave my own experiences with biographical chapters about three black queer poet ancestors: Langston Hughes, Pauli Murray and Audre Lorde.

a witch on a broom is flying through the air near the wing of an airplane ALT: a witch on a broom is flying through the air near the wing of an airplane

Thank you gorgeous 🥹

Now fly my pretty! Flyyyy :

Hope you like it 😘

a cartoon character is laying in a bed with his eyes closed and a light shining on him . ALT: a cartoon character is laying in a bed with his eyes closed and a light shining on him .

Such a fascistic take!

First they came for the readers…

I cannot tell you how thankful I am that you reskeeted this.

The main character in the second novel that I’m writing, has strong links to Francis Williams, and this is the most delicious material that is filling me up with motivational steam.

You are an absolute gem 💎

You’re serious? 🧐

Two?! 😳

Wearing mine, whilst watching The Diplomat at your suggestion, is probably my highest parasocial moment of the month 🤭

Dare you to follow @hellochels 😂

You. Are. Kidding. Me!

A federation is forming?!?!

The days of diaspora wars are soon to end?

As a Jamaican-Zimbabwean raised in Tottenham:

This moment… is so much bigger… than me 🥹

That bag is most coveted for sure. It was glint-ing!!!!

Screaming 😂

Can’t enjoy it as much since the documentary 🫣

Keep thinking about how much debt they’re in to perform 😳

What city(ies)?

This article I wrote is in direct conversation with yours!

adventuresintimeandgender.org/wormholes/er...

Movie classical soundtracks

John Barry’s Bond ones are perfect for the second novel I’m writing

For my first one the Jane Eyre one was deeply infused into my writing

@kuchenga.bsky.social your work is absolutely fabulous ✨

As soon as I read the passage above, I knew it was my purpose to ask the questions that sparked my mind as a Black Briton who always wondered about the lives we led on this island before the arrival of the Windrush generation. That we lived noteworthy lives was without question. But what of the offspring of Dido Elizabeth Belle, Francis Barber, Ignatius Sancho, et al.? Whatever happened to those babies who got lighter with each passing generation? This novel is intended to be an antidote to the intentional erasure of the Victorian colonial project. The women writers who align with some or all of my identity and experiences have gifted me with literature that spurred me into the confidence to write my own stories. I would not have thought myself eligible to even pick up a pen if not for the work of Andrea Levy, Brit Bennett and Tsitsi Dangarembga. It is an honor to be able to pick up the

mantle laid down by those who have done the arduous work of expanding the canon. I am only here because of the space you afforded me to write into.

And that’s a wrap! This is one of the best historical novels that I’ve read in a long time. Loved it ❤️

Okay now I’m imagining making a bunch of people from the 1820s read this and seeing the scandal on their faces. Knowing how obscenity disciplined speech…. It’s hard not to wonder what sorts of stories like this were destroyed, or never told in the first place.

"Your family. My mother thought you were Coromantee because they were known as quite fierce. The slaves that always caused trouble. She meant it as a compliment." I was thrown. She thought I was... So, I laughed. A good belly tickling laugh. Deep and funny to the point of queasi-ness. Sibyl looked at me with scrunched eyebrows. Then it hit me. There was pity on her face. She thought I was in denial. My laughter subsided and all that lay between us was a sooty train that belched out the truth having passed right between us. "You think my mother was...a Ne-gress," I whispered. "A mulatto or quadroon at least," she said, far too loudly. Could it be? Was this even possible? I was quite flummoxed by what she was proposing.

on the edge of my seat right now

Oh shit the midpoint twist 🔥 this book is *phenomenal*

The way that this book is framing conversations about colonial and imperial racism through the lens of the white regency novel is absolutely brilliant.

Psst pspsps dark academia girlies, boy have I got a book recommendation for you 🍂📚

The story starts with a scandal that I thought would end my life. Fortunately, my scandal didn't kill anyone. In fact, it pales in comparison with what I went on to discover at Rose Hall. Thus far, the way I see it, in any good life you need to die several times to really lead a life worth living. There are little deaths and there are big deaths. My tale has both-and the real tragedy would be if this story were to die with me. I was lying when I swore I would take this secret to my grave. I had no right to promise that.

Goddamn girl really came out the gate swinging with this one 🔥

Maybe she'd never really known her mother at all. And if you couldn't know the person whose body was your first home, then who could you ever know? The Mothers, Brit Bennett

OOF

Okay had to take a breather after the last one, but next up we’ve got The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé ❤️

She’s actually just an ally, but she would LOVE that you thought that 😘