YES Book Club Introduction

Welcome to the YES Book Club!

The purpose of the YES Book Club is to engage and interact with our audience in an innovative format. The Book Club is open to the entire YES Community (donors, scholars, supporters, volunteers) and anyone else interested! Reading provides an avenue to learning and discussing narratives with others leads to an interactive, multifaceted learning experience. Recognizing these two central themes in any book club, we see a unique and innovative opportunity to enhance the YES experience by starting one ourselves.

As a non-profit organization, we want to engage with the public in increasingly transparent and open ways that allow individuals to be a part of the experience of change for our focus group. Join us to learn from books that inform our perspective on building YES, texts that reveal the history and the ‘why’ of ‘what’ impacts our target group, come and engage directly with our scholars. Connect with members of our community, learn from the perspectives of other YES supporters, if you’re not familiar with YES come and see what it’s all about with a firsthand interactive experience. Email updates are informative, video updates feel personal; YES book club is a dynamic, engaging and direct way to experience our mission live and in action!

Allowing anyone of any association to YES to share space together, discussing books embedded in the YES philosophy, learning from each other in a YES sponsored experience - this is the community and type of activity we envision at the Youth, Education and Sport Initiative.

How It Works And Who Runs It

Beginning in 2021, the YES Book Club plans to meet every other week (bi-weekly) via zoom meetings (video at your own comfort level). This blog will provide updates on meetings times, and highlights from the book club's learning experience.

The book club will be led by two YES Personnel! Enhancing the learning experience are two voracious bookworms that will prepare for, lead and guide book club meetings!

A Note on The Pace: the focus is on quality before quantity, you will not be reading a book every two weeks! The time to properly digest and engage will come before moving on to read the next book, so come engage and learn as you are guided by great mentors.

How To Join

Create an account by clicking "Log in / Sign up" at the top right hand corner of this page. Once your account is created, you will be notified with all YES Book Club news and updates.

What We Plan To Read

The initial reading list is not yet finalized, however below are titles currently in consideration (dramatic drum roll…) —

• An Indingenous People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Burn This Book by Toni Morrison

• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

• The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

• Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

• Feminism is for Everybody by Bell Hooks

• Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

• How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

• I Love Myself When I Am Laughing And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean & Impressive by Zora Neale Hurston

• In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women by Alice Walker

• The Invention of the White Race by Theodore Allen

• Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G Woodson

• To Sir, with Love by E.R. Braithwaite

• Sister, Outsider by Audre Lorde

• Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi