‘To read this expansive treasure of a book is to see everything differently.’
— Sabrina Mahfouz, author of These Bodies of Water

Join Hajar Press, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan and Oluwatosin Daniju at Root/25 to celebrate the publication of Seeing for Ourselves: And Even Stranger Possibilities, a collection of memoir, vignettes, poetry and essays that explores the dizzying circus of being seen and unseen.

Why do we yearn to be seen when we are already far too visible? How do we want to be perceived, and how are we exposed? Could we ever really see for ourselves?

Manzoor-Khan surveys the criminalising stadium of civic life, the open-air arenas of family, friendship and grief, the performative pageantry of the public eye and the unclad secrets of the self in solitude, paying attention to what’s on show and what goes undetected.

‘We all wear masks of one kind or another, because the very fact of being witnessed impacts the ways we are ourselves.’

Please note: unfortunately, the venue is not wheelchair-accessible, as there are steps leading to the entrance. We are deeply sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.

The event will begin shortly after maghrib prayer.

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a poet and writer whose work disrupts assumptions about history, race, violence and knowledge. She is the author of Seeing for Ourselves, Tangled in Terror and the poetry collection Postcolonial Banter; a co-author of A FLY Girl’s Guide to University; and a contributor to the anthologies Cut from the Same Cloth? and I Refuse to Condemn. She is based in Leeds and is currently writing for theatre.

A qualified psychotherapist and an artist, Oluwatosin Daniju is a British-born Nigerian practitioner who uses photography and moving image to explore ideas around identity, home, loss and belonging from a person-centred therapeutic viewpoint. The thread of documenting runs through her work, whatever the genre; ultimately she sees photography first and foremost as an act of bearing witness.

Visit Eventbrite to book tickets. As a result of the venue’s capacity, spaces are extremely limited. Please do not reserve a ticket if you’re unable to attend the event.