Nadia Owusu: Aftershocks

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"1. Unwelcome Reunion Unwelcome Reunion
When I was twenty-eight, my stepmother Anabel came to New York on vacation. She was living, at the time, in Pakistan, where she worked for a UN agency. At a restaurant a few blocks from my Chinatown apartment, we ate noodle soup and drank red wine. That night, Anabel told me my father did not die of cancer as I believed. He died, she claimed, of AIDS."
Aftershocks are smaller earthquakes that occur in the same general area during the days to years following a larger event or "mainshock."
In her memoir of the same title, Nadia Ouwusu explores what it means to be a nomad, a childhood characterised by loss and distance. We travel with Nadia in a life characterised by contrasts, having no mother and two mothers, having strong roots and none at the same time.
Thematically inspired by the activity an earthquake, Owusu weaves between different chronological events culminating in a week long reckoning with self and history at age 28.
In a powerfully tender conversation, Owusu sat with us to discuss her memoir. A reflection on belonging, grief and reckoning.
Filled with honesty, grace and the joy of recollection, this was one of our favourite conversations this year.
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