We close out our year in June with Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. In Hunger, Gay explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our May read is Jennifer Lewis’s memoir The Mother of Black Hollywood. Lewis, the “Mega Diva” and costar of the hit sitcom black-ih, bares her soul in this touching and poignant—and at times side-splittingly hilarious—memoir of a Midwestern girl with a dream, whose journey took her from poverty to the big screen, and along the way earned her many accolades.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our April read is Jayne Allen’s Black Girls Must Die Exhausted: A Novel for Grown-Ups. “Black girls must die exhausted” is something that 33-year-old Tabitha Walker has heard her grandmother say before. Of course, her grandmother (who happens to be white) was referring to the 1950’s and what she observed in the nascent times of civil rights. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, Marc-- a “paper-perfect” boyfriend, and a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, Tabitha never imagined how this phrase could apply to her as a black girl in contemporary times – until everything changes.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our March read is Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. This is the first of Butler’s EarthSeed novels, which follow Lauren Oya Olamina as she confronts a corrupt and broken world and sets out to invent a new way for people to live.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our February/Black History Month read is Yaa Gyasi’s Home Going. A winner of the PEN/ Hemingway Award, winner of the NBCC's John Leonard Award, a New York Times Notable Book, and a Washington Post Notable Book - among other awards - Home Going is the story of two half-sisters born in 18th century Ghana. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our January read is Walter Mosley’s John Woman. A convention-defying novel by bestselling writer Walter Mosley, John Womanrecounts the transformation of an unassuming boy named Cornelius Jones into John Woman, an unconventional history professor―while the legacy of a hideous crime lurks in the shadows.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our December read is Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie - Bridget Jones’s Diary meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political, and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Our November read is Oyinkin Braithwaite’s My Sister, The Serial Killer, a short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Woke & Well-Read invites you to a showing of Ava DuVernay’s documentary “13th.” Our September showing was held up by a missing cable, so we’re repeating the showing (with missing cable, we’ve double-checked now)

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm. Read more about us and see our full year’s schedule.

Philadelphia Moms Demand Action is bringing their first book discussion of the fall to Big Blue Marble Bookstore. They’ll be discussing Shannon Watt's "Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World." There will be a light fair and drinks.

RSVP here

The group will return on Wednesday, November 13 at 6:30 pm when they’ll host the editors of IF I DON’T MAKE IT, I LOVE YOU: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shooting.

Moms Demand Action is part of Everytown for Gun Safety

Our October read is Charles M. Blow’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, a pioneering journalist’s indelible coming-of-age tale. This searing memoir was A New York Times Notable Book, a Lambda Literary Award Winner, and was long-listed for the PEN Open Book Award.

Woke & Well-Read is going into our third season this fall, facilitated by Tiffany Foxworth. The group meets the 3rd Wednesday of each month, from 7 – 8:30 pm.

Woke & Well-Read will look at life through the eyes of African American authors. We will explore some of the legendary greats as well as contemporary favorites and writers who are up-and-coming. Our space will be open and respectful and also unafraid of the heated passions that arise when confronting issues faced by African American communities. The book club is open to everyone, and rooted in Black culture. We welcome diversity because we know that diverse ideas can birth fresh answers. The group expects that some of the books we read will challenge our understanding of our histories, some will explore popular topics in African American communities, and some will make us laugh heartily.

Join The Body is Not an Apology Book Club as we discuss Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker.

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club is a place to explore the world of the body in its broader social and communal worlds. Our approach is based in Body Liberation - we celebrate the bodies we have with pride and curiosity and love. We explore topics such as fat liberation, disability, race and racism, and aging.

Hosted by Melanie Jones, founder of “You Don’t Have to be Teeny to be a Yogini”, a gentle modified approach to yoga that celebrates all body types. www.abundantyogini.com.

We take our inspiration and name from Sonya Renee Taylor’s book and social movement. Find out more!

We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.

Join The Body is Not an Apology Book Club as we launch into reading The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. For July we’ll be reading Sections 3 & 4.

We chose this book because those of us who have faced what Sonya Renee Taylor labels “body terrorism” grow up with trauma contained in our bodies. Those learning to label and locate those traumas is hard work, doing so can liberate ourselves, each other, and our broader society. Join us as we dive in, together!

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club is a place to explore the world of the body in its broader social and communal worlds. Our approach is based in Body Liberation - we celebrate the bodies we have with pride and curiosity and love. We explore topics such as fat liberation, disability, race and racism, and aging.

