pickA pretty solid collection of poems and other writings. Deals a lot with race, hence the title. There is an odd secretion in the middle where he pivots to transcriptions of conversations he had with some friends. Overall, a decent read.
22 likes
Even This Page Is White | 
pickA pretty solid collection of poems and other writings. Deals a lot with race, hence the title. There is an odd secretion in the middle where he pivots to transcriptions of conversations he had with some friends. Overall, a decent read.
#friyayintro time!
1. This is my #1 most recced book.
2. Avengers: Endgame a couple weeks ago. It actually left theatres before I got a chance to see it, but then one place brought it back! Yay! I love movies but I find it weirdly hard to make it to the cinema. I wish I still lived within quick walking distance of one.
3. Cherries!
4. Six first cousins; seventeen thousand other kinds of cousins.
5. On it.
1. Manitoba
2. Xinran
3. 363 books, but it's gonna get a hell of a lot smaller this year
4. Outside
5. The tagged book is one of my autorecs. It's phenomenal.
#littenintro
“...when you say don‘t play the race card you mean don‘t call me white.”
pickThese poems strike many of the chords in my half-brown queer self. This is likely the best book I've read all year and I plan to keep many of the poems close to my heart. Also, Shraya gets major credit for donating some of the profits to a local indigenous center after pointing out that they (Shraya) are a colonizer themself, and also for hat-tipping the other amazing POC poets they read as inspiration before/while writing this.
I AM OFFICIALLY GOING TO BE PREFORMING A MONOLOGUE AT THE YYC COMING OUT SHOW IN MARCH! So now that I have ta actually write this monologue about my queer experience I am seeking guidance from one of my favourite queer authors, Vivek Shraya. I‘ve seen her perform, and she actually signed and dedicated this book to me. She was amazing, and I‘m hoping that her words inspire me. #poetry #transbooks #queerbooks #canadian
pickI‘ve heard the author read many of these poems at events but it was so great to finally sit down and read this powerful collection altogether. These sparse, beautifully written poems offer insightful commentary on race and racism. #transbooks
pickThis slim poetry collection covers so many things I'm blown away. Gender, race, white privilege, sexuality and identity. These poems made me uncomfortable but that was very much the point. I can't recommend this collection enough and I'm hoping to pick up some of her prior work soon. All the ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!
#poetry #transbooks #wndb
My recent #libraryhaul is perfect for today's #riotgram - I had a goal to read more #poetry this year and still need to do better. Hopefully seeing everyone's posts today will help!
1. My 4th pic is Ollie, of course. Little dude's too cute not to photograph.
2. I recommend EVEN THIS PAGE IS WHITE by Vivek Shraya to everyone.
3. Gonna be around 28 today. Hurray for heat!
4. I'm currently reading THE GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE and MAKING A SCENE: LESBIANS AND COMMUNITY ACROSS CANADA, 1964-84. Plus the usual X-Men comics.
5. I'd love to try out a new trail I discovered a couple weeks back.
#humpdaypost (a day late)
#JubilantJuly Day 31 - Best of July
Y'all. I had the most prolific reading month in July - a total of 24 books! These 6 were my faves:
•NOTHING MORE TO LOSE by Najwan Darwish (poetry)
•SUCH SMALL HANDS by Andrés Barba (novella)
•EVEN THIS PAGE IS WHITE by Vivek Shraya (poetry)
•THE NAKANO THRIFT SHOP by Hiromi Kawakami (novel)
•THE ABRIDGED HISTORY OF RAINFALL by Jay Hopler (poetry)
•MY MOTHER WAS A FREEDOM FIGHTER by Aja Monet (poetry)
This poem made me emotional. It feels so familiar. These questions and thoughts run through my head most days. Thank you, Vivek Shraya, for putting words to this feeling.
pickIs social justice poetry a thing? If not, it should be. Shraya writes really simplistic, candid poems about race, sexuality, and colonialism. I'll be devouring the rest of her work now. There's an honesty here that reminds me of Rupi Kaur, but Shraya has a different style. There's incisive commentary in here about whiteness and how POC can contribute to anti-Black racism and encourage settler oppression against Indigenous people. Highly recommend.
pickThis collection of poetry was fantastic and you should check it out!
#bbsjunechallenge
Reading Envy Podcast 089: Hodgepodge! Jenny had to postpone some guests so this is a solo episode. One round of book speed-dating, bookish beach adventures, and 5-star reads that haven't made it into the podcast yet. http://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy089
pickWow. I opened this last night intending to read maybe two or three poems so I could get a feel for it, and I ended up devouring the whole thing in one sitting. This personal and powerful dive into racism belongs on every Canadian's reading list. #canada150 #pridemonth #queerbooks
My library's Pride display. I borrowed EVEN THIS PAGE IS WHITE by Canadian poet Vivek Shraya. #pridemonth #canada150 #junebookbugs
Stop 24: skeptic - I love short poems where simplicity belies depth. #LitsyPoetry365
April 22: amiskwacîwâskahikan -I've always been fascinated with the power of naming and as a teacher I feel strongly that every person's name should be pronounced correctly; anything less suggests an unworthiness of that person's being. #LitsyPoetry365
pickI read Even This Page Is White not long after reading #Citizen by #ClaudiaRankine. These two books are perfect to pair with each other, as they both participate in the larger conversation of the psychological trauma of racism in Canada and the United States. Shraya's verses, like Rankine's, are accessible yet experimental in form and style. ETPIW also experiments with multi media poetry in exciting ways. Overall, one of the best reads of 2016.
so i climb dodge boulders
earn blisters but even
the top of the mountain
is white
Revisiting this beautiful, important poetry collection about race/racism while eating Christmas dinner leftovers for lunch! #TransBooks #QueerBooks
pickI normally say there's a book for every reader, and to each their own reading preference. This book is a must-read for EVERYONE.
pickHoly shit, a powerful and beautiful book, both in terms of its content about racism and its craft playing with poetic forms and structure. A book to read again and again. Very accessible for non-poetry types and very real. Highly recommended. #QueerBooks #WeNeedDiverseBooks #TransBooks
pickAutobiographical poems open our eyes to a multidimensional viewpoint from the margins of Canadian society: brown, bisexual, transgender, Hindu. Tenderness, honesty, pain, rage. Brilliant work.
#queerbooks #diversereads
under the pink
if i could tunnel back / through time aggression / dead skin cells
i would guard / all my softness
my tender places / like my life
depended on it / so that when
i grew up / i wouldn't feel
i had lost
everything.
vishvarupa
you will never grasp
clasp my power
voltage to resist persist coexist
shapeshift conductor for your spark
my skin is brown
to caution you of my fire.
[image: detail from painting by Vidya Devi & Dhirendra Jha.]
White space is used effectively in this poetry collection. The top half is blank on most pages. (The poem above is incomplete; I just captured the first part in this photo.)
people who said 'racism' were whiny or lazy and i was neither
but there's no worth for my work no toll for my toil
when you hold the cards keys gavels
unravelled, brown is not a barrier you are
and when you say 'don't play the race card'
you mean 'don't call me white.'
White folks, now's about time to be educating yourself about racism and the perspectives of people of colour. Vivek Shraya's accessible, beautiful poetry collection is a good place to start. #ReadingWithoutWalls
pickExperimental, challenging, moving, lyrical, mind blowing, thought provoking, brain altering, brilliant ~everybody should take the enjoyable challenge of this book
so-soI had a lot of hopes for this book but I felt like it didn't flow right. Something felt missing. Maybe if I had been there some of poems would have made more sense. ⭐️⭐️
