Reading Changes Lives
Livestreamed Book Discussions
Promoting Progressive Change
Reading Changes Lives Website | ReadingChangesLives2021@gmail.com | @Odomanian
#ReadingChangesLives | #BecauseTruthMatters | Reading OurStory…together
Why do we read?
Because Black People Matter.
WATCH LIVE CHAT!: Sun., 8/14/22, 4:30 pm ET – Opening Discussion on Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965–2000, by Alice Walker (Author) and Valerie Boyd (Editor) – You are invited to watch the live stream on the The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle YouTube Channel.
Reading OurStory…together
Please join The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle, Session 17 – Wednesdays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm ET, January 11 to May 25, 2022 – on YouTube – as we share our reflections on The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.
To join in the fun, EMAIL: OurBlackStory@gmail.com or find The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle on Facebook or YouTube. #LoveSongs #BecauseBlackPeopleMatter
“The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called ‘Double Consciousness,’ a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.
“Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
“To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.” — HarperCollins Publishers
#LoveSongs
Because All Life Matters.
Reading For Change is currently reading Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., with guest co-host Leon Salter. We began this journey in February, 2022. You may find the live discussions in our video archives.
“Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.” — James Baldwin
“Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s ‘after times,’ argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism.
“In these brilliant and stirring pages, Glaude finds hope and guidance in Baldwin as he mixes biography—drawn partially from newly uncovered Baldwin interviews—with history, memoir, and poignant analysis of our current moment to reveal the painful cycle of Black resistance and white retrenchment. As Glaude bears witness to the difficult truth of racism’s continued grip on the national soul, Begin Again is a searing exploration of the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America.” — Penguin Random House / Crown, Publishers
“Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University and author of Democracy in Black.” — Publishers
The weekly group meets Sundays at 12:30 pm ET via Zoom and YouTube. Readers are welcome to join us in the discussion online or watch the live event or video recordings on YouTube. For more info, contact ReadingForChange2015@gmail.com.
#BeginAgain
Because Real Love Matters.
Where is the LOVE? Revolutionary Love Leadership Series is not currently hosting livestreamed discussions, which means it’s the perfect time to catch up with our Video Archives.
If you would like to help kick start our next book discussion, send us some titles you’re interested in and let’s chat. Contact LoveLeaderLMO@gmail.com.
We’ve read the love letter Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote to his son – Between the World and Me; and Black Male-D, a collection of essays, commentaries and poetry compiled and produced by William S. Peters, Sr. of Inner Child Press. It highlights some of the ways we are not loving each other.
Also, we hosted a single discussion with Dr. Karen A. Johnson and friends, on Driven Toward Madness: The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio, by Nikki M. Taylor. This is the true story of a woman who slit the throat of her toddler daughter rather than have her face a life in slavery.
So the range of what we mean by love is wide!
A Personal Note
I found extreme joy in sharing this virtual space with my son, Din Philip Goldson, Sr., for the kick-off of the Revolutionary Love Leadership Series, in 2015. I am in Brooklyn, NY and Din was living in Germany, where he had been for several years.
Din passed away suddenly on November 14, 2019, at the young age of 35. I never imagined when we were recording these discussions, just four years later, he would be gone. As heartbreaking as that reality is, I am filled with gratitude that we made time in our lives for this activity – and reminded, again, how important it is that we make time for those we love, for tomorrow is not promised to any of us.
Din P. Goldson, Sr., L. Michelle Odom,
Venita Walker & Kim Brandon
Many thanks to Venita Goines Walker, who joined in this series, and as always, added her wide-ranging knowledge, insight, experience, humor and dramatic flair; as well as my new friend, Kim Brandon, who generously shared her piercing perspectives.
Below is a selection from the video playlist, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Series 1 LoveFests. In it, may you find joy.
LMO
#RealLove
Because Truth Matters.
Because Reading Changes Lives.
…and Reading OurStory…together…is fun!
Join us!
Here’s A Previous Episode. Enjoy!
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INVITATION: Sun., 8/14/22, 4:30 pm ET – pg xiii – 33 – Gathering Blossoms – The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle – LIVE
WATCH LIVE, Sun., 8/14/22, 4:30 – 6:00 pm ET, chat on pg xiii – 33 from #GatheringBlossomsUnderFire by #AliceWalker & #ValerieBoyd, on The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle YouTube channel. @simonschuster @JoyHarrisAgency @alicewalkerfilm @moses_geo @johnsonkarenann #BlackTwitter
Keep reading
Watch “Legendary Author Alice Walker Speaks On New Book, Life and Career”
Watch @slomaxreese @OnWurd & @jeannineacook @harriettsbooks @idasbooks talk w/ #AliceWalker on #GatheringBlossomsUnderFire. The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle returns Sun., 8/14/22 at 4:30 pm ET. @simonschuster @JoyHarrisAgency @moses_geo @johnsonkarenann #BlackTwitter
Keep reading
SEE the Reading HerStory of The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle
See links to all books read and playlists of The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle. @moses_geo @johnsonkarenann #BlackTwitter
Keep reading
“Gathering Blossoms Under Fire” by Alice Walker is the Session 18 Selection of The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle
#GatheringBlossomsUnderFire by #AliceWalker & #ValerieBoyd is the Session 18 selection of The Global Black Feminist Reading Circle. Live chats begin Sun., 8/14/22 at 4:30 pm, on YouTube. @simonschuster @JoyHarrisAgency @alicewalkerfilm @moses_geo @johnsonkarenann #BlackTwitter
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Email: ReadingChangesLives2021@gmail.com
Website: Visit the Reading Changes Lives website often, for the latest news and features from our group.
Events: See the Reading Changes Lives Google Calendar for all upcoming events.
Blog: See Book Chat News for the latest invitations, links to upcoming events, agendas and related materials, as well as links to raw videos.
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Reading Changes Lives: All Sessions, Books, Authors, Dates and Playlist Links for All Reading Circles
#BecauseTruthMatters
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A Production of Reading Changes Lives.
Reading OurStory…together
Reading Changes Lives
Because Truth Matters.
Livestreamed Book Discussions Promoting Progressive Change.
Reading OurStory…together
Reading Changes Lives Website | ReadingChangesLives2021@gmail.com | @Odomanian
#ReadingChangesLives | #BecauseTruthMatters | Reading OurStory…together
Reading Changes Lives 