Co-Hosted by Elliott batTzedek and Melanie Jones. Elliott is Events Coordinator for Big Blue Marble. Melanie is Founder of “You Don’t Have to be Teeny to be a Yogini”, a gentle modified approach to yoga that celebrates all body types. www.abundantyogini.com.

We take our inspiration and name from Sonya Renee Taylor’s book and social movement. Find out more!

We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our June read is the memoir We Are Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union,  a powerful collection of essays about gender, sexuality, race, beauty, Hollywood, and what it means to be a modern woman. In this moving collection of thought provoking essays infused with her unique wisdom and deep humor, Union tells  astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards, and competition between women in Hollywood, growing up in white California suburbia and then spending summers with her black relatives in Nebraska, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet the third Wednesday of each month.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Join The Body is Not an Apology Book Club as we launch into reading The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. For June we’ll be reading Section Two.

We chose this book because those of us who have faced what Sonya Renee Taylor labels “body terrorism” grow up with trauma contained in our bodies. Those learning to label and locate those traumas is hard work, doing so can liberate ourselves, each other, and our broader society. Join us as we dive in, together!

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club is a place to explore the world of the body in its broader social and communal worlds. Our approach is based in Body Liberation - we celebrate the bodies we have with pride and curiosity and love. We explore topics such as fat liberation, disability, race and racism, and aging.

Co-Hosted by Elliott batTzedek and Melanie Jones. Elliott is Events Coordinator for Big Blue Marble. Melanie is Founder of “You Don’t Have to be Teeny to be a Yogini”, a gentle modified approach to yoga that celebrates all body types. www.abundantyogini.com.

We take our inspiration and name from Sonya Renee Taylor’s book and social movement. Find out more!

We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.

Join The Body is Not an Apology Book Club as we launch into reading The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. For May we’ll be reading Part One: The Rediscovery of Trauma.

We chose this book because those of us who have faced what Sonya Renee Taylor labels “body terrorism” grow up with trauma contained in our bodies. Those learning to label and locate those traumas is hard work, doing so can liberate ourselves, each other, and our broader society. Join us as we dive in, together!

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club is a place to explore the world of the body in its broader social and communal worlds. Our approach is based in Body Liberation - we celebrate the bodies we have with pride and curiosity and love. We explore topics such as fat liberation, disability, race and racism, and aging.

Co-Hosted by Elliott batTzedek and Melanie Jones. Elliott is Events Coordinator for Big Blue Marble. Melanie is Founder of “You Don’t Have to be Teeny to be a Yogini”, a gentle modified approach to yoga that celebrates all body types. www.abundantyogini.com.

We take our inspiration and name from Sonya Renee Taylor’s book and social movement. Find out more!

We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our May read is the novel-in-verse The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. When she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet the third Wednesday of each month.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our April read is Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, a book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet the third Wednesday of each month.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Join The Body is Not an Apology Book Club for a watch party of the new Hulu series "Shrill," based on the memoir by Lindy West.

We'll bring the show and the popcorn - feel free to bring other snacks if you like.

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club is a place to explore the world of the body in its broader social and communal worlds. Our approach is based in Body Liberation - we celebrate the bodies we have with pride and curiosity and love. We explore topics such as fat liberation, disability, race and racism, and aging.

Co-Hosted by Elliott BatTzedek and Melanie Jones. Elliott is Events Coordinator for Big Blue Marble. Melanie is Founder of “You Don’t Have to be Teeny to be a Yogini”, a gentle modified approach to yoga that celebrates all body types. www.abundantyogini.com.

We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our March read is the novel The Untelling by Tamari Jones. Aria is no stranger to tragedy -- as a young girl, she and her older sister and mother survived a car crash that took the lives of their father and beloved baby sister. And although relations with her remaining family are strained, she's done her best to establish a solid, normal life for herself.
But now she has a secret that she's not yet ready to share with Dwayne, her devoted boyfriend, or Rochelle, her roommate and best friend: Aria is pregnant. Or so she thinks. The truth is about to make her question her every assumption and reevaluate the life she has worked so hard to build for herself.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet the third Wednesday of each month.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club is a place to explore the world of the body in its broader social and communal worlds. Our approach is based in Body Liberation - we celebrate the bodies we have with pride and curiosity and love. We explore topics such as fat liberation, disability, race and racism, and aging.

We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month at Big Blue Marble Bookstore.

