Through an Addict's Looking-Glass

Waithera Sebatindira is a Kenyan writer based in London. Their previous writing and research interests have included food imperialism, drag kings and gender transformation. They are the author of Through an Addict’s Looking-Glass and a co-author of A FLY Girl’s Guide to University: Being a Woman of Colour at Cambridge and Other Institutions of Elitism and Power.

‘Deeply personal and generous in its offerings … It portrays recovery as a return, the ebb and flow of the tide, and a distinctly non-linear experience.’ — resting up collective zine‘Ground-breaking, generous and gorgeously written … An essential and utterly unique text, which will enhance your understanding of the connections between disability, addiction, Black feminism, abolition, faith and solidarity.’ — Micha Frazer-Carroll, author of Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health‘Sebatindira’s essays will astonish you. This meditation in spiral crip time weaves disability and black feminism with spirit, justice, memory, recovery and community, evoking the grounded and complex writing of Audre Lorde.’ — Sonya Huber, author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys‘With clarity and skill … Sebatindira explores the new modes of critical analysis that emerge when we stay with the chaos and urgency of active addiction and recovery.’ — Lola Olufemi, author of Experiments in Imagining Otherwise‘Incisive and critical … A much-needed and warmly embraced intervention into contemporary debates on bodily autonomy, political agency and public health.’ — Imani Mason Jordan, trustee of Release

• PlaylistGuka’s Hands, orThe First Time My Hands ShookIntroductionMemory FailuresSober FailuresIs Addiction a Disability?RhythmAmbivalenceA Note on ReligionLonelinessAlcoholics and the Imago DeiA Black Feminist GodShameLove Is a Doing WordAbolitionAccountabilityAfterlifeSarah Is Reading a Poem in theSOAS Students’ UnionAcknowledgementsNotes