Afrophon' Reading Room at CARA
A reading list from the Afrophon' Reading Room, curated by Gee Wesley and on view at CARA as part of Publishing Expanded: Where Is Africa, from February 9 to 11, 2024.
Afrophon' Reading Room features recent artists' books and independent publications from Africa. Included are experimental literary and editorial projects that defy categorization; art books and cultural periodicals on contemporary art and politics, and artist-produced zines that embrace the democratic potential of artistic multiples. Largely created through self-organized modes of production and distribution, these publications trace the urgencies and conditions of the varied regions, histories, and diasporas from which their creators emerge. Together these publishers offer a set of bold propositions for the future of publishing not only on the African continent but across the globe.
Afrophon' is a project dedicated to African independent art publishing. Through public programs, distribution, and an itinerant reading room, Afrophon' presents African artists' books, cultural periodicals, and art books on contemporary art, design, literature, architecture, theory, cultural politics, and adjacent fields.
Afrophon' is curated by Gee Wesley
Graphic design by Rush Jackson and Riley Hooker
Presented as part of Publishing Expanded: Where Is Africa at CARA, February 9-11, 2024
AFRIKADAA
AFRIKADAA is an interactive French- and English-language magazine dedicated to contemporary art from the African continent and its diasporas. Created by a collective of artists, AFRIKADAA is an art magazine that brings another perspective to the contemporary art scene by telling the story and the trajectories of artists' communities beyond the borders of the market.
- Contributor to Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Cinema as a Transformative Tool for the Therapeutic Intellectual: Putting Postcolonial Theories in Motion, published by Miss Read (Berlin), 2023
- Contributor to Idea Poll, ed. Michaelis Pichler, with Yaiza Camps and Moritz Grünke, published by Miss Read (Berlin), 2021
- Decolonizing Art Book Fairs: Publishing Practices from the South(s), ed. Yaiza Camps, Moritz Grünke, Pascale Obolo, Michalis Pichler, Parfait Tabapsi, with Nkule Mabaso, co-published with Miss Read (Berlin) and Mosaïques (Yaoundé)
- AFRIKADAA, no. 15, special issue, Racisme, Discrimination: Où en sont les écoles d'art? (2023)
- AFRIKADAA, no. 14, Les Révoltes silencieuses (2021)
- AFRIKADAA, no. 11, special issue, Museum On/Off (2017)
CHIMURENGA
Chimurenga is a pan-African platform of writing, art and politics founded by Ntone Edjabe in 2002. Drawing together a myriad of voices from across Africa and the diaspora, Chimurenga takes many forms operating as an innovative platform for free ideas and political reflection about Africa by Africans.
- Ntone Edjabe, La Discotheque de Sarah Maldoror, 2023
- Ari Sitas, Music Notebook, 2023
- Tadiwa Madenga, The Garden Letters of Yvonne Vera, 2023
- Dambudzo Marechera, The Fear and Loathing Out of Harare, 2021
- Paula Ihozo Akugizibwe, You Look Illegal, 2022
- Uhuru Phalafala, Home Is Where the Music Is, 2021
- Georgia Anne Muldrow, Even When My Soup Curlers Slur, I Still Keep the Take, 2021
- Christopher Wise, In Search of Yambo Ouologuem, 2011
- Dominique Malaquais, Rumblin', 2009
- FESTAC '77: The 2nd World Festival of Black Art and Culture, co-published with Afterall Books (London), 2019
- The Chimurenga Chronic: The Invention of Zimbabwe (April 2018)
- The Chimurenga Chronic: We Make Our Own Food! (April 2017)
- The Chimurenga Chronic (April 2016)
- The Chimurenga Chronic: Muzmin (July 2015) [Arabic]
- The Chimurenga Chronic: New Cartographies (March 2015)
- The Chimurenga Chronic: Graphic Stories (July 2014)
- The Chimurenga Chronic (December 2013)
- The Chimurenga Chronic (August 2013)
- The Chimurenga Chronic (April 2013)
- African Cities Reader, no. 3, Land, Property, and Value, ed. Ntone Edjabe and Edgar Pieterse (April 2015)
- African Cities Reader, no. 2, Mobilities and Fixtures, ed. Ntone Edjabe and Edgar Pieterse (May 2011)
CONTEMPORARY AND (C&)
Contemporary And (C&) features and links important and multilayered work by cultural producers from the most various perspectives and contexts. C& is a global, constantly growing network of voices. C& brings complex topics into accessible formats. Through language. Through digitality. Through encounters. The C& Cosmos comprises content and projects happening online, offline, and in between.
