An Introduction and twelve essays by international writers on aspects of lesbianism today: Linda Bellos, Seni Seneveratne, Ann Hayfield, Tina Kendall, Valerie Mason-John, Maya Chowdhry; others.

Talking Black: Lesbians of African and Asian Descent Speak Out (Women on Women)

Politics & Social Sciences

Mason-John, Valerie

Social Sciences

UNKNO

About the Author\nZodwa Nyoni is a Zimbabwean-born playwright and poet based in Leeds, UK. As winner of the Channel 4 Playwright's Scheme, she was Writer-in-Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2014. Her first full-length play, Boi Boi is Dead, was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2014/15. Other theatre credits include: Tangled Roots (2014), Nine Lives (2014), Come To Where I'm From (2013), The Market (2013), Di Daakes' Part A Di Night (2013), Home Has Died (2012), Why The Drought Returns (2012), The Night Shift (2011) and The Povo Die Till Freedom Comes (2010). She has been the recipient of the following awards: Award for the Arts 2011 (Leeds Black Awards) and the Young Black and Asian Writers Award (The Big Issue in the North's Short Story Competition 2011).\nMojisola Adebayo is a playwright, performer, director, producer, workshop facilitator and lecturer. She has a BA in Drama and Theatre Arts, an MA in Physical Theatre and her PhD is entitled Afriquia Theatre: Creating Black Queer Ubuntu Through Performance (Goldsmiths, Royal Holloway and Queen Mary, University of London). Mojisola trained extensively with Augusto Boal and is an international specialist in Theatre of the Oppressed, often working in locations of crisis and conflict. She has worked in theatre, radio and television, on four continents, over the past 25 years, performing in over 50 productions, writing, devising and directing over 30 plays, and leading countless workshops, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe. Her own authored plays include Moj of the Antarctic: An African Odyssey (Lyric Hammersmith and Ovalhouse, London), Muhammad Ali and Me (Ovalhouse, Albany Theatre, London and UK touring), 48 Minutes for Palestine (Ashtar Theatre and international touring), Desert Boy (Albany Theatre, London and UK touring), The Listeners (Pegasus Theatre, Oxford), I Stand Corrected (Artscape, Ovalhouse, London and international touring and The Interrogation of Sandra Bland (Bush Theatre, London).\nJacqueline Rudet (aka Magdalene St Luce) is a playwright. She was born in England but spent her early years in Dominica before moving back to Britain. She studied drama at Barking College and began her career as an actress with the alternative theatre companies CAST and Belt and Braces, before forming Imani-Faith, a group founded to present theatre for and by black women. She went on to write for Black Theatre Co-operative, the Royal Court and Croydon Warehouse. Her plays include God's Second in Command, Take Back What's Yours, Basin and Money To Live.\nTravis Alabanza is a performer, writer and theatre-maker. In 2016/17 they became the youngest recipient of the artist-in-residence at the Tate workshop programme, starred in Scottee's theatre production Putting Words in your Mouth at the Roundhouse and the Royal Exchange adaptation of Derek Jarman's Jubilee, performed in venues such as V&A, Tate, ICA, the Roundhouse and Barbican – and had their work featured in The Guardian, BBC, Huck Magazine and more. Known for increasingly paving much of the UK conversation around trans politics, Alabanza has become a staple of the London queer scene and further afield. Giving talks and performances at over 40 UK universities, ranging from the RCA, Central St Martin's, Oxford and Cambridge University, and institutions abroad such as Harvard, Brown University and Austin, Texas. Their debut poetry book Before I step Outside (you love me) released in 2017 has been shipped to over 19 countries worldwide and listed as one of the top trans literary books of 2017. With this book they also have toured Europe and the United States, performing and reading it to over 200 venues and countless audiences, including Harvard University, Brighton Art Festival, Macedonia Pride and more. In the last two years they have been noted by numerous publications, such as ARTSY, ID and MOBO _AWARDS as one of the most prominent emerging queer artistic voices, and also listed in OUT as an influential queer f

