Changemaker Book Club
On March 1st we launched the Changemaker Book Club in the Studio! If you weren’t part of the conversation we hope you might consider joining us in person at noon on Wednesday, March 22 and April 26 when we continue to discuss the book Change – How to Make Big Things Happen by Damon Centola.
When a book inspires us… haunts us… comforts us… consumes us… or transforms us we want to share those feelings with others. Book Clubs have long been a social space to explore big ideas, and learn intellectually and emotionally as we seek wisdom from books and each other.
The history of Book Clubs is traced back some would say to Socratic Circles in 400 BC but the earliest women invented book clubs revolutionized reading and women’s lives starting in 1634 when Anne Hutchinson, a renowned “badass” brought women together for Bible study. In 1839 journalist, war correspondent and magazine editor Margaret Fuller rallied women “desirous” to answer the great questions “What were we born to do?” and “How shall we do it?” and perhaps in the spirit of changemaking they also asked “What needs to change?”.
Book Clubs were and continue to be thought of as a radical activity, a political tool and a consequence of women being marginalized from other intellectual spaces. And an opportunity to see friends and drink wine! Membership skews to college-educated and middle upper class women and the majority of Book Clubs are same sex. Demographics need to change so everyone can experience the life changing influence of the right words being read, at the right time, especially at life’s pivotal moments!
Oprah Winfrey continued the Book Club tradition in 1996 with the launch of her Book Club defined by Toni Morrison as a “reading revolution”. The “Oprahfication of literacy” became a formula that involved discussing a monthly book selection, sharing personal stories, giving empathetical interpretations of the text and learning from ‘friends’ – both the characters in the books and Club members.
Goodreads, claiming to be the world’s largest community of 40 million book lovers, presents a digital opportunity to “meet your next favourite book” and technology tracks and organizes the books you’ve read or want to.
Participation in a Book Club helps us read more and read what we wouldn’t otherwise pick up to read. In the words of sociologist Christy Craig, “Talking about literature is not only about talking about literature! It is also examining one’s ideas, identities, thoughts and sense of self.”
So come by the Studio for the Changemaker Book Club on the fourth Wednesday of each month!
PS - The Book Club is an in-person gathering, with no virtual option at this time.