Kiba Lumberg
Kiba Lumberg
ROMANI LITERATURE
BOOK
Memesa is a young Roma girl in Finland, quietly observing the world around her—and not liking much of what she sees. In her community, women serve men, have no rights, and accept frequent beatings as part of life. Though still a child, she is quickly growing up and must soon choose: Will she don the heavy velvet skirt—like a black butterfly—and accept her assigned role, sacrificing education, freedom, and happiness? Or will she walk away from everything she has ever known?
Published by Kher, 2024
AUTHOR
© archiv
Kiba Lumberg (*1956) is a Finnish visual artist, writer, and human rights activist of Roma origin. Her work often draws on her childhood within an ultraconservative Roma community, from which she fled at the age of thirteen under dramatic circumstances. Later, she studied music and fine arts in Helsinki. She first gained attention with her TV mini-series Dark and Radiant Blood (1997), set in the Roma world. Her critique of patriarchy and openly lesbian identity earned her the label of an outcast, and even threats to her life. Her installation The Black Butterfly became a symbol of the first Roma pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007.
TRANSLATION
Viola Parente-Čapková
