Every other week, the Indigenous Solidarity working group coordinators meet to do all of our very important business (and to show off our craft projects, talk about birds, and say hi to each other’s pets). For the last few years, we’ve saved the last 15 minutes of every coordinator's meeting for discussing one chapter of a book we’re reading together.
Book club is one of the ways that we learn about de-colonial practices from Indigenous people, and weave those learnings into our organizing. We talk about what we loved and were challenged by in the text, of course, but we also talk about how it informs the way we want to work together. Our work has changed deeply because of what we read and process together.
But also, it just feels good. Lots of times we read aloud to each other, in person or in voice notes. Sometimes it’s sweet, like when one of us is moved to tears when we’re reading. Sometimes it’s silly, like when we’re gamely trying to pronounce unfamiliar words or scientific terms. Every time we discuss a chapter together, our worlds feel a little bigger.
Book club is a really special part of our meetings, and it’s something we want to share with you.
That’s why we’re starting a book club open to anyone. Once a month for just an hour we’ll meet on zoom to talk about a very short chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. We say “book club,” but we mean more than that — we’ll have a real check-in about how we’re doing, a little book discussion, and then we’ll all take action together.
You can show up however you are on book club day. If you’re exhausted and frustrated, we’ve got you. If you’ve read the chapter three times or you didn’t get around to it, you’re welcome. If you need to be cooking dinner or nursing a kiddo while we chat, that’s totally cool. We just want to see you and spend some time growing together, whatever that looks like each month.
Doesn’t that sound nice?
Our first meeting is on July 14th; here’s your link to RSVP. Order the book from an Indigenous-owned bookstore here, but if you can’t for any reason just let us know and we’ll make sure you get a copy.
See you on July 14th! We seriously can’t wait to hang out with you.
With care,
The SURJ NYC Indigenous Solidarity Working Group