Our next session takes us from Nigeria to New York. Please have a look at Adichies’s beautiful story about an arranged marriage and the main character’s struggle to adapt to her new surrounding. Download the story here 

 

We hope you enjoyed our first Reading-Club session where we were able to share funny moments as well as sad moments. We learned idioms connected with the Covid-19 pandemic and of course…. we had chocolates 🙂

and here’s the interview with the writer.

And here’s the heart-breaking scene, with Sharon Horgan’s monologue about losing a parent to Covid.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, if you have questions or suggestions for future sessions. 

 

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Our Reading Club is back! Please join us on Monday 24th of October to talk about Wolitzer’s beautiful story and maybe we can share some of our weird and crazy pandemic experiences and/or anecdotes»

Hope to see you there! Click here to download the story. 

So you thought we would let you off the hook until September? No way! 🙂

Here’s our summer reading challenge (click on the image below to access the different links):

Dear Clubbers, we would like to invite you to our fourth session which will take place on Thursday 21st of April. There’s war in Europe and thousands of people are fleeing their homes after the attacks. We would therefore like to turn to the power of poetry for inspiration. We will read and create poems about war and refugees.

We will be meeting in classroom 12 at 8 pm.

You can download the poems or watch the recited version on Youtube: 

«Good Bones» by Maggie Smith 

 «They Took your Home from You, Now They Call You Refugee» by Nikita Gill

«Refugees» by Brian Bilston

 

Poems by Rupi Kaur

 

poetry

Did you miss our session on gender? Have a look at our presentation here.

Hi all! Just a quick entry to share with you a short story by Jamaica Kincaid on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Girl

By Jamaica Kincaid

June 19, 1978

 

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum in it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread? ♦

The New Yorker

Click on the image below to check Harper Bazaar’s list of 20 Essential Feminist Books to Read for Women’s History Month.

Dear Clubbers, we would like to invite you to our third session which will take place on Monday 21st of March. The topic for this session will be gender equality and gender identity.  Kate Chopin, an American writer from the 19th century, left us a fascinating story called «The Story of an Hour,» which focuses on women’s search for selfhood, self-discovery and identity.  We will also discuss Ivan Coyote’s stories, which make us reflect on the everyday struggles of non-binary people. 

If you would like to join us, please fill in the form below:

Google Form

We’ll be meeting in the school’s assembly room (Salón de actos) at 20:00. You can download the stories below. We hope you like them!

«The Story of an Hour,» Kate Chopin.

«No Bikini,» Ivan Coyote.

«A Dark Blue Bike,» Ivan Coyote.

 

Last week we had the second session of our Reading Club. We took the opportunity to talk about the causes and consequences of racism in the United States. We also had a look at the different achievements and backlashes throughout its history. We discussed Danielle Evan’s story with a focus on the main character, Claire, whose behaviour and accountability (or lack of it) created a huge conflict. The story shows how small transgressions become unintended acts of damage and defiance and grow out of proportion due to social-media-fueled controversies. We finished the session talking about «Redlining», a discriminatory practice in the United States and Canada by which  neighbourhoods  with a majority of Black residents are marked as risky investment options.  As a result, these redlined areas become underdeveloped while their residents become poorer.

Did you miss this session?  No problem, you can still catch up by having a look at our presentation. Click here. 

Dear clubbers, our second session will take place on Tuesday, 1 February. We’ll be discussing Danielle Evans’s short story «Boys Go to Jupiter»,  a story about friendship and grief that invites us to reflect on racial bias and its devastating impact on our present society. If you would like to join us, please fill in the form below:

https://forms.gle/bh53rfor3C8ySoDS9

We’ll be meeting in the school’s assembly room (Salón de actos) at 20:00. You can download the story below. We hope you like it!

Dear book lovers, thanks for joining us in our first session and sharing your thoughts. It was really interesting and we had a great time! If you would like to have a look at the presentation we used in the session, please click here.

 

Among other topics, we reflected on the fate of young migrants in search of a better future. Just a few days ago, tragedy hit again in the English Channel. Thirty migrants who were looking for new opportunities lost their lives. Sadly, we have become numb to this type of news. Ramon was lucky. He successfully escaped  poverty. However, anxiety and feelings of guilt about leaving his family and his roots made him feel miserable, lonely and isolated.

COMING SOON! Date and topic of our next reading club sesssion. Stay tuned 🙂

Meanwhile, enjoy this powerful, short poem by Indian-Canadian author Rupi Kaur: