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How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir
“Phenomenal.... A memoir that opens into the world, with brilliance, courage, and elegant prose.... This is a book to read, read again, and remember.”—Imani Perry, New York Times bestselling author of the National Book Award winner South to America
Poet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with these daring and exquisitely crafted essays, where Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability.
With their signature prose, at turns bold, muscular, and luminous, Shayla Lawson travels the world to explore deeper meanings held within love, time, and the self.
Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in the Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships and the dangers of beauty during a narrow escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post-dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.
Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads readers from a castle in France to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica to a traditional theater in Tokyo to a Prince concert in Minnesota and, finally, to finding liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how the trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections can lead to self-transformation and unimagined new freedoms.
Poet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with these daring and exquisitely crafted essays, where Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability.
With their signature prose, at turns bold, muscular, and luminous, Shayla Lawson travels the world to explore deeper meanings held within love, time, and the self.
Through encounters with a gorgeous gondolier in Venice, an ex-husband in the Netherlands, and a lost love on New Year’s Eve in Mexico City, Lawson’s travels bring unexpected wisdom about life in and out of love. They learn the strength of friendships and the dangers of beauty during a narrow escape in Egypt. They examine Blackness in post-dictatorship Zimbabwe, then take us on a secretive tour of Black freedom movements in Portugal.
Through a deeply insightful journey, Lawson leads readers from a castle in France to a hula hoop competition in Jamaica to a traditional theater in Tokyo to a Prince concert in Minnesota and, finally, to finding liberation on a beach in Bermuda, exploring each location—and their deepest emotions—to the fullest. In the end, they discover how the trials of marriage, grief, and missed connections can lead to self-transformation and unimagined new freedoms.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 6, 2024
57 people are currently reading
5816 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
February 20, 2025
4 stars = Fantastic and easy to recommend.
“You know it won’t last - like sex, like snow - but we all love a good beginning.”
Being in the midst of major upheaval in all facets of my life, and less than three long weeks away from leaving the USA, this was a case of the right book at the right time and subsequently it hit hard. It is a travel memoir written in a poetic, literary style and is filled with quotable prose.
“I didn’t feel safe in America, let alone free.”
Each chapter is based around a different location in the world that the author visited or lived in, and is themed around a philosophical or controversial topic. The issues they cover are diverse and include euthanasia, race, sexuality, class, religion, death, being disabled, human trafficking, gender identity, love, social effects of the internet, beauty, travel, health, the American experience, and liberation. Each chapter was engaging, thought provoking, and written from a place of vulnerability.
“We are lovers in what we share in common - the daring, the drama, the uncertainty - a humble hunger for this dangerous life.”
I can only imagine how on fire a book club discussion could be for this selection. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys memoirs, travel, or stimulating reads that prompt introspection. It was hard for me to choose between 4 and 5 stars for the rating, and I typically only rate 2-4 books a year 5 stars. This was a solid 4.5 and deserving of a reader’s time, the best book I have read so far in 2025.
“In the eyes of the villain the fairy tale is always a nightmare.”
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First Sentence: Our story starts in an airplane with the sound of long acrylic nails tapping on laptop keys, the sound of black femme poetics.
Favorite Quote: Sometimes in this world, whiteness and blackness have to look each other in the eye for their cannibalistic truths. I think about the fact the slave trade began with negations like that, about how many people we could sell and still be people. We got our answer. Every one of us. Every single one of us.
“You know it won’t last - like sex, like snow - but we all love a good beginning.”
Being in the midst of major upheaval in all facets of my life, and less than three long weeks away from leaving the USA, this was a case of the right book at the right time and subsequently it hit hard. It is a travel memoir written in a poetic, literary style and is filled with quotable prose.
“I didn’t feel safe in America, let alone free.”
Each chapter is based around a different location in the world that the author visited or lived in, and is themed around a philosophical or controversial topic. The issues they cover are diverse and include euthanasia, race, sexuality, class, religion, death, being disabled, human trafficking, gender identity, love, social effects of the internet, beauty, travel, health, the American experience, and liberation. Each chapter was engaging, thought provoking, and written from a place of vulnerability.
