This month we are reading Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown. At the KFPC our work feels so joyful in the summertime when we’re busy building soil and growing food at Butler Urban Farm, harvesting delicious fruit and gathering with each other outside! With Pleasure Activism, we’ll have the chance to explore in a deeper way what makes us say an enthusiastic yes to our work. What does it feel like to acknowledge that we are microcosms of all the pleasure, justice and liberation in the universe? How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life?

Content Note: this book includes frank and nuanced discussions about sex, sexuality, drugs and other adult topics. Youth members of the KFPC network are encouraged to engage with this book with support from a parent or trusted adult.

Where to find this month’s book

• Order a hard copy or purchase an e-book (on sale for $2.99) from AK Press
• Request the e-book from the TNRL
• Listen to the audiobook on audible

You do not need to have read the entire book to attend or participate. We welcome folks at any level of engagement. If you are not able to read the whole book, other options include:

• Listen to The Pleasure in Liberation, an interview with adrienne maree brown by Below the Radar podcast
• Listening to Audre Lorde reading Uses of the Erotic (essay published in 1978; reprinted in Pleasure Activism)
• Attending the meeting with an open mind

Discussion

Discussion questions TBD

What to expect at a KFPC Book Club Meeting

Time: Book club will run from 5:30 to 7 PM. We’ll start a couple minutes after 5:30 to allow everyone time to settle in! If there is a robust discussion, we will continue on with folks who can stay, but at 7, we will say goodbye to those who need to go. 

Place: The meeting is on Zoom. If you have not already done so, you can register/attend by clicking on this link. If you are new to Zoom, or need support to access the meeting, please email info@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com and someone from our team will be happy to help. 

Reading: You do not need to have read the entire book to attend or participate. We welcome folks at any level of engagement. 

Participation: We welcome your participation, and invite you to do so in a way that allows you to take care of your body and your mind. If you would like to turn your camera off, stretch, eat, move etc, that is very welcome. Using the chat to participate in the discussion is a great option, as is speaking to the group if you feel comfortable. We will turn closed captioning on, so you have the choice to follow along with a written text. 

Guidelines for gathering amazingly on Zoom:

• Take care of your body! Cameras on if you want, but not required. Make sure to eat, stretch, move etc. 
• Mute yourself if you’re not talking (hosts might mute you too if needed)
• Use the “raise hand” button to add yourself to the speaker’s list 
• Share comments in the chat at any time. 
• Have pen and paper handy for notes and journaling 
• Rename yourself with your pronouns and the Indigenous territory you are on. If you are not sure, you can look at native-land.ca

Book Options for Future Book Club Meetings

• Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018).
• Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower, Warner Books ed (New York: Warner Books, 2000).
• Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, “Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (September 8, 2012): 1–40.
• Patrisse Cullors, An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World.

Past Book Club Reading List

May 2022

Land Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper

March 2022

Mutual Aid by Dean Spade

Don’t forget, register for July Book Club today: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsf-qsrzkvHNemg8U0f8dSMt-zoPwdod5A