Author:Chelsea Kwakye,Ore Ogunbiyi,Chelsea Kwakye,Ore Ogunbiyi
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Taking Up Space written and read by Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi.
THE FLAGSHIP 2019 RELEASE OF #MERKY BOOKS
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‘Brilliant’ CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS
‘Hugely important’ PAULA AKPAN
‘Essential’ BERNARDINE EVARISTO
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As a minority in a predominantly white institution, taking up space is an act of resistance. Recent Cambridge grads Chelsea and Ore experienced this first-hand, and wrote Taking Up Space as a guide and a manifesto for change.
FOR BLACK GIRLS:
Understand that your journey is unique. Use this book as a guide. Our wish for you is that you read this and feel empowered, comforted and validated in every emotion you experience, or decision that you make.
FOR EVERYONE ELSE:
We can only hope that reading this helps you to be a better friend, parent, sibling or teacher to black girls living through what we did. It's time we stepped away from seeing this as a problem that black people are charged with solving on their own.
It's a collective effort.
And everyone has a role to play.
Featuring honest conversations with students past and present, Taking Up Space goes beyond the buzzwords of diversity and inclusion and explores what those words truly mean for young black girls today.
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#Merky Books was set up by publishers Penguin Random House and Stormzy in June 2018 to find and publish the best writers of a new generation and to publish the stories that are not being heard. #Merky Books aims to open up the world of publishing, and this year has launched a New Writer’s Prize and will soon be launching a #Merky Books traineeship.
‘I know too many talented writers that don’t always have an outlet or a means to get their work seen, and hopefully #Merky Books can now be a reference point for them to say “I can be an author”, and for that to be a realistic and achievable goal… Reading and writing as a kid were integral to where I am today and I, from the bottom of my heart, cannot wait to hear your stories and get them out into the big wide world.’
STORMZY
Brilliant… Full of the knowledge, understanding, tools and kindness that every black girl needs.
—— Candice Carty-WilliamsIntimate... like reading the diary of a well-informed friend. The result is a bold venture... full of what will be revelations to some and reminders to others. The authors dignify the argument with nuance, and puncture the tendency to see black students as a monolith... For countless black women in Britain, a century after women's suffrage and in spite of the Race Relations Act, it can feel like the glass ceiling is reinforced by concrete, with those above unable to see below. And self-help, it seems, remains essential.
—— TLSTaking Up Space is a shocking account of how racism operates in the academy from a student viewpoint. An essential contribution.
—— Bernardine EvaristoA hugely important tool that I wish I’d had to guide me through university.
—— Paula AkpanThis book is a wake-up call to the emerging global human resources crisis . . . a must-read.
—— Pasi Sahlberg, author of Finnish Lessons 2.0Forget the chatter about disruptive technological and economic forces in education. Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica vividly describe the disruptions that are needed if we are to have quality education in our time.
—— Howard Gardner, author of Five Minds for the FutureKen Robinson is the world's most potent advocate of global education transformation; his clarity, passion and insight have inspired millions, including me. This book is not only a catalyst, or call to action; it is a manifesto; a practical exploration and celebration of what is possible. Now it's up to us; we must read, react and accelerate the revolution
—— Richard Gerver, author of Creating Tomorrow’s Schools TodayA clear-eyed and illuminating book.
—— San Francisco ChronicleGigged offers a timely and in-depth look at the promise and peril of the gig economy from one of the first journalists to recognize how big and important this new market would become . . . Sarah Kessler goes behind the statistics to tell the stories of people making a living (sometimes just scraping by) as gig economy workers. Gigged is smart, entertaining, moving, and at times even inspiring. Sarah Kessler writes like a dream. If you want to know how work is changing and how you too must change to keep up, you must read this book.
—— Dan Lyons, author of DISRUPTEDA deep look at . . . our “civilization based on work” – and what’s so often unsatisfying about living in it.
—— Washington PostArgued convincingly
—— FortuneA fair-minded analysis of the ever-morphing worldwide labour force
—— Kirkus ReviewsSarah Kessler has a good claim to have been there at the beginning of a truly revolutionary moment: the start of the thing we now call the gig economy . . . Gigged does a valuable service in tracking the twists and turns of the workers of the gig economy.
—— City AMWell crafted . . . a multitude of anecdotes supported by data and extensive reporting.
—— ForbesThe workforce is changing, and Sarah Kessler is here to explain its evolution. In Gigged, she looks at the rise of the “gig economy” and what that means for not only employers and employees but the future of society.
—— Books of the Month , BustleAlongside her intimate portraits of these workers’ lives, Kessler picks apart the founding mythology of the gig economy . . . Kessler’s book makes it more clear than ever that some solution to the fragmenting of traditional employment is direly needed.
—— UnHerdEngaging . . . Kessler approaches her topic with even-handedness and rigour.
—— Maclean’sBrilliantly in-depth not only in the explanations of the gig economy, but in the narratives of people who work gigs as well.
—— Washington TimesAs well-reported, and at times as emotionally wrenching, as Amy Goldstein’s Janesville . . . In facing . . . the fraying of the social contract between employer and employee, Sarah Kessler's work in Gigged makes one thing increasingly clear: we must get busy building a new one that benefits all sides of that relationship, and the society around it.
—— Editor’s Choice , 800 CEO ReadGoes under the bonnet of the gig economy.
—— What CEOs Are Reading , Management TodayKessler’s recent book Gigged is all about [the] desire for independence . . . Kessler investigates the liberating ethos and terrible trade-offs of this new economy by following several people working in such positions. She discovers why the revolution in “independent contractor” work – which comes without guarantees for minimum wages, paid vacation, or health benefits – is paradise for one slice of the population, but has been disappointing, and in some cases devastating, for others.
—— QuartzFor those interested in inquiries into modern (and future) work, there’s Gigged by Sarah Kessler, an analysis of the gig economy.
—— Books of the Year , Buzzfeed NewsLooks at the potential of the gig economy and ultimately the problems it bears.
—— Books of the Year , Fast Company