“We are lovers in what we share in common - the daring, the drama, the uncertainty - a humble hunger for this dangerous life.”
I can only imagine how on fire a book club discussion could be for this selection. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys memoirs, travel, or stimulating reads that prompt introspection. It was hard for me to choose between 4 and 5 stars for the rating, and I typically only rate 2-4 books a year 5 stars. This was a solid 4.5 and deserving of a reader’s time, the best book I have read so far in 2025.
“In the eyes of the villain the fairy tale is always a nightmare.”
---------------------
First Sentence: Our story starts in an airplane with the sound of long acrylic nails tapping on laptop keys, the sound of black femme poetics.
Favorite Quote: Sometimes in this world, whiteness and blackness have to look each other in the eye for their cannibalistic truths. I think about the fact the slave trade began with negations like that, about how many people we could sell and still be people. We got our answer. Every one of us. Every single one of us.
February 5, 2024
How many essay collections by Black women have you read? Memoirs? How about travelogues? If your quick answer to that last question was one, and you meant Nanjala Nyabola’s Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move, that makes two of us—before I read this book.
There’s long been a perception that Black people don’t travel, and perhaps the market for books about Black travel was small as a result. Happily, Black people themselves are changing this perception in small and large ways (see Travel Noire on Instagram, for example). Far more importantly, Black women’s voices are still so rarely heard, particularly in non-fiction about life experiences, making books like Nyabola’s and Lawson’s crucial records.
Like Nyabola’s book, however, Lawson’s How to Live Free in a Dangerous World rather defies the categorisation of travelogue (and admittedly doesn’t claim to be). There’s a lot about travel—Lawson has visited and lived in lots of fascinating places—but this is very much a book about Lawson’s personal journey: inward to find themself (Lawson’s preferred pronoun) and in the process to find liberation, and then outward to give that liberation to the world. If that sounds a little mystical, it is in some ways—the spirit is never far away from their ruminations—but that doesn’t at all take away from how valuable, readable and entertaining these essays are.
Lawson, like Nyabola, uses place as a tether—a placeholder, if you like—to confront issues affecting Black people. Where Nyabola addresses subjects like justice and freedom, Lawson tackles Blackness, relationships, gender, time, disability and chronic illness, sex, privilege, and liberation, among other things.
Lawson is a deeply engaging writer; I sat with their book all weekend, only putting it down to look things up or to say, “Hmm…” and make notes. I do confess to picking this up in the first place to read about their time in Zimbabwe, and that delivered! (Zimbabwe is a very small place.) Apart from that, though, there’s a great deal in here that’s worth re-reading, and through their journeys and meditations on them, Lawson brings so much healing, care and affirmation to the woundedness of Black women’s hearts. Buy this one for your sisters.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Tiny Reparations Books.
There’s long been a perception that Black people don’t travel, and perhaps the market for books about Black travel was small as a result. Happily, Black people themselves are changing this perception in small and large ways (see Travel Noire on Instagram, for example). Far more importantly, Black women’s voices are still so rarely heard, particularly in non-fiction about life experiences, making books like Nyabola’s and Lawson’s crucial records.
Like Nyabola’s book, however, Lawson’s How to Live Free in a Dangerous World rather defies the categorisation of travelogue (and admittedly doesn’t claim to be). There’s a lot about travel—Lawson has visited and lived in lots of fascinating places—but this is very much a book about Lawson’s personal journey: inward to find themself (Lawson’s preferred pronoun) and in the process to find liberation, and then outward to give that liberation to the world. If that sounds a little mystical, it is in some ways—the spirit is never far away from their ruminations—but that doesn’t at all take away from how valuable, readable and entertaining these essays are.
Lawson, like Nyabola, uses place as a tether—a placeholder, if you like—to confront issues affecting Black people. Where Nyabola addresses subjects like justice and freedom, Lawson tackles Blackness, relationships, gender, time, disability and chronic illness, sex, privilege, and liberation, among other things.
Lawson is a deeply engaging writer; I sat with their book all weekend, only putting it down to look things up or to say, “Hmm…” and make notes. I do confess to picking this up in the first place to read about their time in Zimbabwe, and that delivered! (Zimbabwe is a very small place.) Apart from that, though, there’s a great deal in here that’s worth re-reading, and through their journeys and meditations on them, Lawson brings so much healing, care and affirmation to the woundedness of Black women’s hearts. Buy this one for your sisters.
