Upcoming Events - The Resilient Activist

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August JEDI Book Club – Good Talk by Mira Jacob @ Online Via Zoom

Tickets

Aug 19 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

For our August 19th JEDI Book Club, we will be reading Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob.

To register, click here to email Anne Melia, JEDI Book Club organizer.

Anne notes: “I read this several years ago, and found it to be a unique and imaginative way to share difficult conversations. Since then, it has been on my list for us to read in the JEDI Book Club. While the content is poignant and heavy at times, the graphic memoir format is a refreshing departure from other books we have read.”

Here is the Summary from Goodreads:

Mira Jacob’s touching, often humorous, and utterly unique graphic memoir takes readers on her journey as a first-generation American.

At an increasingly fraught time for immigrants and their families, Good Talk delves into the difficult conversations about race, sex, love, and family that seem to be unavoidable these days.

Inspired by her popular BuzzFeed piece “37 Difficult Questions from My Mixed-Raced Son,” here are Jacob’s responses to her six-year-old, Zakir, who asks if the new president hates brown boys like him; uncomfortable relationship advice from her parents, who came to the United States from India one month into their arranged marriage; and the imaginary therapy sessions she has with celebrities from Bill Murray to Madonna.

Jacob also investigates her own past, from her memories of being the only non-white fifth grader to win a Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest to how it felt to be a brown-skinned New Yorker on 9/11. As earnest and moving as they are sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, these are the stories that have formed one American life.

Categories: Events sponsored by The Resilient Activist Tags: book club JEDI

Sep

Tue

September JEDI Book Club – That Librarian by Amanda Jones @ Online Via Zoom

Tickets

Sep 16 @ 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

For our September 16th JEDI Book Club, we will be reading That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning In America by Amanda Jones.

To register, click here to email Anne Melia, JEDI Book Club organizer.

Here is the Summary from Goodreads:

Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars.

One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person’s sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves.

Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing. Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike.

Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and Christian. But Amanda Jones wouldn’t give up without a she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance.

Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.

Categories: Event by The Resilient Activist Tags: book club JEDI

August – September 2025 Aug – Sep 2025