Bristol Black Author & Workers Coop Ryan’s Wheels

Solange Burrell urges public to support new book which imagines world without the slave trade.

A black author from Bristol is urging the public to support her book. Solange Burrell, who was born and bred in St. Pauls, has written a stunning fiction book based on the history of the slave trade, which haunts Bristol’s bloodied history. The book is being published by the UK’s first crowdfunding publisher, Unbound, where supporters can pledge to help get the book published. Cassie Waters, Crowdfunding Campaigns Executive at Unbound, said: “We’re very excited to be bringing this project to life. Solange’s writing has caught the imagination of the whole company and we’re proud to be crowdfunding a book that tackles such an important and necessary topic.” ‘Yeseni and the Daughter of Peace’’ was written by debut author Solange Burrell, who grew up in St Pauls, Bristol. Set in 1748, the main character sees horrific visions of life on barbaric slave ship and is encouraged by an oracle to travel through time in order to prevent the transatlantic slave trade from ever taking place. Solange chose to publish with Unbound, to challenge the traditional publishing industry and show that there is a demand for black fiction. Having approached publication previously through the traditional route of literary agents, Solange found that as a black debut author she faced a number of barriers to publication. Solange says: ‘ I remember one [literary agent] saying that she wanted to hear from authors from diverse backgrounds, I got really excited, thinking my book might be exactly what she was looking for, until I read further down where she stated, ‘I don’t necessarily need to hear about your pain.’ Was that a roundabout way of asking for novels from diverse groups as long as they did not contain the issues that the marginalised groups faced?’ While only 2% of published authors and illustrators in the UK are people of colour, and only 5% of people in the publishing industry self-identifying as black African or of Caribbean descent, there is an astonishing lack of diversity in the UK publishing industry. Solange hopes that by crowdfunding her book, she will play a part in changing that statistic. Alongside copies, supporters of the book will also be able to pledge for a range of “add-on rewards”, such as art prints, tote bags and virtual talks. Yeseni and the Daughter of Peace will only be published once it has raised 100% of its funding target. If you would like to support Yeseni and The Daughter of Peace, you can do so via the Unbound crowdfunding page here: https://unbound.com/books/yeseni/

Worker’s Co-Operatives (and handbuilt bicycle wheels!) are the way forward.

In 2013 a team of cycling activists setup Roll for the Soul; a community cafe and bicycle workshop providing repairs, fairly priced fresh food, and a DIY space for local music and events. It grew from the grassroots work of organisations such as St Paul’s beloved Bristol Bike Project.

Whilst RftS is sadly no more their head mechanic – Ryan Downes – set up his own business with the same passion and attention to detail that he always strived for in the past, but this time focusing on just one crucial part of the bike; wheels.

RyanBuildsWheels are now a team of four having grown from a single person’s obsession with the spoked wheel, and between them have over 25 years of experience in the cycling industry. They craft lovingly laced, obsessively perfect handbuilt wheels to the highest quality. Every pair is designed to the suit bike and it’s rider. From ligthweight cross country, deep section carbon, race ready mountain bike, or touring wheels to take you across the globe there’s little they can’t do.

Ryan says “The bicycle wheel is a wonderful object. Many people think that wheelbuilding is a dark art, knowable only to a chosen few, but what I love about them is that once you understand the basic physics that makes them work, their true beauty starts to shine. They work a little like the Clifton Suspension Bridge; as a pre-stressed, tension balanced structure held together by wire [the spokes]. It’s amazing that something so light can be so strong! Building by hand allows us to pick and choose each component part down to the smallest detail to make the best product we can.”

As the business grew it became obvious that Ryan would need help to offer the service that he wanted to customers. Since April 2019 the business has been a fully incorporated Workers Co-Operative, meaning that no one person owns and controls the business and that it’s staff work together to run it. Every member of the the team is paid the same wage regardless of role or when they joined, and decisions about how to operate are made consensually and without a top down power structure whenever possible. “No Gods! No Masters!” says Ryan, “there’s no ‘boss’ here!”

“I don’t believe in making profit from the unpaid wages of workers. That some people are worth more than others is a sick joke. At RyanBuildsWheels we’ve come together to make something that is now so much more than the sum of it’s parts... just like a well built bicycle wheel I guess...now THAT’S beautiful!”