5 Simple House Rules That Keep Our Blaxit Book Club Discussions Productive & Engaging
I say “house rules” with love, because civility here is a group effort. With intention, care, and respect, we can cultivate a space where people and their perspectives feel seen, heard, and valued.
Keep it cute. We're a global community, so all kinds of backgrounds and experiences will be here in one room. I think that’s the beauty of it. So, feel free to disagree, get spirited, be messy and real, but just (respectfully!) go after the idea and never each other. Let’s also assume good faith, give each other grace, and let people clarify before assuming the worst.
Speak from your own experience. Bring your story, your lived truth, and give others room to bring theirs. No group is a monolith, so nobody speaks for a whole people, and nobody's experience is up for debate. When we really hear each other across very different lives, we understand each other better, and we get more curious and open in the process. That curiosity is the mark of true global citizenship, and it's what we're here to practice.
Bring it back to the book. Your stories and experiences are the whole reason this works, so I encourage you to share them! Let's just make sure we're connecting back to the book in some way, whether that be a theme, a character, a passage that spoke to you, or whatever it was that made you put the book down and ponder. We gather for the book. We stay for what everybody brings to it, because that's where the color and dimension come from, and that's what keeps us coming back.
“Three, then me.” After you share, please let three more people take the floor before you chime back in. A room full of readers means a room full of perspectives, and everyone who came to participate deserves to be heard! So no hogging the floor, please.
No replays, but the gems get shared (with consent). Live discussions won’t be recorded, because Lord knows we're surveilled enough already. But every now and then somebody drops a gem too good not to share. When that happens and I want to put it out into the world, I'll ask you first, and I can keep it anonymous if you'd rather.
Attending book club discussions means you're down with all of the above. That, to me, is what's going to make this space really special and somewhere we all want to keep coming back to.
One more thing, because a few of you have asked:
Yes, you’re more than welcome to show up even if you didn't finish the book!
Life is busy, I get it, and this was never only about the book anyway. So even if you haven’t reached the last page of our monthly reads, I still would love to see your face.
Just do us all a favor and don’t bust up in here talkin’ wrong and strong about plot points you haven’t fully read yet, deal? LOL.
See You At Book Club!
-Courtney