PGO Book Club: Exploring Racial Identities
Dear Crocker Farm Families,
We hope everyone is staying cool, safe, and sane. There has been a lot of news about school reopening possibilities in our district, so we hope you are reading our blog and Facebook posts to stay updated.
At the request of an interested parent, the PGO is hosting a book club, beginning in August, to foster dialogue about racial injustices. Our plan is to make this (for-now-virtual) book club a safe space for parents to connect and share their perspectives and experiences on how the current political and racial anxieties are affecting lives. The book club is open to all families who have children attending public school in the district, regardless of what school you are zoned to. The Crocker Farm PGO will purchase six copies of each book for Crocker Farm families. After each title is discussed, we plan to donate the books to the Crocker Farm library, where they will continue to be available to our community. We are hoping that those who are able will purchase their own copies of the books. For logistical reasons, we are trying to find out how many people are interested in participating. If you are interested and committed, please fill out this form.
Below, please see our tentative outline for the book club and the books we are leaning toward purchasing. The first book, picked by the parent who spearheaded the idea for this book club, will be The March Against Fear, by Ann Bausum-Hennion.
Basic Arrangement and Tentative Titles
- Six copies of six titles will be purchased for the 2020-2021 academic year:
- The March Against Fear, by Ann Bausum-Hennion
- This Book Is Anti-Racist, by Tiffany Jewell?
- Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie Glaude
- The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
- TBD
- TBD
- Books will be made available through the Crocker Farm Elementary School library; alternative pickup arrangements will be made for this year.
- Six Book Club sessions will be hosted throughout the school year, one for each title.
- Sessions will officially be held and hosted by the PGO once every two months. These sessions will be on Zoom for the 2020-2021 academic year, and the format will be re-evaluated post-COVID concerns
- Books purchased by the Crocker Farm PGO will be available only to Crocker Farm families.
What Each PGO-Hosted Session Will Look Like
- Each book will have two volunteer facilitators.
- Facilitators will read the books and create discussion questions in advance that will be circulated amongst members at least three days before the date of the book club.
Tentative Timeline for Each Book
- The March Against Fear, by Ann Bausum-Hennion
- Book available in August
- Meeting end of September
- Facilitators: TBD
- This Book Is Anti-Racist, by Tiffany Jewell?
- Book available in September
- Meeting end of October
- Facilitators: TBD
- Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie Glaude
- Book available in October
- Meeting beginning of January
- Facilitators: TBD
- The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
- Book available in January
- Meeting end of February
- Facilitators: TBD
- Book TBD
- Book available in March
- Meeting end of April
- Facilitators: TBD
- Book TBD
- Book available in April
- Meeting end of June
- Facilitators: TBD
This would conclude the book club program for the 2020-2021 academic year. As mentioned above, if you are interested in participating, please fill out this form.
Thank you,
Lexi & Farah
PGO Co-chairs