Thank you to NetGalley and to Tiny Reparations Books.
February 23, 2024
I always think I'll love a travel memoir in theory, but in reality, I've probably DNF'd 90% of the ones I've tried because they can. be. so. boring. I don't want to read about these places, I want to go there!
This one really worked for me, in part because it was from a Black woman's decolonial perspective, which you don't often see in the travel genre, and it felt fresh.
But I also think I just allowed myself to slow down a lot with this one - a yet semi-successful reading goal I have this year - and that really helped me fall into this one. I'll try to remember that for future nonfiction reading.
This one really worked for me, in part because it was from a Black woman's decolonial perspective, which you don't often see in the travel genre, and it felt fresh.
But I also think I just allowed myself to slow down a lot with this one - a yet semi-successful reading goal I have this year - and that really helped me fall into this one. I'll try to remember that for future nonfiction reading.
February 8, 2024
This is my first encounter with Shayla Lawson's writing and I'm almost ashamed to admit that but reading How to Live Free in a Dangerous World has been so beautifully rewarding. Each essay was like an entry into a traveler's journal. With each new city, country, continent, came a new story, a life lesson and oftentimes I found myself looking up to see if someone else had read that line or that passage and experienced the same "Hell Yeah!" moment.
This is a memoir that I would revisit and reference when I wanted insight on a certain topic or to feel kinship when lonely. The chapters are titled on intimacy, on privilege, on sex etc. You can certainly skip around and read what you are drawn to after reading it in full of course. That's just my suggestion. However you consume it, you will not be disappointed.
This is a memoir that I would revisit and reference when I wanted insight on a certain topic or to feel kinship when lonely. The chapters are titled on intimacy, on privilege, on sex etc. You can certainly skip around and read what you are drawn to after reading it in full of course. That's just my suggestion. However you consume it, you will not be disappointed.
February 28, 2025
this is such a rich memoir that touches on so many beautiful topics and places. i don’t think i realized going in that it’s a travel memoir, so each section revolves around a different city/country where the author lived. i loved hearing the commentary of a kentucky person (and a black, queer, disabled person at that) living in places like china or the netherlands or bermuda. there’s just so much intersectionality in here, and it gave me so much to think about it. i learned a lot! i thought a lot! and through it all i’m in awe of the author. this isn’t necessarily a feel good memoir, there’s a lot of pain and a lot of darkness here, but i think the point that the author makes is that through all the pain, we still have to live. and we still have the capacity for kindness, for joy, for ART. i will definitely be revisiting this in the future.
“Intimacy is not about the fact we need each other. It’s about facing the fact we are each other. The separations in how we feel are an illusion. The separations in who we are are a myth. We *are* each other. And until we’re willing to draw close to each other, art is a refuge for me because it helps me see all those places where we overlap.”
“Intimacy is not about the fact we need each other. It’s about facing the fact we are each other. The separations in how we feel are an illusion. The separations in who we are are a myth. We *are* each other. And until we’re willing to draw close to each other, art is a refuge for me because it helps me see all those places where we overlap.”
April 4, 2024
This is an excellent travel memoir and I highly recommend it.
April 9, 2024
How to Live Free in a Dangerous World is more than a memoir; it's also a travelogue and a manifesto (of sorts). Each chapter serves as a theme that's tied to a place that Lawson traveled to at some point in their life (often living there for a period of time), which was a really fascinating way to discuss issues related to their identity (Black American, femme, nonbinary, and disabled) and, more broadly, our place in a complicated yet very connected world.
There is a lot packed into this book, and I found myself thinking a lot about how some themes connect to my own life.
There is a lot packed into this book, and I found myself thinking a lot about how some themes connect to my own life.
March 30, 2024
A beautifully written memoir in essays slash travel guide and cultural critique from nonbinary Black poet, Shayla Lawson. This was a new to me author and I found myself transported listening to their audiobook and descriptions of all the places around the world they've lived. But this was so much more than just a travel book or biography!
