Leadership Institute Book Clubs
About Our Book Clubs
The Leadership Institute will offer book clubs throughout the year. They will be virtual and supported by centers and Leadership Institute partners. The aim of the Leadership Institute Book Clubs is to create multicultural, intergenerational spaces where participants can delve further into texts, while learning alongside people from a multitude of social locations.
The early registration fee for each book club will be $40, and a standard registration is $60.
Those who participate in book club meetings may earn CEUs. Please contact Theda Wortman if you would like a certificate of completion at the end of each book club.
Current Book Clubs
Yaupon Place Book Club
This book club will be reading Living Resistance, by Kaitlin Curtice. Curtice is a popular indigenous author who challenges the tokenizing of “resistance” and reclaims it as a basic human calling. It is a book that calls for independence and considering how resistance is a daily activity.
The book club leader will be Emily Hodges Nyce.
Three (3) online meetings via Zoom
One (1) in-person meeting on November 1 at:
Yaupon Place (slightly off the main UPSem campus)
1313 Westwood Avenue
Richmond, Virginia 23227
Wednesdays | October 11, October 18, October 25, and *November 1 | New time: 7:30-9:00 p.m. Eastern Time
*The November 1 meeting will be an in-person gathering at the address mentioned above.
Click here for more information or to register.
Howard Thurman Book Club
This book club will be reading Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thurman. It will explore the relevance of Jesus’ teachings for marginalized people. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. kept this book on his person and would cite it often.
The book club leader will be Dr. Chris Burton.
Blackboard will be used for this book club for group posting and resource sharing. Those login credentials and details will be shared with you accordingly.
Mondays | October 23, October 30, November 6, November 13 | 6-8 p.m. Eastern Time
Click here for more information or to register.
Theopoetics Book Club
This book club will read Terraform: Building a Better World, by Propaganda.
The book club leader will be Rev. Dr. de’Angelo DIA.
In this debut collection of essays and poetry, musician, speaker, and activist, Propaganda, inspires us to create a better, more equitable world.
“If we get to make the very cultures that shape who we are, then let us remake them in the best way possible.”
In this deep, challenging, and thoughtful book, Propaganda looks at the ways in which our world is broken. Using the metaphor of terraforming—creating a livable world out of an inhospitable one—he shows how we can begin to reshape our homes, friendships, communities, and politics.
In this transformative time—when we are redefining what a truly just and equitable world looks like, and reflecting on the work that needs to be done both in our spiritual and secular lives—Propaganda rallies readers to create that just world. He sheds light on how nefarious origin stories have skewed our views of ourselves and others and allowed gross injustices and demonstrates how great storytelling and excellent art can create and shape new perspectives of the world and make all of us better.
Wednesdays | October 4, October 11, October 18, and October 25 | 7-9 p.m. Eastern Time
Click here for more information or to register.
Participants who register for this book club will also have access to a recorded workshop on this topic led by Rev. Dr. de’Angelo DIA.
