Looking for a safe space to read and discuss books about the LGBTQIA+ community? You've found us! In this monthly book club we'll read both fiction and nonfiction books about the queer* experience, the intersectionality of queerness, class, religion, and race, and discuss the ways in which things have changed, remained the same, or ways we can affect the change we want to see. 

This book club is open to anyone who identifies as being part of or is supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community. 

*We acknowledge that the term queer has been used through the years as both a pejorative term as well as a rallying cry. In an effort to be inclusive, we've decided to use it in accordance with modern definitions. If you'd like to read more, please click here.

This book club meets the 1st Wednesday of every month on Zoom. To get the Zoom link please register below.

This month we'll be discussing We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib. 

How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist?

Samra Habib has spent most of her life searching for the safety to be herself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, she faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From her parents, she internalized the lesson that revealing her identity could put her in grave danger.

When her family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered a whole new host of challenges: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage. Backed into a corner, her need for a safe space--in which to grow and nurture her creative, feminist spirit--became dire. The men in her life wanted to police her, the women in her life had only shown her the example of pious obedience, and her body was a problem to be solved.

So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes her to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within her all along. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one's truest self.