Black ButterFly

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Putting Baltimore under a microscope, Brown looks closely at the causes of segregation, many of which exist in current legislation and regulatory policy despite the common belief that overtly racist policies are a thing of the past. Drawing on social science research, policy analysis, and archival materials, Brown reveals the long history of racial segregation's impact on health, from toxic pollution to police brutality. Beginning with an analysis of the current political moment, Brown delves into how Baltimore's history influenced actions in sister cities like St. Louis and Cleveland, as well as its adoption of increasingly oppressive techniques from cities like Chicago.

As the situation worsens, Zora wants to reunite with husband and she tries to finds way to escape. As this is a historically accurate book, it’s interesting to see how people escaped Sarajevo and made their way into safer countries. Zora is a landscape artist, obsessed with painting bridges. Following a period of ill health for her mother, Zora urges her husband and her mother to go to England to visit Zora's daughter and granddaughter. Gradually it becomes clear that what they envisage will be a temporary separation becomes something altogether more permanent as Zora is trapped in Sarajevo, a city surrounded. Neighbours and friends of differing nationalities (the author prefers this term to ethnicities) come together to survive through the toughest of times in this tale of humanity, art, community and what it takes to survive. Content Consideration: If you are negatively affected by the coverage of conditions in Ukraine, you might need to know that some content in this book is similar. I couldn’t help connecting this story with the situation in Ukraine right now. Of course, the author hasn’t written this book to capitalise on the current war because I had received this book from Netgalley in January and it is meant to be published on the 30th anniversary of the ‘Siege of Sarajevo’. But there are so many similarities between the experience of Zora and what we read about Ukraine citizens in the newspaper. It makes me feel like no matter how much our technology progresses, we humans don’t progress in “humanity” – our thoughts are still all about power and control, whether over nature or over other people. We are truly a selfish species on the whole. 😟 I’m surprised the book achieved this acclaim since I found it worthy, heartfelt and uncomplicated. That’s damning the book with faint praise.I feel Priscilla Morris is showing the reader that art, and in this instance the creative art form of painting, the painter’s view of the world in all its vibrant colors cannot be extinguished by the hatred and terror of war. I read this as a consequence of the book’s shortlisting for the Women’s Prize for Literature, 2023. I love teaching as well as writing and teach creative writing at University College Dublin. I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and read Social Anthropology at Cambridge University. In a Nutshell: An enlightening and traumatising fictional account of a war I wasn’t much aware of – the Bosnian war of the early 1990s. Well-researched, well-written, bitter-sweet. Priscilla Morris’ writing is serviceable but the book excels at created an emotive atmosphere. The reader will feel Zora’s pain and pleasure when finding ways to survive and her eventual bid for freedom.

Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University, author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code Set in 1992, Zora Kočović is an art professor who lives in Sarajevo with her husband, Franjo (a former journalist), and her 83 years old mother. Sarajevo is a multicultural city (where the city is full of the Muslim, Serb, Croat, and Yugoslav populations) but racial sentiments, and ethnic tensions have arisen, and conflict is brewing. At this point in time, Zora decided to stay in Sarajevo for her painting and her job while Franjo and her mother traveled to England to visit their daughter Dubravka. Unfortunately, subsequent to the recognition of Bosnia as an independent and sovereign nation, the Bosnian War broke out and Sarajevo was under siege. Zora is trapped in Sarajevo and she is forced to maneuver around the constant bombings, shellings, and violence happening in the city, together with her neighbors and friends, and she has to resort to art to keep herself sane. In her twenties, when she returned home from her six years in Paris and Belgrade, she realised she couldn't live anywhere else. And now, she wants to stay in the city she loves as it's shaken, to see things through. Art is also an important thread of the book. This is what Zora does and also really the way she expresses her love for the city and also her emotions towards it. Initially we see her painting its bridges and landscapes—and later the destruction and fires that take over the city. Art also ends up offering her solace, when she feels lost, for her neighbours sending their little daughter Una for lessons gives her (in fact them both) something to look forward to. The best-selling look at how American cities can promote racial equity, end redlining, and reverse the damaging health- and wealth-related effects of segregation.Amongst the horror and deprivation, there are snatched moments of happiness: a shared meal assembled from scraps of food, the telling of stories around a makeshift fire, a ‘bring your own art’ exhibition, the warmth of another body next to yours. The possibility of making a perilous escape from the city brings Zora hope that she might be reunited with her family but also a feeling of guilt for others left behind. The siege of Sarajevo is told through the eyes of Serbian artist, Zora Kocovic,as she witnesses her city crumble from the shelling of snipers in the mountains surrounding Sarajevo. Her apartment building, art studio (which sits above the library), are obliterated by the incessant bombing. The most devastating results in the death of innocent children and adults murdered while attempting to lead their “normal” and ordinary lives. There are many situations in the book that will show you a side of war you have hardly ever seen in fiction. Some scenes create a claustrophobic feeling; others are way too disquieting. The story hits hard on your emotions. The writing enhances the impact. Sample this line written by Zora in a letter: “We're all refugees now. We spend our days waiting for water, for bread, for humanitarian handouts: beggars in our own city.”

Mindy Thompson Fullilove, MD, The New School, coauthor of From Enforcers to Guardians: A Public Health Primer on Ending Police ViolenceThis book will be published on the 30th anniversary of the Siege of Sarajevo. It’s an informative novel allowing readers to develop compassion for refugees and those who seek asylum today. Because I read the audiobook edition I wasn't able to read the Author's Note, but I found this article that explains how the novel relates to the author's family. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo... Everything is better when done together. The taste of food and water, the touch when they hug each other hello. They’ve made it through one more day, each reunion a confirmation that they’re still alive.” However, I wanted a bit more from the characterization. Zora’s strength, resilience, and love for her family and her art were on full display, but I wish we had seen more of the nuances of her character. I also wanted more from the side characters. The ending also felt a bit abrupt. I get that in the horrors of war some threads will never be tied up fully, but it was a bit too open-ended for my taste. This book also includes one of my least favorite tropes (an affair), and the fallout of that was never examined in any real depth. We're all refugees now...We spend our days waiting for water, for bread, for humanitarian handouts: beggars in our own city"