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Come out to the launch event for Sónia Vaz Borges and Maria Isabel Vaz’s new book Ragás, because the sea has no place to grab

Sónia Vaz Borges will be joined by Eden Brown, Keisha-Khan Perry, and Makayla White for a reading and discussion of Ragás.

Ragás is a memoir of a mother and daughter’s return to Cabo Verde reveals the legacies of national liberation, a story of memory and migration, and the psychic and physical landscape that colonialism has wrought.

When Sonia Vaz Borges accompanied her mother, Maria Isabel Vaz, home to Santiago Island, Cabo Verde, it was the first time she experienced the island where her mother and family were born, and where her mother left forty years earlier.

Ragás collects fragments of memories, episodes, and encounters in Cabo Verde assembled in this travel diary which reveals an experience of “homegoing” that is rich with the legacies of national liberation, the story of a Black woman’s migration during the height of colonial oppression, of separation from family and nation, and memories of an island transformed since Independence, and the psychic and physical landscape that the legacy of colonial rule has wrought.

Sónia Vaz Borges is a militant interdisciplinary historian and social-political organizer. She received her PhD in History of Education from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). She is the author of the book, Militant Education, Liberation Struggle, Consciousness: The PAIGC education in Guinea Bissau 1963–1978 (2019). As a result of her research Vaz Borges co-authored the short films, Navigating the Pilot School (2016) and Mangrove School (2022). She is currently an Assistant Professor in History and in the Africana Studies Program at Drexel University in Philadelphia (USA), and the co-curator of the Greenhouse, representing the Portuguese Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale 2024.

Eden Brown is a fourth-year Teacher Education student at Drexel University with experience as a teaching assistant and in student engagement. Originally from Riverside, California, she founds her educational philosophy on inclusion, community, and determination to identify innovative approaches and improved solutions for academic challenges. Specializing in social studies, Eden uses her experiences and philosophy to cultivate a reputation as a major contributor through leadership and critical thinking while always searching for opportunities to impart valuable insights and facilitate positive change.

Keisha-Khan Y. Perry is the Presidential Penn Compact Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Penn. Her research focuses on race, gender and politics in the Americas, urban geography and questions of citizenship, Black women’s intellectual histories, and the interrelationship between scholarship, pedagogy and political engagement. Her first book is entitled Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil, and she is currently writing Anthropology for Liberation, that illustrates the challenges of activist research amidst racial and gender violence.

Makayla White is a Southern California native and dynamic communication professional with an academic background from Drexel University. Graduating in June 2024, Makayla holds a BA in Communication with a concentration in Journalism, alongside an MS in Strategic and Digital Communication. She currently works as a public relations specialist for a leading agricultural sciences company, where she uses her expertise to craft diverse and compelling narratives.