The Front Room: Diaspora Migrant Aesthetics in the Home

The Front Room: Diaspora Migrant Aesthetics in the Home, published in 2009, explores the post-war British experience of immigrants, their living spaces, and their position in society during decolonization. It focuses on Caribbean homes but also includes Moroccan, Surinamese, Antillean, and Indonesian migrant groups in Holland. The author examines how the front room, an intimate space within the home, raises issues of class, race, migration, aspiration, religion, family, gender, identity, and alienation. This revised edition includes updated essays, poems, paintings, and discussions of the front room in post-apartheid South Africa and the emergence of sound system culture. It also highlights the cultural significance of artefacts and objects found in front rooms. The book documents the Windrush generation's settlement in Britain and raises questions about our lived experience and notions of the 'home' in the 21st century.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 17 April 2023
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd

The Front Room: Diaspora Migrant Aesthetics in the Home, originally published in 2009, has emerged as a cherished and highly acclaimed source, offering insightful revelations into the post-war British experience of immigrants, the adornment of their living spaces, and their societal position in the context of decolonization. The front room, originating from the Victorian parlor, serves as a platform for addressing the emotions of displacement, exile, and alienation, as well as the process of rebuilding a home in a foreign land. Primarily focused on Caribbean homes, The Front Room also explores the experiences of Moroccan, Surinamese, Antillean, and Indonesian migrant groups in Holland, encompassing various cultural markers expressed through the domestic interiors of migrants through a combination of texts, archival documents, and artistic photographs.

The author delves into the examination of how this intimate space within the home raises profound issues related to class, race, migration, aspiration, religion, family, gender, identity, and alienation. Furthermore, the book situates itself within the context of the author's own family's migrant experience, providing a personal lens through which to understand the complexities of this phenomenon.

This revised edition of The Front Room includes updates of the original essays by renowned social commentators Stuart Hall, Denise Noble, Carol Tulloch, and Dave Lewis, as well as poems by Khadijah Ibrahiim and Dorothea Smartt, and paintings by Sonia Boyce, Kimathi Donkor, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Additionally, it explores the iteration of the front room in post-apartheid South Africa and discusses the emergence of sound system culture from this space, as well as contributing to the rich oral histories from different generations, reflecting on their personal experiences of the front room and examining the artifacts and objects found within them in terms of their cultural significance.

Weight: 868g
Dimension: 231 x 280 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781848225930
Edition number: Revised ed