Launch of the expanded edition of Lugar de Fala fills Espaço Feminismos Plurais in São Paulo

During an evening of book signing and conversation, Djamila Ribeiro welcomed the public to celebrate a new phase of Coleção Feminismos Plurais

Djamila Ribeiro launched the expanded edition of Lugar de Fala (Where We Stand, in English edition by Yale University Press) on the evening of Tuesday, June 9, at Espaço Feminismos Plurais (Plural Feminisms Space) in São Paulo. The gathering also marked the arrival of Coleção Feminismos Plurais (Plural Feminisms Collection) at Rosa dos Tempos, an imprint of Editora Record, opening a new chapter for the editorial project launched in 2017.

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New edition, new publisher

In the expanded edition, Djamila revisits the concept of “lugar de fala” (place of speech) to deepen its political, social, and economic dimensions. The book was revised, updated, and expanded, incorporating new data, intellectual references, and studies developed during her work as a professor at PUC-SP, New York University, and MIT.

The new edition features a foreword by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and an introduction by Grada Kilomba, two essential authors in contemporary debates on feminism, race, coloniality, and knowledge production. The Nigerian writer and the Portuguese intellectual had already participated in the international circulation of Lugar de Fala: Chimamanda wrote the foreword to the English edition, while Grada wrote the introduction to the German edition.

More than relaunching a book, the new edition brings back to the center of public debate a concept that became widely known in Brazil, but that has also been contested, simplified, and, many times, emptied of its meaning. If the first edition faced the challenge of explaining the meaning of lugar de fala, the expanded version responds to a new moment: the need to restore its critical depth.

“Place of speech does not mean that only Black people can discuss racism. The concept is based on the idea that everyone speaks from a social position. The point is not to prohibit topics, but to understand where each speech comes from, which experiences shape it, and which voices are usually legitimized or silenced. We need to expand the debate and bring in these multiple worldviews so that we can enrich ourselves as a society,” Djamila emphasizes.

This perspective also guides Coleção Feminismos Plurais. Created to make debates on race, gender, class, and other forms of inequality more accessible, the collection brings together authors who draw from historically marginalized experiences to dispute narratives and produce knowledge. Espaço Feminismos Plurais symbolizes the development of this initiative, which began with Lugar de Fala and gave rise to the collection.