Credit: Charleston Activist Network
Mika Gadsden, the founder of the Charleston Activist Network, recently announced the creation of The Historically Accurate, Anti-Racist Book Club for Charleston, which will host its first online discussion on Tuesday, August 18th.
The first selection is the 2018 book Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts. The New Republic says the book “maps competing memories of slavery from abolition to the very recent struggle to rename or remove Confederate symbols across the country.” It appeared on several accolades including:
Credit: Charleston Activist Network
To sign-up for the book club, fill out this online form. When acquiring your copy of the book, Gadsden asks that you support local retailers and the area library systems (versus Amazon or other national retailers). Some options, including apps, can be see in the graphic to the right.
Gadsden writes on the sign-up form that “this is a Black-led book club that centers the Black experience and prominently features Gullah, Black and Indigenous history and culture. A community agreement will be put in place prior to any book selection discussions. This agreement will aim to mitigate harm directed at any BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) participants in what will, undoubtedly, be a multi-racial online community. The community agreement will be an enforced standard by which this space is governed.”
To stay up-to-date on the book club and Gadsden’s other work, follow the Charleston Activist Network on Facebook and Instagram.