Not your average book club!
All are welcome to join this unique book club, which is a partnership between YWCA Northeast Kansas and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. Program topics are chosen to uplift voices that represent marginalized populations and diverse lived experiences. Participants agree to adhere to a circle discussion model, which provides the opportunity to practice self-reflection and vulnerability in a supportive environment.
Learn. Engage. Act. meets on the fourth Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. (subject to change due to holidays) following a two-month topic cycle. In the first month of our meeting cycle, we will have presentations, activities, and other related items on the agenda. For our second month of the cycle, we will meet to discuss our selected book. Join us on Zoom for these virtual discussions and presentations.
The March/April 2025 cycle will wrap up our book club program for now. Please visit the library event page to discover other book clubs, programs, and exhibits that might interest you!
What we’re reading:
For March and April, our topic is “Sexual Assault Awareness” in honor of April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
On March 24, Dennis Etzel Jr. will lead us in a poetry workshop considering the topic of sexual violence.
On April 28, we will discuss Kansas Speaks Out: Poems in the Age of Me, Too provided by the Center for Kansas Studies.
More about the book:
Kansas Speaks Out: Poems in the Age of Me, Too is a poetry collection featuring poets who are from Kansas, Kansas City or those who have Kansas connections. It strives to speak out against sexual assault and the oppressive aspects of our culture that often leave sexual assault survivors feeling shamed and silenced. This collection serves to affirm survivors, especially in light of #MeToo.
Email us with questions or for a copy of the current book.
Discussion Guidelines ↘
Welcome to our discussion! We’ll be using a circle discussion method, which means we will speak in the same order for each question, giving each person a turn to share without interruption; each person will be allotted the same amount of time per round. You can pass on any round if you prefer to simply hear what others say. To remember whose turn it is to speak, we may pass around a “talking piece” for the speaker to hold.
1. What you share within the context of the group will be honored and respected.
2. Books chosen do not necessarily reflect the position of book club partners or attendees but are offered as an opportunity to hear voices with diverse lived experiences.
3. Use “I” statements; no one speaks for another or for an entire group of people.
4. Avoid critiquing others’ experiences or addressing others’ responses to a question; focus on your own experiences and reflections on the book.
5. Be honest and willing to share.
6. Listen with compassion and approach the reading with curiosity; challenging points can help us identify where we may have room to grow in our understanding of others in our community.
7. In our discussion, we will use one shared definition of racism, provided by YWCA USA. “Racism is a form of racialized community violence (economic, political, cultural, and/or physical) that targets or has disproportionate negative impact upon people of color (POC); when institutional or structural power is premised upon racial stereotype/prejudice or when the use of institutional or structural power maintains or reinforces policies and practices that have a disproportionately negative impact on POC.”
Upcoming Dates and Topics
Previous Reads:
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Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng (January)
The Learning Tree, by Gordon Parks February)
Beautiful Country, by Qian Julie Wang (March)
Racial Justice Challenge (April)
Say It Louder, by Tiffany Cross (Sept/Oct)
The Bodies Keep Coming, by Brian Williams, MD (Nov/Dec)
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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)
Three Girls from Bronzeville, by Dawn Turner (September)
Once I Was You, by Maria Hinojosa (October)
There, There, by Tommy Orange (November)
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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)
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"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)
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"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