Michigan Radio Reads held its first-ever event on Thursday, March 30! The hybrid event featured conversations between different Michigan Radio team members, plus fruitful and fun small-group discussions among all attendees.
Below, you can find a recap of the event from host April Baer, some additional resources related to our first book choice, and information about our next book:
We were so happy to see everybody who attended our kickoff for Michigan Radio Reads. I was popping in and out of the small groups, both in-person and online, and it was a joy to see everyone altogether and enjoying the conversation.
If you weren't able to attend, we missed you and hope you can join us next time!
I wanted to share some follow-up reads and listens, if you’re interested by what you found in Uphill and hungry for more.
If you haven’t heard it yet, Tonya Moseley’s Fresh Air interview with Jemele is a must. (Tonya’s from Detroit as well, and I can’t think of a better person for this.)
And you can't miss Jemele in conversation with MSU Assistant Prof. Christina Myers. Great touch on the industry and workplace issues in the book. The love in the audience is rich, and real, too.
We know this read brought up a host of difficult topics. If you or a loved one have experienced sexual abuse, get help by calling the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-HOPE) or the Michigan Sexual Assault Hotline (855-VOICES4). Both programs are free and confidential.
Lastly, a note for those who registered but may have missed the Zoom link go out: we are so terribly sorry! Eventbrite, the program we used for these things, sent the link out but we learned it likely went into many people's spam folders. We're going to fix this next time. And as always, details and additional information is shared frequently in our Facebook group, so we encourage you to join us there as well.
We are so grateful to you for reading along with us. Please join us in June as Beenish Ahmed hosts the next Michigan Radio Reads. Our next selection is Michigan author Kelsey Ronan’s novel Chevy in the Hole. It’s a truly remarkable novel set in Flint. She gave it a really creative structure, and has a great eye for characters.
We'll be emailing you with updates about the next event, but in the meantime, let's stay connected! You can join the conversation over on our Facebook group, and follow us on Goodreads or Storygraph.
As always, please encourage your friends and family to join Michigan Radio Reads! The book club is open to everyone - whether they listen to public radio or not.
Many, many thanks again for a successful first event. We can't wait to see where this book club takes us.
- April Baer
