Reading Together: The Summer 2021 Read-Along
“If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.”
Nikki Giovanni
Let’s “read to each other” then like Mama Nikki says! Welcome to our Summer 2021 Read-Along! Inside the magic of Garden world, we can read to each other, read with each other, read alongside each other…all summer long!
This summer’s read-along journey is an experiment in nurturing more soft-time, offline interactions within our congregation. How can we still be together, while still also being wherever we are, doing whatever else we’re doing? Just like the Garden creates whole worlds for us to live into and meet one another, no matter the realities of life at any moment, reading books as a community facilitates more togetherness, growth, and sharing for us all.
Through this experiment you are invited to expand the possibilities of our sacred sistership and activate our magical powers to traverse time and space. We can commune over the delicious texts that nourish our soils as creators, and live with each other inside the lines and pages of our favorite, soul-awakening books.
Whether or not you have already read the book, you are welcome to add your title(s) to our summer read-along list. The idea is to initiate as many points of connection, dialogue, and discovery as possible within the Garden. Each recommendation is a seed that will grow differently in each creator’s heart. Even if no one else joins you in reading your selection, YOU are joining yourself in the journey of deepening your practice and possibilities as a creator—and that is a holy and wondrous thing!
When you suggest a book to the Garden, there are a few questions about why you are recommending this book. Also, you are invited to state how you want to participate in engagement and connection activities around your book. You are welcome to only list ways of engagement that feel like a YES in your heart. And your suggested forms of engagement are received softly, so there’s no pressure to engage in a certain way if something changes for you. This whole journey is a practice in being soft with ourselves and our intentions.
I’m sooooo excited about what we are seeding and growing through our read-along togetherness! We welcome reads of all walks of life—fiction and nonfiction, afrofuturist and historical, science and nature, art and philosophy, culture and politics, creation stories, myths, and legends, books about people, books about eras—whatever you are reading and are inviting others to read with you—please share with the Garden! I welcome your questions and feedback, as always. Here we grow!
Speaking of poems…when’s the last time you got into your poetry creation flow? Revisit our magical NaPoWriMo Adventure Board for a wonderful selection of poetry prompts and write a new poem today!