shado mag is hosting a bookclub!
shado’s bookshelf presents regular online book clubs for intersectional thinkers and those who believe in radical futures. There are different levels for everyone to get involved, find meaningful discussion, and hear from those with lived experiences of the topics at hand.
The next theme of shado’s online book club is Love Beyond the Binary.
In this cluster, book club host Sharlene Gandhi will lead members on an exploration of love and how it can be reimagined outside of romantic relationships. Instead shado will ask: how can ideas of love be mobilised for collective care for communities, self-acceptance, equality across intersections and a system built on liberation?
The three core texts will be bell hooks’ revolutionary All About Love, Alva Gotby’s radical new release They Call it Love and Robert Jones Jr’s plantation-era romantic fiction The Prophets. The book club will be broken down into three separate sessions. September’s exploration of bell hook’s indisputable 1999 classic will be used as a vehicle to understand the transformational power of love to heal individuals, communities and societies. October’s discussion of They Call it Love will explore the notion that the work of love is a feminist problem which requires feminist solutions, through the lens of anti-capitalism. Finally, November’s session on The Prophets will look at themes of queer love, Black masculinity, and the politics of power.
Who are shado?
So why join a book club with shado specifically?
shado stands for See. Hear. Act. Do. Born out of frustration at the lack of space for people to take control of their own stories, shado emerged as a lived-experience-led community of artists, activists and journalists united around the fight for social justice.
shado believes that those with lived experience of a topic or injustice are best placed to advocate for meaningful change within that space; shado exists as a platform for these people. They also didn’t think there were enough platforms for different fields to work in collaboration towards social justice, so aim to bring a network of people together to cultivate a culture-led system change.
They do this through a mix of:
Media: through online and print magazines, shado provides a physical space for those across different fields, who are currently working in isolation, to co-exist. They work with a community of over 300 artists, activists and journalists in over 50 countries around the world to spotlight and celebrate necessary and innovative stories.
Events: shado curate collaborative events to engage wider communities in shado’s mission and further support and promote the work of contributors. These include exhibitions, panel discussions, performances, workshops and film screenings. Relationships are the bedrock of shado, and events are a way to connect with the people and communities.
Projects and creative agency work: shado create, produce and facilitate a range of different projects in order to actively connect with the topics they are exploring in the publication, collaborating with organisations from Amnesty International to Alliance for Choice.
shado’s unique approach
shado’s bookshelf takes a different approach to the usual book club. Instead of asking participants to read the whole book, they send out extracts ahead of time and use the designated sessions as a space for discussion and action. In each session, they also involve a speaker with lived experience of the topic to join the conversation and provide further insight.
Plus, shado also provide an incredible membership box with all tickets which include several extra surprises. The most recent includes the three new texts, alongside It’s Not Just You by Tori Tsui, Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson and Whites Can Dance Too by Kalaf Epalanga. Boxes also include a variety of extras incluing full-size skincare products from The Ordinary, chocolate from HiP and Tony’s Chocolonely, SPF from Ultra Violette, a Satisfyer vibrator, Hanx condoms, coffee from South London-based roasters Assembly and much more. For those who aren’t interested in membership boxes, there are also exclusive reduced-cost, session-only tickets.
Ultimately, this book club is the perfect place to expand your knowledge, here from firsthand experience of topics discussed, and meet likeminded people to explore radical topics and perspectives with. What’s not to love?
