I find myself ripping off a lot of band-aids lately but I guess that’s par the course when
life changes. You can’t control where it takes you and sometimes you hold on to things
a little longer than you should. That was the case with me and being FIYAH’s Reviews
Editors. It is a position I haven’t been able to sustain for a while and after an uplifting
discussion with some of the core staff, I’ve finally decided to admit to myself that I can
no longer maintain it.
We first started doing these reviews out of a need, as most things that blossom out of
FIYAH are, for Black, Indigenous and POC authors to have people speaking on their
work who weren’t white. As we all know, this industry continues to be systemically white
and resistant to change (though change does happen because we fight for it). That
need still exists to some extent, but nowhere near the degree when we first took on this
endeavor. Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and TikTok are flowing with smart, eager BIPOC
readers doing the work of uplifting stories and speaking the truth about books.
I can walk away from this position confident that the baton has not only already been
picked up, but that it’s being held in sprinting hands. Peace, love and light to you all. My
time in this position was a beautiful one and I hope it was of value. Thank you always!
Brent