- C&, no. 12, Ecologies (May 2023)
- C&, Special edition, #artofcritique (January 2023)
- C&, Special edition, with Jatiwangi art Factory, #Weaving Networks (August 2022) [Bahasa, English]
- C&, Special edition, with Sa Sa Art Projects, #Weaving Networks (August 2022) [Khmer, English]
- C&, Special edition, with The Black Archives, #Weaving Networks (August 2022) [Dutch, English]
- C&, Special edition, with Más Arte Más Acción, #Weaving Networks (August 2022) [Spanish, English]
- C&, no. 11, Conscious Codes, Anyone? (June 2020)
- C&, no. 10, Another 89 (October 2019)
- C&, no. 9, You Are Already in it: Looking at a Global Diaspora (June 2018)
- C&, no. 8, Conditions (December 2017)
- C&, no. 7, Curriculum of Connections (June 2017)
- C&, no. 6, Afro-Brazilian Perspectives (September 2016)
- C&, no. 5, The Interview Issue (February 2016)
- C&, no. 4, Focus Bamako (September 2015)
- C&, no. 3, Center What? (June 2015)
- C&, no. 2, Kampala Focus (September 2014)
- C&, no. 1, Dak'Art-14 (April 2014)
- I am built inside you, ed. Julia Grosse, Elke aus dem Moore, Yvette Mutumba, co-published with Sternberg Press (Berlin), 2017
DREAM PRESS
Dream Press is a woman/queer-run bookbinding and risograph printing studio in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 2021, they have started to fulfill a lifelong dream to be independent publishers, aiming to promote artists' books, zines, and printed matter.
- Lunga Ntila, Ukuzilanda, 2021
- Francis Broek and Julia Schimautz, Convenience Store, 2021
KAYFA TA
Kayfa ta, co-founded by artists Maha Maamoun and Ala Younis, is a publishing initiative that uses the popular form of how-to manuals (from Arabic how=kayfa, to=ta) to respond to some of today's perceived needs, be they the development of skills, tools, thoughts, or sensibilities. These books situate themselves in the space between the technical and the reflective, the everyday and the speculative, the instructional and the intuitive, the factual and the fictional.
- Iman Mersal, Archives & Crimes, trans. from Arabic by Robin Moger, Howdunnit 1, co-published with Archive Books (Berlin), 2022
- Merle Kröger, Panorama, trans. from German by Rubaica Jaliwala, Howdunnit 2, co-published with Archive Books (Berlin), 2022
- How to Maneuver: Shape-shifting texts and other publishing tactics, ed. Maha Maamoun and Ala Younis, co-published with Warehouse421 (Abu Dhabi), 2021
- Oxana Timofeeva, How to love a homeland, trans. from Russian by Maria Afanasyeva, 2021
- Amr Ezzat, How to remember your dreams, trans. from Arabic by Jennifer Peterson, 2021
- Haytham El-Wardany, How to disappear, trans. from Arabic by Jennifer Peterson and Robin Moger, 2021
- Cevdet Erek, SSS-How to imitate the sound of the shore using two hands and a carpet, co-published with Sternberg Press (Berlin), 2017
- Francis McKee, How to know what's really happening, 2016
ÉDITIONS MOTIFS
Éditions motifs is a young publishing house founded by Maya Ouabadi in Algiers. In their publications, they propose contents (literary criticism magazines, feminist journal, printed documents and stories, artist books, notebooks) which by the specificity of their format or their tone do not necessarily find their place in the Algerian literary and journalistic landscape.
