Read Think Act Ep. 19: Jeremy Tiang on Translations as Violent Phenomena

"Readers (...) can be part of this wider discussion about how translation can do more than just be a so called bridge between languages and cultures, can be more than sometimes a rather extractive colonial process of taking knowledge from one place and bringing it to another without thought of the people who actually produced it."

Welcome to Read Think Act, our video series where writing and activism go hand in hand (or head to head) and we explore the space where they intersect, taking ideas from the pages and into our communities.

For the second video this autumn, it's a tremendous pleasure to feature translator Jeremy Tiang, co-editor, alongside Kavita Bhanot, of the genuinely groundbreaking Violent Phenomena - a collection of essays on translation, colonialism, hierarchies and liberation. It's quickly become a Lighthouse favourite and is on its way to changing the way in which countless readers think about the (everything but smooth and always subjectively informed) journey of a text from one language to another.

Here, Jeremy talks about the origins of the project, new insights and the role of readers as agents in shaping the conversation.

We really can't recommend Violent Phenomena enough! Check it out below. And make sure not to miss Kavita Bhanot taking part in To Speak Freely, as part of this year's Radical Book Fair!