SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

Vanities/Style

More from Adichie on fashion, politics, and writing at VF.com.

A novelist designs a pendant with a purpose

"We're living in a time in which I feel a sense of urgency," says Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Nigerian author of Americanah and the viral 2012 TEDx Talk "We Should All Be Feminists," a slogan that has reverberated its way into a Beyonce song and onto tote bags and Dior T-shirts. This month, she has again merged personal aesthetics with political values, in a collaboration with the fine-jewelry brand Foundrae: all of the retail proceeds from her "Freedom of Expression" medallion, which employs Foundrae's signature lexicon of dainty symbols, will benefit PEN America, a nonprofit that promotes the intersection of literature and human rights. "I used to joke, many years ago, Thank God for PEN, because if the Nigerian government ever throws me in prison at least somebody will care," says Adichie. Today, she's savoring Edith Wharton novels and spending time with her daughter to combat the constant barrage of outraging news. As she says, "our time here is short and we need to make the mOStofit."

KEZIAH WEIR

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