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Amber Husain

Amber Husain is a writer, academic and publisher. She is currently a managing editor and research fellow at Afterall, Central Saint Martins. Her essays and criticism appear or are forthcoming in 3AM, The Believer, London Review of Books, LA Review of Books, Radical Philosophy and elsewhere. She is the author of Replace Me, to be published by Peninsula Press in November 2021.



Articles Available Online


Slouching Towards Death

Book Review

July 2021

Amber Husain

Book Review

July 2021

In January, a preview excerpt in The New Yorker of Rachel Kushner’s essay collection The Hard Crowd (2021) warned us that this might turn...

Book Review

August 2020

Natasha Stagg’s ‘Sleeveless’

Amber Husain

Book Review

August 2020

‘The thong is centimetres closer to areas of arousal,’ writes Natasha Stagg in Sleeveless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York,...

After a while you memorise the steps You read the addresses and your calves just know, hey They just know it’s going to be a long morning   These holiday homes on the steps don’t get a lot of mail The German okes who buy them park in Frankfurt all year and only fly in when winter hits Maar dis altyd mooi in die Kaap, né? Who even buys a house they don’t live in? And houses like these, too Most okes don’t see them, so they don’t even know what they’re like But let me tell you what: if I had one of these, on the beach, jir’, I wouldn’t leave   But, ja, anyway – most of these places don’t get a lot of mail Some municipal stuff, some late Christmas cards that’ll sit in their boxes until next December Sometimes I get these double – sealed envelopes met logos van strange banks al oor geskryf Most of these okes dodge tax, heyThey have to No one has that much money   Some of the okes at the depot are jealous of me They all say, ‘O, Piet, all you have to do is walk around all the laanie houses by the beach all day’ But most of them don’t know Clifton, hey They don’t know how many stairs there are Jirre fok, man, all those stairs Next time you go to Clifton 3rd, count the number of houses you pass on the stairs down Ja, and that’s my that’s my what’s the word? Ja, jurisdiction My route Yoh, they would die in a day if they had my job And like, none – none of these houses have driveways No paths All of these houses are on the steps, going down the cliff No other way in   No, you have to chain your bike to the rails on the side of Victoria Road – ja, chain it with a combination lock because the skollies will take it quick – quick, even a Post Office bike, hey , they’ve got no skaam – then take the stairs down Ja, the stairs Fifty down, fifty

Contributor

November 2018

Amber Husain

Contributor

November 2018

Amber Husain is a writer, academic and publisher. She is currently a managing editor and research fellow at Afterall,...

On Having No Skin: Nan Goldin’s Sirens

Art Review

January 2020

Amber Husain

Art Review

January 2020

The feeling of drug-induced euphoria could be strips of gauze between beautiful fingers. Or a silver slinky sent down a torso by its own...
In Defence of Dead Women

Essay

November 2018

Amber Husain

Essay

November 2018

The memorial for the artist was as inconclusive as her work, or anybody’s life. Organised haphazardly on Facebook by one of her old friends,...

READ NEXT

feature

October 2014

Noise & Cardboard: Object Collection's Operaticism

Ellery Royston

Object Collection

feature

October 2014

The set is made of painted cardboard. Four performers grab clothes from a large pile and feedback emanates from...

poetry

January 2015

Diana's Tree

Alejandra Pizarnik

TR. Yvette Siegert

poetry

January 2015

Diana’s Tree, Alejandra Pizarnik’s fourth collection, was published in 1962, when the poet was barely 26 years old. Named after...

Interview

July 2012

Interview with David Harvey

Matt Mahon

Interview

July 2012

David Harvey is rare among Left academics: his work is as much appreciated by anarchists and the Occupy movement...

 

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