It has been an overwhelming week since Some Of Our Parts was published. There will be a lot to write here about the experience of publishing my first book, but today isn’t the ideal moment - it all needs a bit more thought. Mostly, I have been in a mode of ‘doing’ rather than reflecting, when generally I spend most of my time pursuing a life that works the other way around. It’s been a lovely time of connecting with people who share my fondness for awkward questions. I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of Substack subscribers over the last week and it remains a miracle I can’t quite compute that there are people in the world who are interested in what I do, and who support it. The gratitude I feel is something my writing ability can’t match up to.
With all the uncertainty and new experiences of this time, I’ve found myself more reliant on friends than perhaps ever before. Their stabilising influence, their less subjective judgement, their different knowledge and expertise. Even the comfort of their physical presence next to me and the clarity of their voice when things are unclear or I’m clearly unequipped for what’s needed. In the past week I’ve been very much outside my comfort zone, publicising the book in a way that requires condensing its message to sound bytes and (oh the irony for a book on the limitations of labels) labelling it to make it something that can be conveyed in a minutes-long tv slot, or a short radio interview.
That’s why it’s a delight to share the audio of this conversation with fashion stylist, writer and cultural commentator Ayishat Akanbi, who is one of my favourite people. We met in London last night to launch Some Of Our Parts and had a discussion about maintaining a complex and changing conception of our own identity in a world that often seeks to box us in, the blurring of feminism as a concept, the legacy of national identity and the versions of ourselves that we perform in the world. The evening was one I’ll probably write about once I’ve had some headspace after a long week full of strange new experiences but in the meantime I’m really glad to be able to share this conversation with you. While the Peak Notions audio columns are paywalled, this is an hour-long free listen — I’d love as many people as possible to hear this conversation and find what’s valuable in it for them.
A Conversation With Ayishat Akanbi