Black British Queer Plays and Practitioners: An Anthology of Afriquia Theatre: Basin; Boy with Beer; Sin Dykes; Bashment; Nine Lives; Burgerz; The High Table; Stars

Literature & Fiction

Alabanza, Travis

Adebayo, Mojisola

Beadle-Blair, Rikki

Boakye, Paul

Nyoni, Zodwa

Rudet, Jacqueline

Dramas & Plays

Methuen Drama

Drawing on her own experiences with abuse and addiction, Valerie Mason-John presents a well-grounded series of meditations that transform anger, hatred, and fear to heal emotional trauma. Valerie Mason-John knows what it is like to be filled with toxic emotions—and how to release them. After years of abuse and struggles with addiction, she was mired in anger, resentment, and fear. But through meditation and willingness to forge a new path, she learned how to disarm such toxins and find peace. In Detox Your Heart Mason-John helps us recognize our emotions, good and bad, and to develop the self-care to heal ourselves. Chapters that explore and clearly define negative emotions are paired with chapters on how to transform them. Meditation exercises based on the Buddhist principles of mindfulness, loving-kindness, and compassion provide tools to help us heal our own hurts and to close the gap that toxic emotions create between heart and mind.

Detox Your Heart: Meditations for Healing Emotional Trauma

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Alternative Medicine

Wisdom Publications

Social Justice Poetry Spoken-word poet Valerie Mason-John unsettles readers with potent images of ongoing trauma from slavery and colonization. Her narratives range from the beginnings of the African Diaspora to the story of a stowaway on the Windrush, from racism and sexism in Trump's America to the wide impact of the Me Too movement. Stories of entrapment, sexual assault, addictive behaviours, and rave culture are told and contrasted to the strengthening and forthright voice of Yaata, Supreme Being. I Am Still Your Negro is truth that needs to be told, re-told, and remembered. I was your Negro Captured and sold I am still your negro Arrested and killed --from "I Am Still Your Negro"

I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin (Robert Kroetsch Series)

Poetry

University of Alberta Press

At six weeks I was chucked out into the new year of 1965 which wasn't prepared to welcome an African baby, abandoned on a harsh English winter's day. So begins Pauline's spirited and moving story of her childhood and teenage years in and out of foster homes and detention units in England. Both realistic and magical, Borrowed Body is a celebration of a child's will to survive. It is the first novel by Valerie Mason-John, who lives in London, England.

Borrowed Body

United States

Serpent's Tail

An important milestone in the recording of lesbian experience, this is the first book to document the lives of Black lesbians in Britain.

Lesbians Talk Making Black Waves

Khambatta, Ann

Scarlet Pr

Anger, hatred, resentment, fear, jealousy, greed. Tough emotions, but ones that most of us experience at one time or another. This gritty exploration of such “toxins” helps us to recognize the negative emotions and mental states we can absorb consciously—or unconsciously—and suggests creative ways of working with them. With short exercises for anyone to use that draw on Buddhist teachings on self-love, mindfulness, and more.
Valerie Mason-John is a former journalist and a trainer in anger management who speaks openly from her personal experience of conflict, anger, and fear. Also the author of the novel Borrowed Body (Serpent’s Tail, 2005), which draws from personal life history of being a foster child, black, lesbian—and a woman finding her way.

