Hi folks! Emily here. It’s another lovely Saturday in Tucson. I’m sitting at my desk reflecting on the beautiful energy and thoughtful conversations we participated in last week during our third Solutions-Focused Community Book Club. It perhaps goes without saying, but if you joined us for book club last Wednesday, then you know it was a fabulously fun night filled with great conversation, amazing snacks and drinks, and a lot of book-sharing, including a raffle of our next selection (look at the happy winners, below!). I also REALLY LOVE running the raffle, LOL. Thank you to Social Venture Partners for sponsoring the book raffle this month ❤

For our book club this month, we read Mia Birdsong’s How We Show Up, which is a very thought-provoking book about alternative models for community building – models that require all of us to rethink our relationships with the people around us.

If you’re intrigued by the book club, we welcome you to join us at our next book club on Thursday, November 30, 2023. Please RSVP if you plan to join us. We’ll be reading Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond.

In this book, “the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, making a new and bracing argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it. The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.”

This will be a “super collaboration” book club! As always, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona will be hosting us, and Caitlin Schmidt (co-founder of The Tucson Agenda) will be co-hosting as well! The book club is also offered in partnership with Social Venture Partners, the Primavera Foundation, the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families, and the Pima County Office of Community & Workforce Development.

There are also two wrap-around events, for those of you interested in learning more about poverty and its causes. First, CFSA & SVP will host a workshop with Bonnie Bazata, the “Ending Poverty Now” Program Manager for Pima County. You can sign up/RSVP for the event on CFSA’s website – the workshop will take place on October 25 from 9 a.m. – noon.

Second, Matthew Desmond, the author of Poverty, by America, will join us in Tucson on Tuesday, December 12 at the Fox Theatre. Tickets are available on the Fox Theatre’s website. The event is presented by Primavera Foundation as it marks its 40th anniversary. All net proceeds will help Primavera continue its vital mission of providing pathways out of poverty in southern Arizona.

So yes! There is a lot going on and we would love to have you RSVP for the book club here! It’s always fun seeing all your smiling faces there. We look forward to engaging in more inspiring, productive, and energizing conversations with you!

And our usual reminder applies: as a super small nonprofit, we can’t do any of this without your amazing financial support and generosity. We recently launched our fundraising campaign for next year’s (2024) programs and book-hiding adventures. So if you’re feeling generous and want to see more of these kinds of events happening in Tucson, please consider donating! We are so grateful for all your support. THANK YOU!

DONATE NOW TO KEEP THE BOOK JOY GOING IN 2024!