Books

Black joy

Melz wrote a chapter in the book of collected essays from Black British people concerning the embodied topic of Black Joy. Melz wrote a reflection on nature, spirituality and the joy their connection with their ancestors offers them in trying times.

You can purchase the book here

Owusu, Melz. 2021. My Ancestors Whisper in the Trees. Black joy / edited by Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Timi Sotire. Penguin Press: London, pp. 68 – 78.

Undisciplined

Forthcoming with Polity Press, 2024

Abstract: This book grapples with the question of knowledge production and the impact that changing our relationship to the production of knowledge could have on society at large. This is initially explored through looking at what can be considered the centre point of knowledge production in the modern world – and that is the university. The book explores the authors experience of disciplinarity within the university and how that affects the possibilities of knowledge production that can come out of that space. The author then explores how one can become undisciplined within the institution to eventually bring about its necessary demise. The book is grounded in the idea that we cannot just fight and struggle against the expressions of the foundational knowledge system that upholds institutions such as the prison and the university. The book instead argues that the lines upon which we should fight are of knowledge itself, the author sees this as the heart of the struggle for freedom.