Malaya: Essays on Freedom

(Paperback)

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Out of a harrowing childhood in the Philippines, Cinelle Barnes emerged triumphant. But as an undocumented teenager living in New York, her journey of self-discovery was just beginning.

Because she couldn't get a driver's license or file taxes, Cinelle worked as a cleaning lady and a nanny and took other odd jobs and learned to look over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn't get caught. When she falls in love and marries a white man from the South, Cinelle finds herself trying to adjust to the thorny underbelly of "southern hospitality" while dealing with being a new mother, an immigrant affected by PTSD, and a woman with a brown body in a profoundly white world. From her immigration to the United States, to navigating a broken legal system, to balancing assimilation and a sense of self, Cinelle comes to rely on her resilience and her faith in the human spirit to survive and come of age all over again.

Reviews

A collection of essays extends and expands on the themes introduced in the authors highly regarded memoir, Monsoon Mansion (2018). Barness first book introduced a gifted writer with a compelling story about her life in the PhilippinesA sturdy transitional volume that finds Barnes reflecting on her first and anticipating her next. Kirkus Reviews Barness stirring follow-up to her memoir, Monsoon Mansioncontinues her life story by sharing her life in America while undocumentedBarness story is unforgettable, and highly relevant to 2019 America. Publishers Weekly Malaya, is a book on the uncompromising, unrelenting pursuit of a better lifeto be free of fear and worries. These desires are universal. We are all immigrants in constant quest for freedom. Cinelle Barnes, Filipino American author, inspires with her endurance. But, like all stories, freedom is merely the beginning. For Barnes, life continues. This time, Barnes is ready. Her freedom empowers her. Positively Filipino Malaya is Barness literary path forward, and for the reader, it is literary delight. The essays reflect interwoven threads but each sings with a unique, and effective, styletheres a playfulness of form and chronology that keeps the reader engaged. We are with Barnes when shes scrubbing toilets and working in a laundromat; when shes nannying for a Wall Street family; when shes dodging INS at a hipster cafe in Harlem; when shes navigating white privilege and racism with her in-laws in the Upstate. And in each setting, each essay, through each beautifully crafted line and deftly chosen image, we not only begin to understand her experience better, but our own. Charleston City Paper Cinelle Barnes considers how the chaos and discipline of dance kept the disparate parts of her being stitched together. Longreads The most effective pieces of Barness collection render the personal as political via sharp details and wide lens, such as the essay, Genealogy, which opens with the family history (of white settlers and sons and daughters of the Confederacy) of Barness husband and develops into Barness interrogation of that history via her own personal history of first meeting, eventually marrying into, and forever changing this family. Genealogy is demonstrative of the collections finest qualities and the power of the personal essay to refract the intersections of complex histories, our present moments, and our agency (or lack thereof) therein International Examiner Cinelle Barnes steps into the full power of her voice with Malaya. In this collection of deftly woven and deeply resonant essays, Barnes intertwines past and present as she reflects on the daily realities of those who are undocumented, the healing powers of dance and memoir, and the fears and joys of raising a brown daughter in a country in denial about the depths of its own racism. Told in sharp, luminous prose, Malaya reminds us of how vital this (re)birthing process we call writing truly is. With compassion and conviction, Barnes bears witness to stories that so often go untoldand asserts the possibility of a world where those we love have the freedom to tell their own. Zeyn Joukhadar, author of The Map of Salt and Stars In Malaya, Cinelle Barnes asks the essential question: How do we free ourselves Her essays explore what it means to live authentically as a woman, a person of color, an immigrant, a human being, not in the hands or eyes of others but in her own heart. Barnes tells her story with clarity and honesty and, in doing so, clears a path for the rest of us to follow. Victoria Loustalot, author of Future Perfect: A Skeptics Search for an Honest Mystic, Living like Audrey: Life Lessons from the Fairest Lady of All, and This Is How You Say Goodbye: A Daughters Memoir Im sure many readers of Malaya will focus on words like strength, resolve, and pride, but Im most taken by Barness radical deploying of surrender in these essays. The book is neither solipsistic nor rooted in brittle hope. Instead its a textured meditation on how embodied acceptance and surrender are often the most radical of gestures when it comes to provocative art making. Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir, Long Division, and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America I write because I am the last to remember, Cinelle Barnes tells us in her essay Why I Write Memoir. Malaya is a sensitive, vibrant book that will help so many of us remember and reflect on the stories we shouldnt forget. Barness deft writing crosses gaps in time, understanding, and experience, illuminating important truths about our country and culture while also allowing us to bear witness to her own fight for healing, justice, and belonging. Malaya is a book we need, and Cinelle Barnes is a writer to treasure. Nicole Chung, author of All You Can Ever Know

Author Bio

Cinelle Barnes is a memoirist, essayist, and educator from Manila, Philippines. She is the author of Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir, which was listed as a Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 by Bustle and nominated for the 2018 Reading Women Nonfiction Award. She is also the editor of a forthcoming anthology of essays about the American South by writers of color. Having earned an MFA degree in creative nonfiction from Converse College, Cinelle has written for Buzzfeed, Catapult, Literary Hub, Hyphen, Panorama: A Journal of Intelligent Travel, and South 85, among others. Her work has received fellowships and grants from VONA, Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Charleston Arts Festival, and the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant. Barnes was the 201819 writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, South Carolina, where she and her family live. For more information, visit www.cinellebarnes.com.