Embedded Files
Monthly Meetings
Monthly Meetings
We meet monthly at the library for 90 minutes. During the first half, we discuss a book. During the second half, we focus on community planning and do an activity together. No pressure to read or finish the book. Come anyway!
February 2026
February 2026
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2026 | 9:30 - 11:00 AM
Location: Beverly Public Library, Main Branch, Sohier Room
Book: All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
From the publisher: "renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society stricken with lovelessness—not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love."
Page count: 272
Activity: Write greeting cards to incarcerated people (collab with the Abolitionist Mail Project)
March 2026
March 2026
We're trying something different this month: We have 2 options, and you pick one to read (or read both if you like). We'll discuss both at our meeting.
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026 | 9:30 - 11:00 AM
Location: Beverly Public Library, Main Branch, Sohier Room
Nonfiction vs. Fiction: Pick one to read!
Nonfiction vs. Fiction: Pick one to read!
Nonfiction option: Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe by Natasha Hakimi Zapata
From the publisher: "Real-world solutions to America’s thorniest social problems—from housing to retirement to drug addiction—based on original reporting from around the world."
Page count: 432
Fiction option: Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha
This is an anthology of 20 short stories.
From the publisher: "Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time."
Page count: 312
April 2026
April 2026
Earth Month
Date and location TBD.
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
May 2026
May 2026
Mental Health Awareness Month
Date and location TBD.
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
Advocacy
Advocacy
Land Acknowledgment
Land Acknowledgment
Starting in November 2025, we use the pubic comment period of City Council meetings to read a land acknowledgment. We'll do this until city councilors vote to include it in normal proceedings (this failed to pass in 2022).
For some context, here's an excerpt from Salem State's land acknowledgment page:
What is a Land Acknowledgement and What Does it Do?
A Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes the Indigenous People who are the traditional stewards of colonized land. In recognizing and naming them, a land acknowledgment seeks to honor the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories.
A Land Acknowledgment serves as an expression of gratitude and appreciation to those on whose territory we reside, and it is a way of honoring the Indigenous People who have belonged to the land since time immemorial.
Community Events
Community Events
At the city's MLK Breakfast on January 19, 2026.
January 2026
January 2026
Monday, January 19, 2026 | 9:00 AM
As part of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast at Beverly Middle School, five members of our book club (pictured above) read the land and labor acknowledgements at the start of the program.
February 2026
February 2026
Wednesday, February 25, 2026 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM
We'll have a table at Green Beverly's event at The Cabot. More details to come.
March 2026
March 2026
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 | 7:00 - 8:30 PM
We'll have a table at Leading Ladies' event at The Cabot. More details to come.
Past Events
Past Events
2026 Books and Activities
2026 Books and Activities
January 2026
January 2026
Book: Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
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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