Dyke Hands & Skye Papers
Join us for an evening (or two!) of readings and discussion with the indubitable Jamika Ajalon. On the 21st at 198, the experimental filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, black lesbian extraordinaire and prolific writer will discuss her film works, currently on view at 198 as part of REEL: Dyke Hands, and read from the luminous “Skye Papers” (Feminist Press, CUNY, 2021). Free, no booking required.
Then, on the 22nd, join us at Second Home for a special edition of Page65, an open mic night hosted by Bui // Libreria. Free, register HERE
MORE ON SKYE PAPERS:
Twentysomething and restless, Skye flits between cities and stagnant relationships until she meets Scottie, a disarming and dishevelled British traveller, and Pieces, an enigmatic artist living in New York. The three recognize each other as kindred spirits—Black, punk, whimsical, revolutionary—and fall in together, leading Skye on an unlikely adventure across the Atlantic. They live a glorious, subterranean existence in 1990s London: making multimedia art, throwing drug-fuelled parties, and eking out a living by busking in Tube stations, until their existence is jeopardized by the rise of CCTV and policing.
In fluid and unrelenting prose, Jamika Ajalon’s debut novel explores youth, poetry, and what it means to come terms with queerness. Skye Papers is an imaginative, episodic group portrait of a transatlantic art scene spearheaded by people of colour—and of the fraught, dystopian reality of increasing state surveillance.
Jamika Ajalon is a prolific author and interdisciplinary artist who works with different mediums independently, but also in multiple fusions—incorporating written and spoken text, sound/music, and visuals. Her poems, stories, and essays have been published in various publications internationally including the 1995 book Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing. Her debut novel Skye Papers was published in 2021 by The Feminist Press. She currently writes a regular column for Itchy Silk magazine, “queer plume: the fugitive diaries.” She has performed her audiovisual anti-lectures / sonic slam and exhibited across the globe, and has a BA in Film/Video and an MA in Communications in Culture and Society, from Goldsmiths University.