{"id":1505,"date":"2026-04-24T15:22:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/?page_id=1505"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:22:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:22:34","slug":"book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1503\" src=\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover-674x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"474\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover-674x1024.jpeg 674w, https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover-197x300.jpeg 197w, https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover-768x1167.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>May 1, 2026 at 9AM Chicago | 10AM New York | 3PM London<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/uchicago.zoom.us\/j\/99652439082?pwd=81c61b1BgrtAmgyNebnvucgz1uObki.1\">Join on Zoom<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed their first issues. With small staffs and shoestring budgets, these newspapers nonetheless became powerful vehicles for the expression of Black political thought. They advanced anticolonial goals through clipping and reprinting articles from a variety of sources; drawing on local ways of speaking; and manipulating photography, comics, and advertising. Such unruly content, James shows, served as a strategic assertion of autonomy against colonial bureaucracy. Yet in the 1950s, this landscape changed as press professionalism became a proxy for a colony\u2019s capacity to govern itself. Influenced by new political paradigms, papers either standardized their formats or stopped publishing altogether. Illuminating an extraordinary period in the history of Black Atlantic political thought, <i>The Moving Word<\/i>\u00a0vividly portrays the power of experimental media.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><strong>Bio:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">Leslie James is Reader in Global History at Queen Mary University of London and the author of <i>George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: Pan-Africanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire, 1939\u20131959.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; May 1, 2026 at 9AM Chicago | 10AM New York | 3PM London Join on Zoom! In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed their first issues. With small staffs and shoestring budgets, these newspapers nonetheless became powerful vehicles for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mc_calendar":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1505","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James - International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James - International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; May 1, 2026 at 9AM Chicago | 10AM New York | 3PM London Join on Zoom! In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed their first issues. With small staffs and shoestring budgets, these newspapers nonetheless became powerful vehicles for &hellip; Continue reading Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1216\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/\",\"name\":\"Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James - International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover-674x1024.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-24T13:22:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Moving-Word-cover.jpeg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":1216},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/\",\"name\":\"International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James - International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/irn-postcolonial-print-cultures.org\/index.php\/book-talk-the-moving-word-leslie-james\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Talk: The Moving Word, Leslie James - International Research Network on Postcolonial Print Cultures","og_description":"&nbsp; May 1, 2026 at 9AM Chicago | 10AM New York | 3PM London Join on Zoom! In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed their first issues. 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