The Berea FIRE Program

Happy Red Books Day to the Berea Community! Sorry for such a delayed update! As you may have noticed, we have been quite distant since our last program back in December. But don’t worry, FIRE is still burning, and we’ve missed interacting with you all! Unfortunately, two of our three staff members had to leave the program for personal reasons, leaving us with only one member running the program. We have decided to use this semester and the summer as a break period to plan out a strategy for next semester, including finding new staff members.

With that said, we want to thank all of our participants and supporters who have followed us along on this project. In just one year, we explored the themes of Black Feminism and Black Masculinity, we read 4 books, and we watched 2 films. Additionally, thanks to the support from our many sponsors, we managed to buy over 15 copies of the book Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas for our participates last semester!

Finally, to celebrate Red Books Day, we want to let you all in on a project we’ve been working on thanks to a gracious donation by Berea College’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We are planning on creating a portable mini radical library filled with over $500 worth of intersectional books! The details are being worked out, but the books will be both on campus and in the community for people to take for free!

Be on the lookout for more details!

Hey everyone! Special announcement! 📢
Our program for this semester will be focused on the topic of Black Masculinity this semester! Register here: https://www.firstfridayberea.com/bookclub.html
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We will begin to explore this topic by reading We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by Bell Hooks. A free copy of the book can be found here:https://theindigenist.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/we-real-cool_black-men-masculinity-by-bell-hooks.pdf
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Our first event will be 3 weeks from today, on Friday, September 24th at 6 pm at the Bell Hooks Center (Draper 106)! This event is open to all members of Berea College!
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Following that, on Sunday, September 26th, at 5 pm, we will have a zoom discussion over the same chapters for our wider Berea Community members!
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For our novel, we will be reading Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. Since this book was just released this year, we are thrilled to announce that if you attend one of our We Real Cool discussions, we will buy all Berea College or Madison County participants a physical copy of Concrete Rose! More details will be announced!