The HART Book Club, launching in February 2022, is a student-focused space to discuss books related to and written by Black, Indigenous, and racialised people. As a branch of HART (the Department of History’s Anti-Racism Taskforce), the Book Club is committed to representation, respect, and empowerment for the diverse voices, experiences, expressions, and intersectional identities of racialized groups on campus. The Book Club seeks to foster critical thinking, accountability, and anti-racism among students, staff, and faculty through engagement with books around anti-racism, solidarity, equity, and creating safe spaces for learning.
November Book Club
This month's book will be Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney.
"Harrison Mooney was born to a West African mother and adopted as an infant by a white evangelical family. Growing up as a Black child, Harry’s racial identity is mocked and derided, while at the same time he is made to participate in the fervour of his family’s revivalist church. Confused and crushed by fundamentalist dogma and consistently abused for his colour, Harry must transition from child to young adult while navigating and surviving zealotry, paranoia and prejudice.
After years of internalized anti-Blackness, Harry begins to redefine his terms and reconsider his history. His journey from white cult to Black consciousness culminates in a moving reunion with his biological mother, who waited twenty-five years for the chance to tell her son the truth: she wanted to keep him.
This powerful memoir considers the controversial practice of transracial adoption from the perspective of families that are torn apart and children who are stripped of their culture, all in order to fill evangelical communities’ demand for babies. Throughout this most timely tale of race, religion and displacement, Harrison Mooney’s wry, evocative prose renders his deeply personal tale of identity accessible and light, giving us a Black coming-of-age narrative set in a world with little love for Black children."
For further information, please contact Catherine Ramey.
For assistance in accessing books, please contact librarian Mike Chee.
2023-2024 Book Club Schedule
Meeting Date |
Time |
Location |
Book Title |
Registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 26, 2023 | 2:30-3:30pm | Zoom | One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet by Richard Wagamese | Closed |
| October 16, 2023 | 1:30-2:30pm | Zoom | Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson | Closed |
| November 23, 2023 | 6:00-7:00pm | Zoom | Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney | Register Here |
| January 2024 | TBA | Zoom | If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga | |
| February 2024 | TBA | Zoom | Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis | |
| March 2024 | TBA | Zoom | The Theory of Crows by David Robertson |