Greetings. How’s your heart?
I’ve been keeping busy behind the scenes here at FemmePowered. This platform has opened up many opportunities for me and I am taking advantage of them all. I’ve recently been doing some speaking and teaching and I’m really humbled by it all. I’m having a lot of fun, too. The downside of this is that I am not able to post here as often as I’d like, but I suppose we can’t have it all:)
I want to let you know that I am relaunching the book club that I started last year. No longer the Sip N’ Chat Book Club, it’s now called the Coffee & Conversations Book Club.
I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me in the past year to ask if I could start back up the club. I also had folks ask me if I would consider a more central location. I agreed to both. The book club is no longer being held at the Grenada Community Library but at The Connection. As you may know, most of my events are held at the Connection. They are a big supporter of FemmePowered and Sue, the manager, is ever so helpful. Located on the Kirani James Blvd., upstairs the Gleans Garage Building, The Connection is on the main road and easily accessed by bus. For drivers, parking is also readily available. The new time will be from 4-6 pm the second Saturday of every, and the first meeting of the club is September 8, 2018.
For the month of September, we will be reading the book Big Island, Small, by Maureen St. Clair. Maureen is a local author, peace activist, and an artist. Her book is the winner of the 2016 Beacon Award for Social Justice Literature and the 2015 Atlantic Writer’s Competition.
Big Island, Small is a story of intimacy and friendship between two Caribbean/Canadian women with similar, yet vastly different, backgrounds who must dismantle their assumptions and biases around race, class, gender and sexuality in order to make amends with violent pasts, release shame, find joy and reconnect with themselves and each other.
Sola is confused the first time she sees Judith, a fair-skinned woman with dreadlocks dancing to reggae music. Meeting her gaze, Judith thinks Sola is judging her for appropriating Black culture. A few days later, up against an interlocking fence, Judith kisses Sola. Onlookers hurl stones and racial and gay slurs. Thus begins the complicated friendship between Judith and Sola who live in between the land they were born, the Caribbean, and the land where they presently live, North America.
Maureen’s book can be found at Art & Soul Bookstore, at Amazon, or by reaching out to her. She will also be at the book club launch to do a reading and answer questions. Registration for the book club is free, and attendance per meeting is a contribution of $5. This helps cover the cost of the light refreshments and tidying of the space after use.
To register please sign up below. If you wish to get in touch, send me an email on email@femmepowered.org.
Leave a Reply