WJW Book Club: 2020 Reading List
Many things have looked a bit different with the WJW office working remotely through most of 2020, but the WJW Book Club was able to continue on virtually, with the final meeting of the year occurring in December.
The group meets over lunch for a discussion of the chosen book, and through shared reading and conversation, explores how it may relate back to our work or the communities that we serve through our projects.
On the reading list for this year were two selections:
Disability Visibility : First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century - Edited by Alice Wong, 2019
"One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, others less apparent - but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people.
From Harriet McBryde Johnson's account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors such as Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies too congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love."
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson, 2010
"In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. . . “
We look forward to reading and discussing more in 2021!
