Black ButterFly

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The Black Butterfly dissects American apartheid with unflinching precision and poignancy, weaving together fresh historical accounts with undiluted analysis of our present moment. Beautifully written and hauntingly evocative, Black Butterflies distils into a single consciousness a nation’s violent trauma and an artist’s sense of hope. Set in 1992 Sarajevo, Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris is a harrowing (fictional) account of the first year of the Siege as seen from the perspective of fifty- five year old painter and Professor of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts , Zora Kočović, a civilian trapped in the war-torn city that has always been her home.

The book gives history to why the city looks the way it does now through various policies and lived traumas that current policies continue. When even the haven of her studio is taken away from her, she’s reduced to the bare bones of existence, with just a few beloved neighbours to keep her spirits up. Not only are the root causes and resulting policies described, but in the final chapters, Brown offers concrete solutions—based on Baltimore, but these solutions could be extrapolated to other cities.Although we all absolutely play an important role in dismantling racism, it is my hope that the leaders tasked with signing legislation related to redlined communities step up to make these critical changes. Zora, a middle-aged painter, has sent her husband, Franjo, and elderly mother off to England to stay with her daughter, Dubravka, confident that she’ll see out the fighting in the safety of their flat and welcome them home in no time. When the fighting starts (1992), Zora’s mother and husband flee to England, leaving Zora in Sarajevo.

We see Zora, the artist, as she continues to paint and to teach art, until her workplace is destroyed and her art takes on a different form. Morris is interested in the everyday practicalities of living in a war zone – how to eat, sleep and stave off boredom – and her unassuming prose reflects that. Dark and yet starkly beautiful, Black Butterflies is a narrative of how violence scars the soul of a city and its inhabitants.The human interest element revolves around a talented painter, and her fascination with the bridges of Sarajevo (Goats bridge in particular) is well described. While the book focused primarily on Baltimore I have no doubt that the theories and legal practices are pervasive in other communities of color that face the same racial injustices.

The author focusses on the experiences of those surviving in the part of Sarajevo that was under attack by the Serbs. Born to a Bosnian mother and a Cornish father, I grew up mostly in London, spending childhood summers in my mother's hometown of Sarajevo. The residents of Zora’s apartment building stuck together and supported each other revealing their resilience and love for their community as they painted, sang and watched out for one another. Don’t forget to join Doors Open Baltimore for Mapping Baltimore Apartheid, a zoom webinar presented by Dr.I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and read Spanish, Italian and Social Anthropology at Cambridge University. The sky is cerulean blue until it dims to black, with the shelling and devastation of innocent lives lost, historic buildings demolished, books and papers blown by the wind.

A few years after the event/s I became quite obsessed with the rolling wars that brought about the end of the former Yugoslavia, and read about it voraciously, but it was always the siege of Sarajevo that made my heart hurt the most. Books like analyze problems in new ways and give me hope that somebody has a solution-based approach, not just a convenient opinion. Sarajevo’s people continue to fight against the seeds of division that the conflict tries to sow (there are some of course, who hold radical views, too). While things are difficult and there are small obstacles she must face, Zora begins to enjoy the solitude and the chance it gives her to engage in her painting. She has to spend Christmas break alone at the Black Butterfly, an old inn at the coldest, bleakest edge of America--the coast of Maine.i'm rambling but i recommend this overall if it's something that sounds interesting to you (maybe not so much if not)! All but one city council member voted for the bill…Even after a superbly written equity assessment, the Baltimore City Council failed to block a discriminatory tax credit bill and ensure racial and spatial equity would be implemented in the city’s tax policy. As a reader, characters and dialogue are my two biggest interests so, unfortunately, this fell a bit flat. I recently moved to Baltimore and this was on my list for quite a bit, so I am stoked to check if off.