Book Club
The Integrated Schools Book Club is a way for people from across the country to come together and discuss books, articles, videos, and podcasts pertaining to school integration. While the conversations are geared for parents and caregivers, everyone is welcome.
We meet via zoom and keep the sessions small so that everyone has a chance to talk — this is not a webinar! There is no cost to attend — you need only internet access at the time of the meeting (and if you don’t have access to a computer with a camera, no worries).
Join us for the next Integrated Schools Book Club!
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is also the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
We are looking forward to a unique discussion where we can consider how the teachings offered by Kimmerer in The Serviceberry can ground us in the values we want to embody as we practice anti-racist school integration in our communities.
about the book
As Indigenous scientist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”
As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, “The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”
Kimmerer is donating her advance payments from this book as a reciprocal gift, back to the land, for land protection, restoration, and justice.
Register to join in the discussion by clicking the date/time that works for you:
Please check out our affiliate page on Bookshop.org. You can buy this book club pick and also see some of our past book club picks. If you go through our affiliate page to buy this or any other book, not only will you be supporting a local, independent book store, but a portion of the proceeds will also come back to Integrated Schools.
How Book Club Works
Register using the links on this page (you’ll be emailed a confirmation with a zoom link)
Invite your friends! Post on social media!
Get ahold of the book/ readings/ podcast/ videos
Read/ Listen/ View (do your homework)
Join the video-conference discussion at the scheduled time and talk
Send Voicemail