Burn It Down: Reading Malcolm X in Rochdale

The 100th Birthday of Malcolm X

“Malcolm was a seeker who put the voice of his soul above all outer circumstances.”

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the birth of the man known usually as Malcolm X, and to mark this occasion we at The Siddique Space have decided to try something quite radical for us in that we are going to publish the full text of my auto-fiction piece Burn It Down: Reading Malcolm X in Rochdale. A very short abridged version appeared in the first issue of WritersMosaic Quarterly 10 days ago, inserted as a supplement to The Bookseller magazine, which is the UK’s largest book trade magazine, which is pretty much read by every bookshop and book professional in the country. I celebrated with a very hot cup of black coffee and crisply-toasted buttered crumpets.

A second abridged version appeared last week on the WritersMosaic website (this one around 1500 words, along with an audio recording of me reading that text). While both these are wonderful. The general consensus for those who study such analytics is that maximum reading time for an article online is maximum 10 minutes then the reader has had enough. So Mosaic like so many other online magazines keep the word count below this. I’m sorry but what now? I’m not disagreeing with this fact, but when I read a book I’ll read a few pages, bookmark the page then read some more the next day etc… The need to go to print that allows for a piece to be as long as it needs to be is vital if we are not to shortchange ourselves and our consciousness. The other reason this being a big thing for us is that this is not a Substack or blog piece, it is a fully commissioned, worked on with editors, publication level piece, which even the act of getting it down took me three years. I started it many times, finished versions of it several times, and threw the lot away again and again as I knew that they were good, but they weren’t it. So bellow the paywall for our full subscribers you will find the full 2400 word version - which we hope will one day find a proper home in a book or collection of my auto-fiction.

…and a gentle reminder that you are a reader and supporter here because you are open people who like to be challenged spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually as a reader. I do ask this of my readers and make no bones about it. It okay for things not to be for everyone.

Blessings
John