Racial Justice Book Club
In partnership with the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, YWCA Northeast Kansas hosts a community book club that will feature books written by Black, Indigenous, and people of color. All are invited to participate in monthly meetings to discuss the books and relevant social issues within our community. Discussions will be guided Miranda Ericsson, Readers Librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library.
In 2023, our book club meets online on the fourth Tuesday of every month from 7:00 to 8:30 PM via the online web conferencing platform Zoom. Although it is preferable to have read the book prior to the sessions, please feel free to join even if you haven’t read the book. Stay updated about Racial Justice Book Club information, including receiving the meeting details and monthly Zoom link by clicking on the button below.
Upcoming Book Discussions:
September 26th: Three Girls from Bronzeville, by Dawn Turner
Dawn Turner is a journalist, commentator, and author of two novels in addition to Three Girls from Bronzeville. In this memoir, Turner tells her story as one intertwined with her sister and childhood best friend, growing up as third generation African Americans on Chicago’s South side.
“It’s at once a celebration of sisterhood and friendship, a testimony to the unique struggles of Black women, and a tour-de-force about the complex interplay of race, class, and opportunity, and how those forces shape our lives and our capacity for resilience and redemption.” (Publisher)
Looking for a copy? There are book club copies available at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, as well as an ebook and audiobook on Overdrive. Email Miranda for help checking out a copy of this month’s book club pick.
Quick Links and Further Reading
Looking for more on this topic, or prefer to read and listen to smaller resources instead of reading an entire book? Check out the links below. Whether you read the book, listen to a podcast, or scroll through an article or two, you are more than welcome to join our monthly discussions!
- “Memoir explains how racism and violence impacted ‘Three Girls from Bronzeville'” (Podcast: Fresh Air on NPR)
- “Dawn Turner looks back on her 70s girlhood, and those who got left behind.” (Article: New York Times Book Review)
- “Three Girls from Bronzeville traces divergent paths” (Video: Chicago Tonight on PBS)
| MONTH | TITLE | AUTHOR |
|---|---|---|
| September | Three Girls from Bronzeville | Dawn Turner |
Here are a few of the books on our wish list for 2023
What titles would you add?
View Past Book Club Reads
My Grandmother’s Hands, by Resmaa Menakem (January & February)
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, by Dr. Joy DeGruy (March)
Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese (April)
The Sum of Us, by Heather McGhee (May)
The YWCA Racial Justice Challenge (June)
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum (July)
The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives, Ed. by Viet Thanh Nguyen (August)
Stamped from the Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi (January)
How the Word is Passed, by Clint Smith (February)
First and Only, by Jennifer Farmer (March)
Stand Against Racism Challenge (April)
The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett (May)
The Distance Between Us, by Reyna Grande (June)
The Pride of Park Avenue, by Toriano Porter (July)
Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah (August)
Dear White Woman: Please Come Home, by Kimberlee Yolanda Williams (September)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika Sanchez (October)
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (November)
“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?” by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum (January)
“Mediocre, The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America” by Ijeoma Oluo (February)
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent” by Isabel Wilkerson (April)
“The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives” edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen (May)
“As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock” by Dina Gilio-Whitaker (June)
“The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” by Heather McGhee (July)
“Rising Out of Hatred” by Eli Saslow (August)
“The Whiteness of Wealth:” by Dorothy Brown (September)
“Say It Louder: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving our Democracy” by Tiffany Cross (October)
“Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America” by Maria Hinojosa (November/December)
“White Fragility” by Robin DeAngelo
“How to Be Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
“Chokehold: Policing Black Men” by Paul Butler
“When They Call You a Terrorist: a Black Lives Matter Memoir” by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
“An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
“Healing Politics” by Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
“Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram X. Kendi
“A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law” by Sherrilyn Ifill, Loretta Lynch, Bryan Stevenson, and Anthony C. Thompson
“Citizen” by Claudia Rankine
“We Were Eight Years in Power” by Ta-Nehisi Coates