Reading Is Resistance’s mission is to support the curation of inclusive, anti-racist home, classroom, and community libraries & reading experiences for young people and their mentors, parents, caregivers, and teachers. To lean in to our mission, we have put together the Read & Resist 2020 Project. Ready to join us? Read on about how to get involved.
In 2018, 77% of published children’s books featured white protagonists or non-human characters while only 23% featured protagonists who were Black/Indigenous/people of color (BIPoC). In addition, many stories featuring Black/Indigenous/people of color distort, misrepresent, stereotype, and are not written by folx with the identities they are narrating.
In 2020, as an act of resistance to these dominant narratives, we envision a decade (and lifetime!) of radical imagination and collective action around racial justice on our bookshelves and in our lives.
READY TO JOIN READ & RESIST 2020?
Read & Resist 2020 is imagined by Reading Is Resistance PDX for readers anywhere. Our participants are usually teachers, parents, and young people who enjoy kid and/or YA literature and who are committed to deepening their critical social justice lens and anti-racist work.
This 2020 project can be completed solo by an adult, as a multi-generational family commitment, or as classroom curriculum.
✹REGISTRATION AND DRAWING
Register via Read & Resist 2020 Sign Up and get entered into our drawing for a Kind of Brew Coffee & Reading Is Resistance Book Collection for your home or classroom!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & LEARNER’S POSITIONALITY
We at Reading Is Resistance acknowledge that anti-racist reading experiences are small pieces of a much bigger picture of necessary collective action against racism and oppression.
We acknowledge that reading as an act of resistance alone is not nearly enough to effect change to white supremacy systems that dominate and harm.
And...we hold the belief that the small work matters.
In her book Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown describes several core principals, one of which is “Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small)” (41).
It is our intention that the small acts of reading as resistance motivate and drive us to other kinds of resistance against racism and oppression and greater depths of self and community work. It is our intention that reading as resistance leads immediately to conversations and actions in community.
This does not mean that our intention and impact will always align. And we are committed to facing the reality of our intentions and impacts and continuing to learn and adjust.
GET STARTED
Go to the Read & Resist 2020 Project Guide to begin:
Complete an optional self-guided orientation reading & reflection process
Spend some time analyzing your own reading and library choices using an anti-bias lens
Choose your 20 acts of reading as resistance for 2020.