- Wassyla Tamzali, En attendant Omar Gatlato, Sauvegarde, co-published by Archive Bouanani (Rabat) and Talitha (Rennes), 2023 [French]
- La Place: Revue féministe algérienne, no. 1 (2023) [Arabic, French]
- La Place: Revue féministe algérienne, no. 0 (2022) [Arabic, French]
- Fassl, no. 6, Un zeste de science (2023) [Arabic, French]
- Fassl, no. 5, Numéro spécial Assia Djebar (2023) [Arabic, French]
- Fassl, no. 3, D’où on écrit (2021) [Arabic, French]
- Fassl, no. 2, Numéro special Mohammed Dib (2020) [Arabic, French]
KELEKETLA! LIBRARY
Keleketla! Library is an interdisciplinary, independent library and media arts project. It was established in 2008 to create access to the use of arts and media strategies as alternative education models and tools.
- Thath'i Cover Okestra, vol. 5, vinyl record, 2018
- 58 Years to the Treason Trial, ed. Molemo Moiloa, 2014
- Selection of Risograph-printed publications and posters by students in the Wits School of Arts (WSOA)'s class, Drawing and Contemporary Practice, taught by Keleketla! Library's Rangoato Hlasane, 2017-ongoing
- Lesser Violence, vol. 1, ed. Amie Soudien, published by MaThoko's Books (imprint of Gay and Lesbian Queer Archive, Johannesburg), 2001, printed by Keleketla! Library
KULTE EDITIONS
Kulte Editions wishes to carry out a work of archiving thought and forms, highlighting both content and aesthetics. By publishing art books at affordable prices, and by publishing texts translated into Arabic/French/English, Kulte wishes to make books accessible to all.
- Virginie Despentes, نظرية كينغ كونغ,ed. Yasmina Naji, trans. from the French (King Kong Théorie) by Walid Soliman, 2023 [Arabic]
- Ahmed Bouanani, Enquête sur les bijoux amazighs, ed. Omar Berrada, 2022 [Arabic, French, English]
- Sido Lansari, Les Derniers paradis, 2019 [Arabic, French, English]
- Volumes Fugitives - Faouzi Laatiris et l'Institut national des beaux-arts de Tétouan, ed. Morad Montazami, co-published with Fondation Nationale des musées du Maroc (Rabat), 2016 [Arabic, French, English]
- Fatima Mazmouz, Super Oum, 2014 [Arabic, French, English]
- New Africa, 2014 [Arabic, French, English]
LOCALE
Locale is a Sudanese space for the development of a home-grown creative effort. Locale exhibits, designs, and collaborates with Sudanese creative practitioners.
- After Memory: Essays on the Sudanese Archive, 2021 [Arabic, English]
- Qutouf Yahia, My Poets Don't Die, published by Akashic Books (New York), 2021
PUMFLET: ART, ARCHITECTURE AND STUFF
pumflet: art, architecture and stuff is a publication series exploring the social imagination, stories of neighborhoods and reflecting on histories of the present. pumflet aims to publicize research-in-process and to conceive of interventions in space and public culture based on research. It is a collection of conceptual art interventions and a collection of correspondence art practices.
- pumflet: black peace (2022)
- pumflet: summer flowers (2019)
- pumflet luxurama (2018)
ZAMÂN BOOKS & CURATING
ZAMÂN BOOKS & CURATING is dedicated to the study of Arab, African, and Asian modernities through the lens of transnational and postcolonial art history, actively engaging with diverse communities of scholars, artists, archivists, writers, and other narrators around the world.
- Bert Flint, Planète afro-berbère: Les arts transsahariens au Musée Tiskiwin, de Marrakech à Tombouctou, 2021 [French]
- Mathilde Ayoub, Prefaces to a Book for a Syrian Museum, 2020 [French, Arabic]
- Zamân, no. 7 (Spring 2017) [French]
- Zamân, no. 6 (Fall 2014) [French]