Lawson also offers insightful political and social critiques on living in America under Trump as a queer, disabled person of color. They were diagnosed with an extreme form of hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) late in life and describe in detail how chronic pain and illness associated with this changed their life drastically.
They also talk about love, identity and various relationships in several of the essays in a moving and very relatable way. This book was lyrical and insightful and highly recommended especially on audio and for fans of authors like Samantha Irby!!
Lawson also offers insightful political and social critiques on living in America under Trump as a queer, disabled person of color. They were diagnosed with an extreme form of hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) late in life and describe in detail how chronic pain and illness associated with this changed their life drastically.
They also talk about love, identity and various relationships in several of the essays in a moving and very relatable way. This book was lyrical and insightful and highly recommended especially on audio and for fans of authors like Samantha Irby!!
February 14, 2024
4.5 stars for sure. I always feel weird rating/reviewing memoirs because who am I to judge someone’s life story. I think 4.5 stars for me though just because I didn’t love the writing style at some parts. But I don’t feel comfortable commenting on the contents of their actual memoir story. Highly recommend 🤗
February 19, 2024
This was such a good travel memoir. I feel like although we were learning about Shayla Lawson’s life, I was constantly reflecting on my own. The writing at times was very poetic. I listened to the audio and it was great!
June 3, 2024
This was just gorgeous! My highlighter was working overtime on all the parts I want to revisit and think further on.
January 12, 2025
This book had a slow start for me, but then I couldn't put it down. While it's a cliche that everyone's story is unique, Lawson's truly is in this non chronological memoir. That was a little confusing at first when she spoke about Dorote attending her memorial service, but I got into the flow. I appreciated her perspectives as a multiple time NYC transplant, but also how she addressed issues such as pronouns in academia, navigating NYC as a disabled woman and her own identity as a Queer, Black woman. Excellent listen, especially as I walked through Mickalene Thomas at the Barnes.
October 15, 2023
The concept of pairing life’s themes and emotions with various cities across the globe was really intriguing! And, many of the relationships Shayla formed with folks abroad speak to the complexities of being a Black American woman existing outside the U.S. There were definitely times when Shayla’s stream of conscious got in the way of understanding the story, forcing me to go back a few pages and try to put the pieces together. When the plot is on track, like her telling of the toxic Dutch friend, the book feels relateable even when rooted in foreign land. But, when the reflections go outside the moment set up, like the Intimacy essay, I get totally lost and wonder, “Exactly what is she talking about.”
I’m wondering if this is because there still needs to be some proofreading or it’s actually Shayla’s writing style? Regardless, aside from the occasional confusing tangent, it was a good book. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
I’m wondering if this is because there still needs to be some proofreading or it’s actually Shayla’s writing style? Regardless, aside from the occasional confusing tangent, it was a good book. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
February 10, 2024
This is a beautifully written and emotionally powerful collection of essays by Shayla Lawson. From the GR description “…Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability. With their signature prose, Shayla Lawson travels the world to explore deeper meanings held within love, time, and the self.”
This is the type of writing that begs to be highlighted and underlines. Before seeing that the author is a poet, I could already feel it in the writing. This is such a personal and reflective collection - really glad Lawson chose to share it with us. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.
This is the type of writing that begs to be highlighted and underlines. Before seeing that the author is a poet, I could already feel it in the writing. This is such a personal and reflective collection - really glad Lawson chose to share it with us. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.
September 17, 2023
Being Black, being bold, being modest, being open, getting course corrected by life over and over again, being let down, learning how not to let oneself down even when others do, and being free are all aspects of How to Live Free in a Dangerous World. I've been looking forward to Shayla Lawson's book for a long time as a fan and reader. Lawson actually lives what they preach, pursuing a life of self-possession while keeping acutely aware of and grounded in their humanity.
Lawson writes on their experiences as a Black person who has lived and travelled in a variety of countries in their memoir. Her essays offer profound observations on what it means to exist.
Lawson writes on their experiences as a Black person who has lived and travelled in a variety of countries in their memoir. Her essays offer profound observations on what it means to exist.
May 12, 2024
Beautifully written memoir. It was particularly poignant since I read the last half while in Portugal, having gone on the African Lisbon tour.
