En faire toute une histoire : deuil et militantisme, avec Louisa Yousfi

I hadn't even reached page 50 of Louisa Yousfi's The Great Method when I knew I had to have her on Folie Douce. I was plucked like a ripe cherry with each reading of this text, which is as much a journal as a sacred text, oscillating between the highest spirituality and the smell of burnt coffee in a militant's office the night before a demonstration. Louisa Yousfi is a journalist by training, a decolonial activist, and a writer. Since childhood, she has spent her life "searching for the right word" and seems almost to suffer from "a sophistication of thought that is an inability to simply live." She dedicates her book to her mother, "who wouldn't make a big deal out of it." Having shaken up the world of political essays with her first book, Rester barbare (2022), she here embraces the grief of losing a father and a funeral journey to Algeria that evokes both family and colonial history. With Louisa Yousfi, we talk about the impending catastrophe, fascism, war, what it's like to raise two Arab boys in a world she "has no faith in," and the transmission of struggles, just as her father passed on the word "Palestine" to her, with its power and magic. She says she feels like she's "competing" when she has to explain her creative process to the media. But she speaks so eloquently of her writing process as a "spiral around a place" that is "a great secret, a silence, a void," around which one must dance. She prefers to politicize what others would describe as psychological and proposes confronting the darkness of the future "as a great ordeal one faces holding one's breath," rather than approaching it as "small, fragile, and vulnerable monads." Perhaps this is her Grand Method. Enjoy listening and share widely on social media, comment and like to help Folie Douce spread! Photo: Anthony Francin/La fabrique éditions ---- Pssst! Want to listen to Folie Douce ADS-FREE and the day before each episode is released? Then subscribe to La Douceur, my newsletter about gender, culture, and mental health on Substack. Every week, you'll receive exclusive articles, mental health tips, a press review, tons of book recommendations, and a forum where we share tips and kind words! It costs €5 per month or €50 per year. Come join us! I'll be waiting for you! Lauren And if you'd like to pre-order my book, Enfin seule (Finally Alone), which comes out on September 18th, click here! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a star rating and subscribe! Join our community on Instagram. Folie Douce is available for free on all platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, PodcastAddict, Amazon Music... Folie Douce gives a voice to artists, activists, and thinkers to explore their mental health journeys in light of their artistic or political work. This podcast aims to bring forth first-person narratives. The statements of its guests are not intended as expert opinions. The term "madness" is used here to challenge the stigma and reclaim an identity that is usually imposed and marginalized. In case of mental health distress, please call 3114. Folie Douce is a show produced by Lauren Bastide. Theme music: Lauren Bastide and Marion Emerit, with music composed by Irma. Editing and mixing: Marion Emerit. Programming and coordination: Marie Laurence-Chérie. Partnerships: The Podcast Bureau / [email protected]