On Bookclub and Freedom

I was really thankful to start Juneteenth off with New York Writer’s Coalition’s Black Writers Program Juneteenth "Write-In". It was a wonderful opportunity to honor my writing practice, process my many feelings about the holiday (especially now that it’s a Federal holiday…), and reflect on freedom.

The session started with the facilitator reading this poem “Not Everything Is Sex” by Lauren Whitehead. We then had the opportunity to discuss what resonated with us most and then to choose from prompts inspired by the poem and holiday. I selected the prompt “You can’t tell me that’s not freedom.” My thoughts went to the freedom and the joy I feel with the ladies in my bookclub and the fact that that joy is based in a freedom that enslaved Africans were largely prohibited from doing.

In the Beforetimes, we would gather at someone’s house or cram into someone’s Bay Area-sized apartment ostensibly to discuss a book we’d read. We’d spread out in the homes of our friends for hours on end, yes, talking about books, but also:

Eating lovingly prepared food.

Eating thoughtfully purchased food.

Drinking wine.

Drinking more wine.

Reveling in each other’s brilliance.

Brainstorming solutions to colleagues’ microagressions.

Hyping people up for interviews away from aforementioned colleagues.

Recommending hairdressers.

Warning about hairdressers.

And more. 

Always more.

Gathering to celebrate an action previously prohibited to our beloved ancestors.

Gathering because there’s something magical when Black women come together for self-care and co-care.

Kiese asked, “Y’all risked it all for a bookclub?”

Yes. And you can’t tell me that’s not freedom.