February 26, 2025
really cool and inspiring read. Didn’t know i needed a book by and about a well-traveled black non-binary person, but i did. this memoir affirms for me that YES i can and am meant to be in the world, and everywhere in it.
Love reading about the lives of older black queer people, it always leaves me feeling more real and mothered. Like there’s aspects of this world I have yet to understand or even experience, which lit like this is able to give me.
Their prose wasn’t always my cup of tea, but i still really enjoyed this.
Love reading about the lives of older black queer people, it always leaves me feeling more real and mothered. Like there’s aspects of this world I have yet to understand or even experience, which lit like this is able to give me.
Their prose wasn’t always my cup of tea, but i still really enjoyed this.
Want to read
March 1, 2024* I won this in in a Giveaway from Penguin Random House for their reaching 10K on social media. Thank you!!
August 23, 2024
This memoir follows the author’s experiences and insights as they have travelled and lived in various parts of the world. I was moved and fascinated by the unique perspectives shared on numerous topics, e.g. how refusing to eat unfamiliar food offered to you is a privilege that can be hurtful, but also a form of self-preservation.
I think my favorite section of the book was the part about disability, connecting to ideas like wabi-sabi and how disabled and queer folks have achieved the devine in how we have been broken and can still know who we are when we’re broken.
Check this one out, and enjoy the way your mind will expand.
I think my favorite section of the book was the part about disability, connecting to ideas like wabi-sabi and how disabled and queer folks have achieved the devine in how we have been broken and can still know who we are when we’re broken.
Check this one out, and enjoy the way your mind will expand.
April 11, 2024
You can tell it’s beautifully written but I didn’t vibe with the collection of story format of this memoir I never ended up with a consistent message that is new to me and that I can take away from this book.
September 20, 2023
Lawson's collection of essays, "How to Live Free in a Dangerous World" puts me in the mind of listening to my favorite podcast or the dopest social media stream: it's at once familiar and fresh.
September 6, 2024
3.5. Interesting writing style. I loved when she described her travels and people she met but the book lost me at points when trying to use personal experiences as examples of wider lessons.
April 14, 2024
I have been looking for a book like this for years–and am so delighted Shayla Lawson has brought it to the world! I'm working on my own travel memoir and have had difficulty finding literary exemplars that are "decolonial" / politically conscious / not by white, able-bodied, cis people. This book offers a perspective the genre of travel writing desperately needs, and the writing is just stunning.
The book is a series of essays on different life themes that take place around the world. Each essay stands brilliantly on its own, but they are a pleasure to read together. Expect gorgeous prose–Lawson is a poet–and transcendent ideas about the self, relationships, society, and history.
In my reading experience, nonfiction writers don't have to be likeable to produce beautiful work, but Lawson comes across as a genuinely great person. They are excited, curious, and kind but also bold in highlighting the systemic and interpersonal injustices they encounter. They invite the reader to delight in the beauty of the world; take a hard look at life's universal challenges (illness, heartbreak); and to feel indignation about colonialism, racism, and sexism. I feel inspired, hopeful, humbled, AND fired up to learn more and take action–very few books have made me feel all that. What I also admire about Lawson is that, unlike some who are passionate about building a more just world, they do not pretend to be perfect–they admit when they have gotten it wrong and explain how their perspectives have shifted with time and experience.
This book has moved me in many ways, and I will come back to it again and again.
The book is a series of essays on different life themes that take place around the world. Each essay stands brilliantly on its own, but they are a pleasure to read together. Expect gorgeous prose–Lawson is a poet–and transcendent ideas about the self, relationships, society, and history.
In my reading experience, nonfiction writers don't have to be likeable to produce beautiful work, but Lawson comes across as a genuinely great person. They are excited, curious, and kind but also bold in highlighting the systemic and interpersonal injustices they encounter. They invite the reader to delight in the beauty of the world; take a hard look at life's universal challenges (illness, heartbreak); and to feel indignation about colonialism, racism, and sexism. I feel inspired, hopeful, humbled, AND fired up to learn more and take action–very few books have made me feel all that. What I also admire about Lawson is that, unlike some who are passionate about building a more just world, they do not pretend to be perfect–they admit when they have gotten it wrong and explain how their perspectives have shifted with time and experience.
