Inventing BE: A Memoir and Manifesto

Fiercely courageous and exhilarating, Inventing BE depicts the life and time travel of Dutch designer, architect and Alinker walking bike founder, BE Alink.

"Inventing BE is a story a person finding their oneness in community with others. Yet, it is a deeper story of how to (re)create ways of being with/as each other that can heal us, while dismantling social structures that seek to separate us from our authentic selves and from each other. Inventing BE shows us the joy in connecting and it is only through connection that we can be free."

-Dr. Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, author of Decolonizing Design: a Cultural Justice Guidebook, and Lead Executive Officer, Dori Tunstall, Inc.

Growing up in the Netherlands, BE had no language for what she felt about her being. How traditional society-including family members and teachers-viewed her did not align with how she experienced herself from a very early age. In the stirring trenches of international humanitarian work across continents, BE discovered herself in places torn apart by volatile crises like Afghanistan, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Indonesia, positively affecting many others along the way. BE has seen sights and peeked beneath oppressive systems most wouldn't dare. In the process, she learned that to live a rich life, one had to confront the darkness of humanity to turn on the light of true freedom-in mind, body and spirit. Inventing BE is both memoir and manifesto dedicated to anyone who has ever had to conform or compromise their authentic self. You are never alone, and in the strangest, most far-flung places, you may be right at home.