A reading salon by Sister Library

Join us for a reading salon hosted by Sister Library, where we celebrate the powerful voices of the Dalit and indigenous women from South Asia. Together we’ll discover a selection of texts and zines that have been forged in the fire of resistance and resilience: vessels of knowledge, stories and cultural practices that have endured for generations in the face the colonisation, patriarchy and systemic attempts at erasure. These writings − books, zines, parchhas and underground publications − highlights the resistance, knowledge and ways of life of Dalit and indigenous women in South Asia, rarely glimpsed in dominant narratives.
These stories are more than just archives: they are a living testament to ways communities resist and persist through storytelling, language and solidarity. In these shared moments, we will read, discuss and bear witness to the strength, tenacity and wisdom of women who, against all odds, have shaped their worlds.

Register for free

The reading salon takes place at Globe Aroma, Rue de la Braie 26, 1000 Brussels.  Drinks will be served from 16:30, with the readings starting at 17:00. The salon is free and in English. The cycle about Commons in Libraries includes a roundtable, a reading salon and a workshop. 

aqui, who founded the Sister library, is a Thangmi woman of the Kiratimma first peoples of the Himalayas, who creates social exchanges and safe spaces to position art as a medium for community healing. Her interdisciplinary practice encompasses ceremonial interventions, performances, drawings, zine-making, flyposting and public interventions, bolstered by participant involvement. Most of her work is collaborative and self-funded. She founded Sister Library, a continuously evolving artwork that offers an in-depth reflection on the visual and reading culture of our times. It is also the first traveling, community-owned and community-run feminist library in South Asia.  aqui also runs bombay underground, the artist collective that organised bombay zine fest, the first festival of its kind in South Asia. aqui has become household name in the underground publishing scene and is one of the driving forces behind the Dharavi art room, a creative space for children and women in Mumbai’s eponymous slum. 

This event is co-produced by KANAL-Centre Pompidou and Globe Aroma in the context of the Brussels Ass Book Fair.