Reading Groups

The Stories and Secrets of Women of Color with Regina A. Bernard

4 Monthly Sessions Wednesdays, 6:00 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT June 30 to September 29, 2021

Online via Zoom

The ‘With Books’ option includes all titles required for this group at a 15% discount.

Meeting Dates:
6/30, 7/28, 8/25, 9/29

Why do we keep secrets? What makes the stories of women of color feel like secrets we shouldn’t repeat but that we must tell or at the very least . . . ones that we must know? Across a series of four sessions, we will spend time together examining the many sides of feminism, love, life, grief, joy, family structures and strains, depression, and trauma alongside the interwoven stories told by women of color. We will devour the secrets of the body used in various ways, and in particular how we read the body as text and consider it as a central part of the narrative. We will also explore how place (New York, Trinidad, etc) plays a role in the stories and secrets of complex women of color who must navigate history, race, and gender as part of their identity. We will look at the devastation of family secrets and the hidden traumas of how our bodies and minds deal with our place(s) among those lies. Finally, we will close out our sessions by thinking beyond this life, and what stories and secrets we might consider leaving behind.

Session I: Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed
Session II: These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
Session III: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Session IV: Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

Led by

Dr. Regina A. Bernard

Dr. Regina A. Bernard

Dr. Regina A. Bernard is a writer and Associate Professor of undergraduate Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College (CUNY), and a member of the doctoral faculty in Urban Education at the Graduate Center (CUNY). She has written three books on black and brown feminism, black studies, and Nuyorican Organic Intellectualism. She has also published articles for the Journal of Pan African Studies, Small Farms Quarterly, We Need Diverse Books Blog, and elsewhere. Alongside her teaching and community work, she has also made a film about food as a vehicle through which to understand Caribbean culture and feminism. She is currently at work on several creative projects.

About this series

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Whether you’re looking to catch up on great novels or you’re interested in exploring a new writer or literary period, our reading groups offer high-level literary discussion led by experts in the field.

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