Our March selection is part 2 of Eli Clare’s “Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation.” In this extended chapter Eli looks at the history of the sideshow/freak show, the complications of Crip Politics, and the deep power that comes from loving the body you live in.

Our April selection will be "Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass" by Lindy West

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our February read is the 2019 One Book/One Philadelphia selection, Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing. Jesmyn Ward’s historic second National Book Award–winner is “perfectly poised for the moment” (The New York Times), an intimate portrait of three generations of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. “Ward’s writing throbs with life, grief, and love… this book is the kind that makes you ache to return to it” (Buzzfeed).

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our February read is the 2019 One Book/One Philadelphia selection, Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing. Jesmyn Ward’s historic second National Book Award–winner is “perfectly poised for the moment” (The New York Times), an intimate portrait of three generations of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle. “Ward’s writing throbs with life, grief, and love… this book is the kind that makes you ache to return to it” (Buzzfeed).

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

On Wednesday January 16, members of The Woke & Well Read Book Club will be attending the One Book/One Philadelphia opening event with author Jesmyn Ward. This event begins at 7pm in the auditorium of the Free Library.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our January read is the novel The Wedding by Dorothy West. In her final novel, Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class.  Set on bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's black bourgeoisie.  Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our December read is the memoir Becoming by Michelle Obama. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, she invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our December read is the memoir Becoming by Michelle Obama. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, she invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club

a shared project of Big Blue Marble Bookstore and Springboard Studio

The Body Is Not an Apology Book Club
a shared project of Big Blue Marble Bookstore and Springboard Studio

The Body is Not an Apology Book Club is being organized by Melanie Jones, Fat Activist and Certified Abundant Yoga Instructor, and Elliott batTzedek, poet, activist, and Events Coordinator at Big Blue Marble. Through reading and discussion, we intend to support, educate, and share issues about combating body terrorism, including fat hatred, ageism, and the devaluing of disabled/differently abled bodies.

We take our inspiration from The Body is Not an Apology Movement, an international radical self-acceptance movement started by Sonya Renee Taylor. The group is committed to cultivating global Radical Self Love and Body Empowerment that believes discrimination, social inequality, and injustice are manifestations of our inability to make peace with the body, our own and others.

Our book club will be meeting the third Thursday of every month at 8:15 pm at Springboard Studio, 530 Carpenter Lane, Philadelphia. The book club will directly follow Melanie’s weekly modified yoga class “You Don’t Have to Teeny to Be a Yogini.” The club is free and open to all – the yoga class, should you want to attend, is $18/session.

Books will be available through Big Blue Marble Bookstore, 551 Carpenter Lane. Each month’s selection will be 10% off.

We’ll be alternating fiction and nonfiction, and bringing an intentional diversity of voices!

August 16 "Hunger" by Roxane Gay

September 20 "The Body is Not an Apology" Chapters 4 &5

October 18 "Exile and Pride" by Eli Clare, part 1

November 15 "Exile and Pride" by Eli Clare part 2

December - no meeting

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd year at Big Blue Marble! Our November read is the memoir Buck by M.K. Asante - a coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: his mother a dancer, his father a revered professor. But as a teenager, MK was alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, swept up in a world of drugs, sex, and violence. MK’s memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books. It is an inspiring tribute to the power of literature to heal and redeem us.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union

Please join the Woke & Well-Read Book Club in our 2nd:year at Big Blue Marble! Our November read is the memoir Buck by M.K. Asante - a coming-of-age story about navigating the wilds of urban America and the shrapnel of a self-destructing family. MK Asante was born in Zimbabwe to American parents: his mother a dancer, his father a revered professor. But as a teenager, MK was alone on the streets of North Philadelphia, swept up in a world of drugs, sex, and violence. MK’s memoir is an unforgettable tale of how one precocious, confused kid educated himself through gangs, rap, mystic cults, ghetto philosophy, and, eventually, books. It is an inspiring tribute to the power of literature to heal and redeem us.

Woke & Well-Read explores life through African-American eyes, and is open to all. We meet two nights each month - the discussion is the same, and even more people can attend.

2018 - 2019 Reads

November 13/14  “Buck” by  M.K Asante

December 18/19  “Becoming” by  Michelle Obama

January 15/16  “The Wedding” by  Dorothy West

 February 19/20  “Sing, Unburied, Sing”  by Jesmyn Ward

 March 19/20 “The Untelling” by Tamari Jones

April  16/17  “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 May 14/15 “The Poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo

June 18/19  “We are Going to Need More Wine” by  Gabrielle Union