Cassandra: Kinship Beyond Borders

As I leafed through Kin, an anthology of poetry, prose, and art by women from Romani, Traveller, and nomadic communities, it struck me how deeply it resonates with a universal yearning for connection and identity. Edited by Raine Geoghegan and Fióna Bolger, this collection amplifies voices too often relegated to the periphery of cultural narratives.

Drawing parallels between Kin and my experiences at this year’s Venice Biennale – particularly with exhibits like Everything Precious is Fragile from Benin, which blended visual art and literature, and Seychellois-Australian artist Danielle Freakley’s Please Say project around communal storytelling – it becomes evident how art serves as a unifying language. The anthology’s focus on kinship echoes the Biennale’s exploration of shared fragilities in a fragmented world.

Through its diverse collection of works, Kin not only celebrates cultural specificity but also challenges universal assumptions about interdependence, wholeness and belonging. As Cecilia Woloch eloquently writes in her poem Earth: “Once, I’d forgotten the way to the well and the smell of cool rain led me there. Once I was only a child in my sleep; then I awoke and was everywhere” This sentiment mirrors the themes in Lidia Yuknavitch’s The Misfit Manifesto, where she speaks to those who dwell on society’s margins, asserting, “even at the moment of your failure, right then, you are beautiful. You don’t know it yet, but you have the ability to reinvent yourself endlessly. That’s your beauty.”

Writing this column, which highlights international women’s voices relevant to contemporary times, I’m reminded of Yuknavitch’s imperative: “Give voice to the story only you know how to tell … Sometimes telling the story is the thing that saves your life.”

It’s a poignant reminder that collections like Kin are not only artistic endeavors but also acts of resistance against erasure. Similarly, Kin refuses to let its voices be marginalised, as in Delia Grigore’s poem: “My blood is blind: nobody is impure here”. Whereas Freakley’s interactive project at the Biennale gently drew people to speak, playfully engaging them to mutually create personal narratives of vulnerability.

As Kin showcases, and this year’s Biennale Arte in Venice affirmed with its title Strangers Everywhere, art is inherently fragile yet enduring. It calls us to honor and protect these precious connections. It’s through such works that we learn to listen, to see, and ultimately, to belong. I hope to carry this spirit forward into the New Year with all of Usawa and its readers.

References and Links

• Purchase Kin via Books Upstairs or Salmon Poetry. Or listen to readings from the anthology on the Salmon Poetry podcast https://salmonpoetry.podbean.com/e/kin-anthology-episode-1/
• Explore Lidia Yuknavitch’s work, including her powerful TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/lidia_yuknavitch_the_beauty_of_being_a_misfit?subtitle=en
• Learn about the Venice Biennale’s Benin exhibit Everything Precious is Fragile and its Library of Resistance, put together by contributing artist Moufouli Bello. Every single book there is by a Black feminist writer, and from all over the world with titles like Brown Girl in the Ring and Soul Sisters. https://www.frieze.com/article/azu-nwagbogu-benin-pavilion-interview-2024
• Discover Danielle Freakley’s Please Say project, emphasizing collective dialogue. https://youtu.be/ojVXL-Dv-QM?si=NBH1Hr3gxHlxcvR5