This book has moved me in many ways, and I will come back to it again and again.
Want to read
February 6, 2024This is a collection of essays-as-memoir, creating what is essentially a nonlinear account of the author’s travels around the world, self-discovery, experiences bonding with other Black and black folks, and experiences of racism. The writing renders in words the essence of what it is like to exist and travel as a Black femme. The intersectionality of the author’s lens (Black, non-binary, femme, religious, globetrotter) immediately made this a wonder of a book for me. I wanted so much to just give it 5 stars and feast on every single word, but a number of the passages lost me to the point where I couldn’t quite extract meaning from them. I struggled with whether this was simply my own processing issue, or lack of shared heritage, and certainly there were some references I didn’t get that slowed me down. Ultimately though, there were multiple pages I had to read like poetry and let the words wash over me. Not necessarily a bad thing, or an unexpected thing from a poet, but I wanted so much to understand EVERYTHING. But maybe that’s too greedy. I’ve written myself back to a 5-star review.
March 2, 2024
Reading 2024
Book 37: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson
I picked this book up for a couple of reasons: 1. The cover is gorgeous and drew me in, 2. Saw this recommended from a few people I trust with their reviews, 3. Love a good memoir on audio.
Also book 4 in #20booksbyblackwomen and #20booksbyblackfolx hosted by Melanatedreader.
Synopsis: Poet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with these daring and exquisitely crafted essays, where Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability.
Review: Essay collections or short stories are hit or miss for me. With this book, I was wanting a more chronological timeline to really hear the author’s story. Some of the essays I really enjoyed, especially the ones in which she journeys to places I have been as well. I could relate to those stories like the ones in Japan and NYC. Rating a memoir is usually about my ability to connect with the author’s story, as it is hard to put a rating on someone’s life journey. My rating 3.5⭐️.
Book 37: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir by Shayla Lawson
I picked this book up for a couple of reasons: 1. The cover is gorgeous and drew me in, 2. Saw this recommended from a few people I trust with their reviews, 3. Love a good memoir on audio.
Also book 4 in #20booksbyblackwomen and #20booksbyblackfolx hosted by Melanatedreader.
Synopsis: Poet and journalist Shayla Lawson follows their National Book Critics Circle finalist This Is Major with these daring and exquisitely crafted essays, where Lawson journeys across the globe, finds beauty in tumultuous times, and powerfully disrupts the constraints of race, gender, and disability.
Review: Essay collections or short stories are hit or miss for me. With this book, I was wanting a more chronological timeline to really hear the author’s story. Some of the essays I really enjoyed, especially the ones in which she journeys to places I have been as well. I could relate to those stories like the ones in Japan and NYC. Rating a memoir is usually about my ability to connect with the author’s story, as it is hard to put a rating on someone’s life journey. My rating 3.5⭐️.
March 22, 2024
I read Shayla Lawson’s first essay collection, This is Major, with delight and interest in her commentary on social politics. How to Live Free in A Dangerous World feels like a beautiful, grown evolution of her writer’s voice, viewing culture, connection and art from a global perspective. Each essay takes us to a different place in the world, detailing Lawson’s experiences or connections or observations there. Her voice is clear and direct. She as readily comments on the global cultural politics as she does the interpersonal.
One favorite moment: “ The separations in how we feel are an illusion. The separations in who we are, are a myth. We are each other. And until we’re willing to draw close to one another, art is a refuge for me because it helps me see all those places where we overlap.” Lawson’s wide lens on art and cultural representation paired with insight on the disconnections that keep us from being our best, continue to fascinate me.
One favorite moment: “ The separations in how we feel are an illusion. The separations in who we are, are a myth. We are each other. And until we’re willing to draw close to one another, art is a refuge for me because it helps me see all those places where we overlap.” Lawson’s wide lens on art and cultural representation paired with insight on the disconnections that keep us from being our best, continue to fascinate me.
April 17, 2024
Thank you to Goodreads for the copy of the book. I would like to say something about it.
Lawson's memoir/essay collection is about how we remain ourselves even as we are in different places. We are shaped by our past even when we seek transformative experiences. Lawson's memoir interrogates their upbringing, their marriage, relationships, sexuality, illness, professional relationships, the possibilities of friendship, and the identities we inhabit in different roles.
