Embedded Files
Special Community Event
Special Community Event
Upcoming Meetings
Upcoming Meetings
We meet monthly, usually at the library. During the first half, we discuss a book. During the second half, we do a volunteer activity together and/or focus on action planning. No pressure to read or finish the book. Come anyway!
April 2026
April 2026
Earth Month
April Book
April Book
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
From the publisher: "All We Can Save illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States...and aims to advance a more representative, nuanced, and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis."
Page count: 448
April Activity
April Activity
Upcycled Crafting
Upcycled Crafting
We'll be making the following - check out their quick how-to videos:
postcards (upcycling food boxes)
no-sew tote bags (upcycling old shirts)
PLEASE BRING:
PLEASE BRING:
cereal/pasta/cracker/cookie boxes (the thin cardboard kind)
pens, markers, colored pencils, crayons
old T-shirts
scissors
May 2026
May 2026
Mental Health Awareness Month
May Book
May Book
Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society by Arline T. Geronimus
From the publisher: "Fusing science and social justice, renowned public health researcher Dr. Arline T. Geronimus offers an urgent, 'monumental' book (Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning) exploring the ways in which systemic injustice erodes the health of marginalized people."
Page count: 368
May Activity
May Activity
Activist self-care
Activist self-care
"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." – Audre Lorde, A Burst of Light and Other Essays (1988)
We'll have stations of these activities (feel free to rotate through):
Coloring and puzzling
Gratitude cards
Affirmation trading cards (make one, take one)
Letter to your future self
Body check-in and stretch
June 2026
June 2026
Pride Month and Juneteenth
June Book
June Book
The Stonewall Reader edited by New York Public Library and Jason Baumann. It contains primary sources from the NYPL's archives.
From the publisher: "an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it"
Page count: 336
June Activity
June Activity
Donations for LGBTQIA+ Youth
Donations for LGBTQIA+ Youth
We're collecting donations for NAGLY, based in Salem.
PLEASE BRING DONATIONS OF:
Clothing - see their gender-affirming boutique wishlist
Books - see their library wishlist
Snacks - see their Amazon wishlist
June Community Event
June Community Event
Reading Frederick Douglass Together
Reading Frederick Douglass Together
Saturday, June 27, 10 AM at Hale Farm
Join us in a public readng of Frederick Douglass' 1852 speech, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," as part of Historic Beverly's annual celebration. Each person will read a small portion of the speech.
Want to sign up as a reader?
Contact:
Krystina Yeager
Education Manager, Historic Beverly
education@historicbeverly.net
(978) 922-1186 x206
Check out the text of the speech here:
From Mass Humanities (see Step 5: Download the speech)
1852 printing (PDF)
Past Events
Past Events
Donating 23 pounds of period supplies to Beverly Bootstraps on March 30, 2026, all collected at our meeting a couple days earlier.
Packing 60 grab-and-go period kids (and folding zines about menstrual stigma) for River House during our monthly meeting on March 28, 2026.
At MIRA’s Annual Immigrants’ Rights Conference on March 13, 2026 at Boston University.
Writing greeting cards to incarcerated people at our monthly meeting on Feb 21, 2026, as part of the Abolitionist Mail Project.
Packing 50 kids' snack bags for Beverly Bootstraps at our monthly meeting on Jan 24, 2026.
Reading the land and labor acknowledgments at the city's annual MLK Breakfast on Jan 19, 2026.
2026 Books, Activities, Events
2026 Books, Activities, Events
March 2026
March 2026
Nonfiction book: Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Fiction book: Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha
Activity: Period supplies!
Collected donations of period supplies for Beverly Bootstraps
Packed 60 grab-and-go period kits for River House
Folded zines: Tips to Fight Menstrual Stigma, from this NPR story
Learn more about period poverty and menstrual equity from the Alliance of Period Supplies and PERIOD.
February 2026
February 2026
Book: All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
Activity: Wrote birthday and Eid cards to incarcerated people (for the Abolitionist Mail Project)
January 2026
January 2026
Book: Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Activity: Pack 50 kids' snack bags for Beverly Bootstraps
Community Event: Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Breakfast, where 5 members of the book club read the land and labor acknowledgments at the start of the program, at the invitation of the city's DEI Director.
2025 Books
2025 Books
December 2025
December 2025
No book this month - action planning instead!
November 2025
November 2025
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
October 2025
October 2025
Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change by Cristina Jiménez
September 2025
September 2025
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson
August 2025
August 2025
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
July 2025
July 2025
Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong
June 2025
June 2025
A Land With a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism edited by Esther Farmer, Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, and Sarah Sills
May 2025
May 2025
What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill
April 2025
April 2025
Loving Corrections by adrienne maree brown
2025 Candidate Forum
2025 Candidate Forum
Social Justice Candidate Forum
Social Justice Candidate Forum
Sunday, October 26, 2025 | 1:30 - 3:00 PM
Ahead of Beverly's municipal elections on November 4, 2025, we hosted a candidate forum at the Beverly Public Library. We asked candidates questions that were submitted in advance by community members.
Topics we covered:
Immigration & ICE
LGBTQIA+
Diversity & Representation
Access & Affordability
Mayoral candidates who attended in person:
Mike Cahill
Brendan Sweeney
City Councilor at Large candidates who attended in person:
Kenann McKenzie-DeFranza
Keith Sonia
Euplio "Rick" Marciano
Kyle Stanley Retallack
City Councilor at Large candidates who submitted video entries:
Julie Flowers
John Mullady
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