Hi all, it sounds like there’s enthusiasm for a reading group. That’s exciting and scary!

I’m going to make a few unilateral decisions:

• We’re going to start with Ruha Benjamin’s Imagination: A Manifesto.
• I’ll draw up a reading calendar, so if you were pulling for another book, stay tuned.

Now some overwrought thoughts. I want to try to give as complete an experience as I can to everyone, in whatever format they’re able to participate, without anyone feeling like they’re missing out on anything.

On Mondays, I’ll post a couple of quotations, or provocations, or something to get a few conversations going. I’ll draw from the reading for that week.

You can quote/reply/engage however you want on bluesky, mastodon, or twitter. you can also write your own blog posts or tweets. If you @ me, I’ll keep an eye on, and engage with, conversations all week.

On Fridays, I’ll send summaries of some of the thoughts across the web to a Buttondown mailing list. These will include some of my own reflections directly, but mostly a quick rundown of some of the conversations I saw.

On Saturdays, I’ll host a jitsi or zoom call or something. if you want to unpack some thoughts, chat with people about something, or just express something that you didn’t want to say during the week, you can do that in the call. In some ways it’ll resemble a typical reading group, but the ground will be seeded with conversations from the previous 5 days.

You don’t have to participate in the social network stuff; nor do you have to really participate in the zoom stuff, to be honest. You can do one, or both, or neither; the best way to be involved will be by signing up for the mailing list, so you can keep apprised of what conversations people are having from week to week.

If you’re interested in joining, please be sure to buy Imagination: A Manifesto as soon as you can. Then subscribe to this buttondown mailing list.

I’ll send an email in a few weeks giving people a schedule of upcoming calls, a firm calendar of what to read (and when), and some other organizing details. Hope to see you soon.

edit notes: fixed a link that went to a 404 error.