A Justice and Advocacy Book Group

 

Grab a copy of our current book or a previous one - we try to keep extras available in the Parish Hall - and start reading.  We finish each book with a "souper" discussion on a Sunday evening.  Good soup, good discussion, challenging ideas and new perspectives.

 

This is what we are reading and some of what we have read:

 

During Lent 2025 we will be focusing on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till.  

We'll use two books as our main sources:

The Barn by Wright Thompson 

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy Tyson

with

Simeon's Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till by Simeon Wright and Herbert Boyd

And we are also including some poetry, film and popular media sources for discussion this murder and its ramifications for us all.  

Poetry:

Gwendolyn Brooks:  

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon.

Marilyn Nelson and Philippe Lardy: A Wreath for Emmett Till - written for young readers

An excerpt:

Mutilated boy martyr, if I could,

 Winter 2024/2025 we are reading Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun

 

Social justice work is not always about raised voices and raised fists.  

There are many ways to make change and engage in justice work.  

Come read along with us and see how you too can be part of the change you seek.

We'll gather for a souper and discussion in late January/February

 

 

 

 

Late Fall 2024 we read God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland

 

 

The white fathers told us: 

I think, therefore I am.

The Black Mother within each of us-the poet-whispers in our dreams:

I feel, therefore I can be free.

Audre Lorde

 

 

 

 

Summer 2024 we read James by Percival Everett

 

Think about what friendship and ally ship mean to you and how have you demonstrated that in your personal relationships and how has it been demonstrated to you? 

An interesting article on the subject of friendship from the Huff Post - read it

And this is a link to the PBS Books Readers Club - James is their July discussion book, for more information, https://www.facebook.com/groups/pbsbooksreadersclub 

New York Time Book Review

We will gather for a souper book discussion on Sunday, September 15 at 5pm

 

 

 

 

 

Our second book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of how our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein was discussed as part of our February/March 2024 Lenten series.  It was of special interest to us as Richmond faces an acute shortage of affordable housing and Virginia has systematically defied civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.  

Some good local resources for fair housing advocacy can be found on the Partnership for Housing Affordability website and RISC, Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities website.  Our J&A Team is currently weighing how best we might leverage our capacity in advocacy for housing affordability and availability.

St. Mark's Reads continues the work of racial justice begun during our 150th Anniversary RVA Talks program and Community Reads, a book group shared with St. Peter's Episcopal Church.  This Fall we are reading one of two books about Pauli Murray, and have the third option of watching a video on her life.

Read your choice of Song in A Weary Throat by Pauli Murray, or Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life by Troy R. Saxby. Or watch My Name is Pauli Murray on Prime Video or other streaming sources.

Young adult and children's titles are: Pauli Murray: Shouting of the Rights of All People by Deborah Nelson Link and The History of Juneteenth: A History Book for New Readers by Arlisha Norwood.

We gathered on Sunday, November 12 at 6pm for a Souper and discussion of what we read.