“The route we are about to take is an interdisciplinary one, but with feminist and postcolonial signposting.” These words, as she spoke them at her oration on April 19 2002, aged perfectly into a description of this gathering, happening a good 24 years later. On June 12, in the University of Amsterdam’s packed-packed auditorium, we celebrated the release of the Gloria Wekker Reader. It was lush. And rich. And warm. So loving. It perfectly matched this collection of essays that are so poetic, smart-smart, witty, courageous and free.

Chandra Frank, Nancy Jouwe and Mikki Stelder -who edited the Gloria Wekker- are an editorial ànd programming dream team. What an evening! Nawal Mustafa, Sruti Bala, Sarah Bracke and Alana Helberg-Proctor read their reflections on the reader, Babs Gons recited four of professor Wekker’s poems. When Domenica Ghidei Biidu, Saffa Khalil and Nella Rebero received the first three copies of the Reader, not a tissue or napkin remained unused. Hearing professor Wekker say why wanted to celebrate each of them in this symbolic moment?  A lovin’. A delicious softness of the kind only we can extend to each other.

What an honour that she invited me to host the launch of her Reader. While preparing for the launch, my copy of the Reader nearly doubled in size. It is now packed with bookmarks. If you’re studying gender, Queerness, Blackness, feminist movements, sexual cultures in Afro-Surinamese communities and/or colonial mentalities in the Netherlands… this is a must read. As always: Support your local and independent bookstores like Bijlmer Bookstore (Amsterdam), Savannah Bay (Utrecht) and Base Bookspace (Rotterdam).