Are you ready to join a group of autonomous readers who are not only passionate about books but about Black creators, Black representation in media and the relevance of these works to current events and contemporary schools of thought? Join the African American Cultural Center Book Club.
The AACC Book Club’s mission is to promote Black literature and expose critical messages by examining books through different theoretical points of view. The book club is open to all members of the NC State community, from all walks of life. The AACC Book Club invites you to participate and share your unique perspective.
Book selections are guaranteed to be fresh and culturally relevant, with a different critical theory associated with every reading to encourage thoughtful discussions. For each new selection, the book club will provide reading checkpoints and reflection questions in a virtual message board before holding a final “in-person” discussion over Zoom. Over the course of several weeks, book club members will have a safe, respectful space to ponder and reflect about the reading before sharing how the story has impacted them.
The AACC Book Club’s fall semester selection is Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. This dystopian, science fiction novel features Caribbean mythology, class conflict and a coming-of-age narrative, along with bone-chilling descriptions of the horrors that the characters must face due to racial discrimination and the collapse of modern society. The story is one full of constant change, which is why we will be discussing this book through the lens of emergent strategy. Emergent strategy is a theoretical framework for social change in which small interactions result in the complex systems that ultimately shape our world. In a world that is constantly changing in small ways every day, how can we stop and think about our own part in shaping the ways of the world? This is just one of the questions that we will consider while reading.
If you are ready to meet other members of the NC State community and think about Black literature in new and challenging ways, visit the AACC Book Club web page for more information. Before we begin our reading, our first meeting will be held via Zoom at 4 p.m. on Oct. 20. We hope to see you there.
Andie Batt is librarian in the African American Cultural Center; Raincie Comper is a student staff member in the AACC and a second-year student majoring in business administration with a concentration in finance; and Michael Lewis is student staff member in the AACC and a senior majoring in Arabic and political science.