Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora - cover image

Copyright

Grace Aneiza Ali

Published On

2020-09-29

ISBN

Paperback978-1-78374-987-4
Hardback978-1-78374-988-1
PDF978-1-78374-989-8
HTML978-1-80064-623-0
XML978-1-78374-992-8
EPUB978-1-78374-990-4
MOBI978-1-78374-991-1

Language

  • English

Print Length

232 pages (xiv+218)

Dimensions

Paperback203 x 16 x 254 mm(8" x 0.64" x 10")
Hardback203 x 19 x 254 mm(8" x 0.75" x 10")

Weight

Paperback1397g (49.28oz)
Hardback1934g (68.22oz)

Media

Illustrations72

OCLC Number

1202477200

LCCN

2019394527

BIC

  • AG
  • JFFN
  • JFS

BISAC

  • SOC008000
  • SOC007000
  • SOC028000

LCC

  • F2381

Keywords

  • migration
  • migration narratives
  • women
  • Guyana
  • Guyanese women
  • from the 1950s
  • visual exhibition
  • essays
  • artworks
  • memoir
  • creative non-fiction
  • poetry
  • photography
  • art and curatorial essays
  • notion of homeland
  • accountability
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Liminal Spaces

Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora

  • Grace Aneiza Ali (editor)
Liminal Spaces is an intimate exploration into the migration narratives of fifteen women of Guyanese heritage. It spans diverse inter-generational perspectives – from those who leave Guyana, and those who are left – and seven seminal decades of Guyana’s history – from the 1950s to the present day – bringing the voices of women to the fore. The volume is conceived of as a visual exhibition on the page; a four-part journey navigating the contributors’ essays and artworks, allowing the reader to trace the migration path of Guyanese women from their moment of departure, to their arrival on diasporic soils, to their reunion with Guyana.

Eloquent and visually stunning, Liminal Spaces unpacks the global realities of migration, challenging and disrupting dominant narratives associated with Guyana, its colonial past, and its post-colonial present as a ‘disappearing nation’. Multimodal in approach, the volume combines memoir, creative non-fiction, poetry, photography, art and curatorial essays to collectively examine the mutable notion of ‘homeland’, and grapple with ideas of place and accountability.

This volume is a welcome contribution to the scholarly field of international migration, transnationalism, and diaspora, both in its creative methodological approach, and in its subject area – as one of the only studies published on Guyanese diaspora. It will be of great interest to those studying women and migration, and scholars and students of diaspora studies.

Reviews

['Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora'] is one of the most comprehensive overviews on the Guyanese diaspora ever published. Being the only South American nation in which English is the official language, Guyana is considered part of the Anglophone Caribbean, and many Guyanese migrate to North America. The majority of the population, however, speak Guyanese Creole as a first language. The photographs, letters, installations, video stills and digital collages interspersed among the narratives allow a glimpse into biographies and artistic practise, while providing crucial information about the life-courses of Guyanese women from different generations. Conceived as a visual exhibition on the page, 'Liminal Spaces' brings incredibly timely insights on the Guyanese diaspora to the fore. Through artworks, it is able to cover more ground than a classic scholarly analysis would be able to, while making it accessible to different audiences. As one of the only contributions of its kind, its importance cannot be overstressed.

Eric Otieno Sumba

"How Artists From Guyana Are Thinking Through The Liminal Spaces Of Migration". GRIOT, 2020.

Full Review

Additional Resources

[blog]On 'Liminal Spaces: Migration and Women of the Guyanese Diaspora'(Grace Aneiza Ali)

Contents

Part I: Mothering Lands

(pp. 21–24)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.01

1. Surrogate Skin: Portrait of Mother (Land)

(pp. 25–38)
  • Keisha Scarville
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.02

2. Until I Hear from You

(pp. 39–50)
  • Erika DeFreitas
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.03

3. Electric Dreams

(pp. 51–64)
  • Natalie Hopkinson
  • Serena Hopkinson
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.04

Part II: The Ones Who Leave… The Ones Who Are Left

(pp. 65–68)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.05

4. The Geography of Separation

(pp. 69–82)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.06

5. Transplantation

(pp. 83–90)
  • Dominique Hunter
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.07

6. Those Who Remain: Portraits of Amerindian Women

(pp. 91–108)
  • Khadija Benn
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.08

7. When They Left

(pp. 109–118)
  • Ingrid Griffith
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.09

Part III: Transitions

(pp. 119–122)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.10

8. So I Pick Up Me New-World-Self

(pp. 123–134)
  • Grace Nichols
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.11

9. Revisionist

(pp. 135–140)
  • Suchitra Mattai
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.12

10. Memories from Yonder

(pp. 141–146)
  • Christie Neptune
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.13

11. A Trace | Evidence of Time Past

(pp. 147–160)
  • Sandra Brewster
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.14

Part IV: Returns, Reunions, and Rituals

(pp. 161–164)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.15

12. Concrete and Filigree

(pp. 165–178)
  • Michelle Joan Wilkinson
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.16

13. A Daughter’s Journey from Indenture to Windrush

(pp. 179–188)
  • Maria del Pilar Kaladeen
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.17

14. Keeping Wake

(pp. 189–202)
  • Maya Mackrandilal
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.18

Postface: A Brief History of Migration from Guyana

(pp. 203–204)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.19

Introduction: Liminal Spaces

(pp. 1–20)
  • Grace Ali
https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0218.20

Contributors

Grace Aneiza Ali

(editor)
Curator and an Assistant Professor and Provost Fellow in the Department of Art & Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University