Reading Groups

In Short: Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” with Keishel Williams

$45

1 Session

Out of stock

Tuesday, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT April 14, 2026

The Center for Fiction

Registration includes a complimentary drink from our Café & Bar.

Toni Cade Bambara’s fiction is animated by a deep commitment to language as a social force and to storytelling as a form of ethical engagement. “The Lesson,” one of her most widely read short stories, remains a bracing exploration of race, class, and education in America—and a masterclass in narrative voice.

Told from the perspective of Sylvia, a sharp, resistant young Black girl, the story follows a group of children on an outing organized by Miss Moore, whose lesson in economic inequality is as unsettling as it is incomplete. Bambara refuses easy moral resolution, instead constructing a narrative in which tension resides not only in what is taught, but in how—and whether—the lesson is received. This is the exciting part of this story.

This session will examine Bambara’s use of vernacular voice, irony, and narrative restraint, paying close attention to the ways power operates through language, silence, and perspective. We will consider how “The Lesson” implicates the reader in its pedagogical project and why the story continues to provoke debate about education, agency, and consciousness.

Reading List:

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara

What to read in advance of the first meeting: Please read “The Lesson” in its entirety in advance of the first meeting. A PDF of the story will be emailed upon registration.

What to expect from this reading group: Participants will be encouraged to share their interpretations through close attention to diction, voice, and narrative structure. The instructor will facilitate the discussion with guiding questions and brief observations, highlighting passages where Bambara’s stylistic choices sharpen the story’s moral and political force.

Led by

Keishel Williams

Keishel Williams

Keishel Williams is an editor, writer, professor, and book critic with more than 15 years of experience in journalism and literary publishing. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Pushkin, Literary Hub, the Rumpus, World Literature Today, and other leading outlets. In addition to her journalism, she teaches writing at the college level and works closely with fiction and nonfiction authors to edit, shape, and develop their manuscripts for publication. She’s also an editor for Medgar Evers College’s literary magazine, Crown Heights Review.

About this series

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