Join us at the Bloomsburg Public Library for a ZOOM event.
What if a community committed to reading about a social justice topic and then met to talk about the questions raised?
What would we learn about ourselves our community? What would we do to make it – to make us better?
That is the goal and hope of the annual Bloomsburg Reads event.
Bloomsburg Reads is a collaboration between the Coalition for Social Equity, the United Way of Columbia and Montour County, and the Bloomsburg Public Library
Switching things up in 2022!
This year, instead of focusing on one book, we have selected nine short essays or excerpts.
The multiple texts reflect the diverse experiences of women. Total reading time 1.5 to 2 hours.
Read one, read some, or read all of the selections.
Join us for a one-group conversation! Bring your voice!
ZOOM LINK: bit.ly/BloomRead2022
The event will open at 1:45 pm on January 29.
List of Short Readings
Here is a list of the articles/essays selected for this year’s discussion. They offer a variety of perspectives on Women’s Rights and the promise and shortcomings of feminism in pursuit of them. Some of these articles are decades old and others are current. All, alas, are still relevant. They are listed from oldest to most recent. The approximate reading time is 1.5 to 2 hours to read them all. Please be aware that some of these articles deal with the harsher realities of being a woman including rape, violence, and racism, harassment. Readers should be advised that the latter part of the chapter Gender Neutral With Urinals from Invisible Women: Data Bias in A World Designed for Men contains a brief but graphic description of sexual assault.
Whether you read one of these articles or all of them, you have something to contribute to the discussion. We hope you’ll join us on January 29th and add your voice to those of these wise, brave women.
- In Search of the Self As Hero; Confetti of Voices on A New Year’s Night, A Letter to Myself by Nellie Wong (from This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color, originally published in 1981, edited by Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua)
- Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference by Audre Lord (from Sister, Outsider; Essays and Speeches by Audre Lord, 2007)
- Feminism (n.): Plural and How to be Friends With Another Woman by Roxane Gay (from Bad Feminist; Essays by Roxane Gay, 2014)
- The Trash Heap Has Spoken; the power and danger of women who take up space by Carmen Maria Machado (originally published in the online magazine Guernica in February 13, 2017)
- Preface: The Default Male and Gender Neutral With Urinals (from Invisible Women: Data Bias in A World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, 2019)
- Introduction; Women Rowing North; Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age by Mary Pipher (2019)
- Introduction; Come Closer to Feminism and Our Bodies, Ourselves; Reproductive Rights and Ending Violence by bell hooks (from Feminism is for EVERYBODY; Passionate Politics by bell hooks, 2000)
- Where in the World Are All the Trans Children? Everywhere. By Marlo Mack (published as a Guest Essay in the Opinion section of the New York Times on June 23, 2021)