Progressionista's First Meeting!

Progressionista started its first book club meeting on September 20. Fifteen girls from across Detroit’s westside gathered at the Detroit Public Library’s Chaney Branch. This, for me, was one of the most exciting days of my life. To share my joy of reading with girls from where I grew up made me happier than I imagined. This was only the beginning of a year of book club meetings that will be focused on fun, literacy and women empowerment.

Preparing for the Girl’s Arrival:
To make sure the girls understood how cool it is to be a woman that reads. I decorated each table with coffee table books highlighting my favorite women who read books. 

Our First Book and Progressionista:
Read a Rhyme, Write a Rhyme by Jack Prelutsky is the first book we are reading. This poetry book focuses on the process of writing poetry as well as gives passages of poetry to read.  Julia Davis, a kindergarten teacher, was this month’s professionista. She spoke to the girls about how she uses poetry and the art of “rhyming” to teach her young students. Julia also shared how writing poetry in her journal has transformed her personal life and given her an outlet to vent. The girls were excited to receive journals of their own to write their poetry in.

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Instilling the Art of Poetry: Through a series of activities the girls were introduced to the art of poetry. By pulling a topic out of a bag ranging from friendship to lip gloss Team B wrote on-the-spot poems of their own and presented them to the group. Team A was given a set of words to include in a group poem which they all presented to the rest of the group. How cool!

Shanel's Reflection: I never expected for the girls to receive reading outside of schoolwork so warmly. To share my love of reading with children gives me so much hope that literature will live on and change other lives as it has changed mines. The first meeting made all of the challenges and time invested worth it. These girls are so fun to share a book club with and I am happy to have the chance to read along with each of them. Speaking of happiness, I am also overjoyed at the parents, friends, family and strangers who gave into this idea. For their help,  I am forever grateful.

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