Emblematic Elusions is an educational chapbook series portraying how African filmmakers redefine the Black form in the visual field from the wounded signifier to an embodied vessel for liberation. Each edition presents a film essay analyzing a significant Black African movie.


Edition I
Edition II
Edition III
                               
Special Edition IV


A focus on the question of Eros in African cinema provides an intuitive opening for larger discourses on the erotics of history, (post)colonialism, migration, diaspora, socio-economic dynamics, and (post)nationalism. African auteurs [re]position the nude Black female form from a wounded canvas to challenging, exposing, sensitizing, and healing the qualms of the African societies these films represent. Considering the historicity of visual consumption of the nude Black body, the series centers the power of the moving image to bridge the dialectics of visual pleasure and sexual pleasure. Indeed, “African culture is more discreet, less externalized, more modest and restrained. Every disclosure of the matter is a violation of the matter. In this sense, cinema is transgression.” (Folly, 1996) Considering cinema’s inherent ability - and burden, to an extent - of making matter seen- such a dichotomy allows for complex yet invigorating discourse.



Stockists


 AFRICA  


Chimurenga
Cape Town, South Africa

Esmat Publishing
 Cairo, Egypt

Paper Café
Nairobi, Kenya




NORTH AMERICA  


Anteism Books
︎Publishing House & Bindery
Montréal, QC

Charlot Abhors A Void
Manhattan, NY

Human Relations
Bushwick, BK

Maine College of Art (Joanne Waxman Library)
Manhattan, NY

Metropolitan Museum [Thomas J. Watts Library]
Manhattan, NY

Printed Matter
Manhattan, NY

READ Books - Emily Carr University
Vancouver, BC

Ulises Books
Philly, PA




 AUSTRALIA  


Booktopia
Sydney, Australia

Dicksmith
Melbourne, Australia

The Nile
Melbourne, Australia

 EUROPE  

Ad Libris
Stockholm, Sweden

Antenne Books
︎ UK & EU Distributor
London, UK

Ark Bokhandl
Oslo, Norway

Artwords Bookshop
London, UK

Barbican Centre
 London, UK

Blackwell’s
London, UK

Bookshop.cz
Vesce, Czech Republic

Eyefilmmuseum
Amsterdam,  Netherlands

Hordaland Art Centre
Bergen, Norway

magCulture
London, UK

Magma
London, UK

Tenderbooks
London, UK

Transplantation Project
Paris, FR

Unique Magazines
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Waterstones
London, UK

Wook
Porto, Portugal

Yvon Lambert
Paris, FR


ASIA


BooksWagon
New Delhi, India


As Exhibited during...


Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair
May 2025
Los Angeles, CA

Black Zine Fair
May 2024 - May 2025 - May 2026
Brooklyn, NY

Book Arts Solidarity Network
Brooklyn Art Book Fair
September 2024
Brooklyn, NY

Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair
April 2024
Manhattan, NY

MissRead
October 2024
Berlin, Germany

Artch Festival 
October 2024
Montréal, QC

Press Play Book Fair
December 2024
Brooklyn, NY