Detox Your Heart

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

Windhorse Publications

Winner of the 2014 USA Best Book Award in the Self-Help: Motivational category and Winner of the 2015 International Book Award in the Self-Help: Motivational category 
"This book provides a spiritual pathway to recovery for people from any faith tradition, as well as for those who are not religious, and for those who suffer from addiction as well as those who are simply aware of the suffering associated with the human condition. This is a book for everyone!"—Chris Cook, PhD, director of the Project for Spirituality, Theology &amp; Health, Durham University, United Kingdom
"Blending Mindfulness-Based Addiction Recovery with traditional Buddhist teachings and personal stories, the authors give us a wise and compassionate approach to recovery from the range of addictions. This comprehensive approach will be a valuable tool for addicts and addiction professionals alike."—Kevin Griffin, author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps
All of us can struggle with the tendency towards addiction, but for some it can destroy their lives. In our recovery from addiction, the Buddha's teachings offer an understanding of how the mind works, tools for helping a mind vulnerable to addiction, and ways to overcome addictive behavior, cultivating a calm mind without resentments.
Valerie Mason-John is the author of seven books. She works as a consultant in Conflict Transformation. She was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2005.
Paramabandhu Groves, MD, is a consultant psychiatrist for the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, specializing in addiction. He is ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order.

Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction

Groves, Paramabandhu

Addiction & Recovery

"Give yourself over day by day, thought by thought, moment by moment to this reliable and profound form of nurturance and healing." —Jon Kabat-Zinn, from the Preface
"The MBAR programme draws on a wide range of the Buddha's practical, yet deeply profound, teachings. Over the eight steps you are given a priceless gift the possibility to gain mastery over your mind and heart and find freedom." —Vidyamala Burch, founder and co-director of Breathworks and author of Mindfulness for Health
"Blending MBAR with traditional Buddhist teachings and personal stories, the authors give us a wise and compassionate approach to recovery from the range of addictions. This comprehensive approach will be a valuable tool for addicts and addiction professionals alike." —Kevin Griffin, author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps
Winner of the 2014 USA Best Book Award and the 2015 International Book Award in the Self-Help: Motivational category.
This new edition includes a foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, advice on how to run an Eight Step Recovery meeting, and insight on how to teach a Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery (MBAR) program, including teacher's notes and handouts.
"The Buddha was in recovery." Taking this bold statement as a starting point, this wonderful book shows how we are all addicted to aspects of life and can all benefit from training our minds and hearts to be free of the tyranny of compulsion.
Valerie Mason-John is the author of seven books. She works as a consultant in Conflict Transformation. She was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2005.
Dr. Paramabandhu Groves is a consultant psychiatrist for the National Health Service in the UK, specializing in addiction. He is ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order.

I could have been born and raised in Africa. But my spirit was in too much of a rush to be reincarnated. At six weeks I was chucked out into the new year of 1965, which wasn't prepared to welcome an African baby, abandoned on a harsh English winter's day. So begins Pauline's spirited and moving story of her childhood and teenage years in and out of foster homes and back and forth to Dr. Barnardo's Village in Essex. Her Barnardo's family was ruled by an unlikely trio, Aunty Claire, a fervent Christian; her laconic husband, the German Jewish Uncle Boris; and Aunty Morag, the cook. And, of course, other kids orphaned or abandoned like Pauline. Woven into this account are Pauline's angel and spirit companions Sparky, Annabel and Snake who by turns help and hinder her to survive in the real world. The Barnardo's good times are shattered by the sudden visits of her mother, whom she calls Wunmi and with whom she goes to live in a London high-rise. Wunmi's method of refashioning Pauline into a dutiful African child is literally to knock the English out of her. She tries other ways to survive, sniffing glue and shoplifting, until the harsh realities of detention centres and juvenile courts make Pauline think again.

AmazonUs/INDPB

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mason-John, Valerie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mason-John, Valerie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mason-John, Valerie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Talking Black: Lesbians of African and Asian Descent Speak Out (Women on Women)

Black British Queer Plays and Practitioners: An Anthology of Afriquia Theatre: Basin; Boy with Beer; Sin Dykes; Bashment; Nine Lives; Burgerz; The High Table; Stars

Detox Your Heart: Meditations for Healing Emotional Trauma

I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin (Robert Kroetsch Series)

Borrowed Body

Lesbians Talk Making Black Waves

Detox Your Heart

Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction

Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction

Borrowed Body