What We Carry In Public
As I was going through the new releases on the St. Catharines Public Library website as I do every week, I had a Gotye moment . There as author with a new book was the name of someone that I used to know. So of course I had to get the book and read it and of course it was really good and insightful. So this post is a nod to all the things that went through my head while I was reading, and also after in reflection. So everyone should go and pick up Jay Pitter's new book, Black Public Joy and if you are in charge of collections at your library, or have the email of the collection librarian at your institution, you should tell them to order this book. It weaves stories that speak to concepts like the gaze in terms of race and class, to explore the kinds of performance, expectations, and "spatial entitlement" (p.23) as Jay calls it, that happens in public spaces. It is a text deeply interested in embodiment in public and how public spaces hold and witness, and in turn can be...