Hi everyone; I hope you're all holding on in these times.

If you have the book and you know how this reading group works, you can skip this email. But if you want a refresher, I figured it would be helpful to briefly go over how the group works and what to expect.

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Next week we'll start reading and discussing echolalia echolalia by Jane Shi. If you don't have the book yet, you should order it as soon as you can, or you might miss the first few pieces we read.

I wrote about this in the previous email, but a substantial component of this reading group's "reason for being" is to give people opportunities to buy books from the Workshops4Gaza bookstore and raise money for The Sameer Project to help keep Palestinians alive.

If you can't buy from the bookstore, please consider making a donation directly to one of the Sameer Project's campaigns, or consider sharing a fundraiser with friends. If you can't do any of that, consider sharing the reading group with some friends; if some of them can buy the book from Open Books, or even make direct donations to The Sameer Project, then that would help enormously.

I also wanted to remind people of a few ways they can be involved in the reading group, since this is pretty flexible and you might not realize about an entire medium that we're using:

• newsletter: I'll email every week with that week's readings and might have some links to external stuff you can read, watch, or listen to if you have time.
• group chat: If you use Signal, you can join the signal group chat; sign up for the newsletter to see the link.
• video chats: On Saturdays at 12pm (ET) we'll check in on video chat¹ and talk about the past week, some of the stuff we read, or whatever else we want.

On reading expectations

I don't expect people to read at the same pace as me. Some pieces will stick with you longer; others might bounce right off. Some weeks, you'll be too overwhelmed by the world to do any readings; other weeks, reading will be a welcome escape. Do what you can to try to keep your head above water. I'm trying not to require people to read everything at the same pace. Just tell the group what you have read so we have some context.

(my) schedule

At the same time, having no reading goals can feel a little directionless, especially for people who want this group to keep them "on track". So, if it helps, here's my plan:

But, as I said, sometimes we linger, or get overwhelmed, and reading plans slide.

I'll also try to find an article or two from around the web each week, to keep us connected to and thinking about Palestine and ongoing struggles against the Israeli & American colonial project, especially the genocide of Palestine being committed to this day.

Increasingly these days, these struggles are palpably world-encompassing, so we might read about a wide range of things.

If you've written or recorded something (or come across something) that you'd like to share, please reach out and let me know.

next book(s)

I don't know exactly when we'll get to them, but I have a hunch about our next books, so I figure I'll point to them now:

Tip of the Spear by Orisanmi Burton

(probably mid-February into early April)

Theory of Water by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

(probably early April into early May)

I think that's everything. If you have any questions, comments, future book suggestions, or anything else, please let me know.