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Sharp, funny, and poignant stories of what it’s like to be a Brown woman working for change in a white world.
I take a deep breath, check my lipstick one last time on my phone camera, and turn on my mic. It’s about ten steps, two metres, and one lifetime to the front of the room. “Hello,” I repeat. “My name is Annahid — pronounced Ah-nah-heed — and shit’s about to get real!”
In a series of deft interlocking stories, Annahid Dashtgard shares her experiences searching for, and teaching about, belonging in our deeply divided world. A critically acclaimed, racialized immigrant writer and recognized inclusion leader, Dashtgard writes with wisdom, honesty, and a wry humour as she considers what it means to belong — to a country, in a marriage, in our own skin — and what it means when belonging is absent. Like the bones of the human body, these stories knit together a remarkable vision of what wholeness looks like as a racial outsider in a culture still dominated by whiteness.
— Clayton Thomas-Müller, author of award-winning memoir Life in the City of Dirty Water
Contents
1 Silver Birch 3
Dear Canada 14
Raft 17
Names 20
Oxygen 23
2 Lion’s Den 25
Dear Dad 42
Witness 45
Purpose 46
Racism 47
3 Bad Immigrant 49
Ghosts 62
Aunties 64
Roses 67
4 Dusty Road 69
Halos 83
Bloom 85
Skates 87
5 Sky Dancing 91
Transplant 101
Threads 102
Sholeh Zard 104
6 Rebel Body 107
Beauty 120
Touch 123
Grown-up 125
7 Foreign Object 127
Courage 139
Trickster 141
Rescue 143
Kintsugi 145
8 Racial Imposter 147
Gaps 158
Language 160
Pearls 162
9 Boss Lady 163
Strength 175
Power 176
Welcome 178
Soothe 180
10 Ocean Intelligence 183
Epilogue 195
Acknowledgements 197
About the Author 199