Lawson balances openness to experience and ethical commitment with a resilient, if not positive, outlook. At times, it felt like they were holding something back. Parts of their personality and past emerged in asides. Lawson isn't an open book by any means - but they take you along on their travels. I wonder if "decolonial" isn't an optimal descriptor for this book. Nonetheless, Lawson's voice is worth spending time with.
Lawson's memoir/essay collection is about how we remain ourselves even as we are in different places. We are shaped by our past even when we seek transformative experiences. Lawson's memoir interrogates their upbringing, their marriage, relationships, sexuality, illness, professional relationships, the possibilities of friendship, and the identities we inhabit in different roles.
Lawson balances openness to experience and ethical commitment with a resilient, if not positive, outlook. At times, it felt like they were holding something back. Parts of their personality and past emerged in asides. Lawson isn't an open book by any means - but they take you along on their travels. I wonder if "decolonial" isn't an optimal descriptor for this book. Nonetheless, Lawson's voice is worth spending time with.
July 4, 2024
3.5 stars based on my personal reading enjoyment and nothing else
This book has been interesting. On one hand, I have learned a lot about my own Dutch culture by reading about it from an ‘outsiders’ perspective. Some statement made were a bit… farfetched to me, especially since the author did not further elaborate. Such as how Dutch people are so proud of the Dutch healthcare system which is funded by money from de Gouden Eeuw (golden age / slave trading / spices?). Stating that no attention is paid to a history filled with slavery. These statements to me are not fully untrue, but they are also not what I think is the truth. Then again, I am Dutch. It made me realize the maybe more ‘nuanced’ parts of Dutch culture, such as “wat de boer niet kent vreet ‘ie niet” - how customs around food are very different from many other cultures for example.
I truly appreciated the more personal perspective from the author and discussions surrounding sexuality, black identity and gender identity.
This book has been interesting. On one hand, I have learned a lot about my own Dutch culture by reading about it from an ‘outsiders’ perspective. Some statement made were a bit… farfetched to me, especially since the author did not further elaborate. Such as how Dutch people are so proud of the Dutch healthcare system which is funded by money from de Gouden Eeuw (golden age / slave trading / spices?). Stating that no attention is paid to a history filled with slavery. These statements to me are not fully untrue, but they are also not what I think is the truth. Then again, I am Dutch. It made me realize the maybe more ‘nuanced’ parts of Dutch culture, such as “wat de boer niet kent vreet ‘ie niet” - how customs around food are very different from many other cultures for example.
I truly appreciated the more personal perspective from the author and discussions surrounding sexuality, black identity and gender identity.
March 26, 2024
5 stars. A gorgeous and tender travel memoir that weaves every facet of Shayla Lawson's identity with the world around them. Gender, race, sexuality, disability, all that Shayla embodies is made fleetingly beautiful in these essays, many of which deal with very difficult subjects like racism, domestic violence, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
Lawson's writing is reverent of the world and those they interact with. With every sentence, the growth that Lawson themselves has experiences is honored. There is great humility and gratitude in their writing, and even in their darkest moments, a fierce hope in the beauty of the world and its potential.
Truly a decolonial memoir, Lawson's observations of the world are spiritual, poignant, and think towards a better, more tangible future that is here and now.
Lawson's writing is reverent of the world and those they interact with. With every sentence, the growth that Lawson themselves has experiences is honored. There is great humility and gratitude in their writing, and even in their darkest moments, a fierce hope in the beauty of the world and its potential.
Truly a decolonial memoir, Lawson's observations of the world are spiritual, poignant, and think towards a better, more tangible future that is here and now.
February 6, 2024
What I assumed would be a traditional travelogue was instead a remarkable personal journey of self-discovery, liberation, friendship, love, grief, loss, identity, race, gender, and disability through a changing lens of cities and cultures around the world. Lawson writes from a perspective that until now has been largely missing from the travel community. Each essay was a poignant exploration of identity and how it evolves over time and from place to place. Lawson’s essays flow like prose poems and weave through the complexities they explore. I learned so much reading this, and hope a new generation of travelers is born from it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tiny Reparations Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tiny Reparations Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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