CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA (April 12, 2019) — The African American Museum of Iowa is partnering with Next Page Books to take part in the national Well-Read Black Girl book-club program. This initiative is a collaboration between the American Booksellers Association and Well-Read Black Girl founder and author Glory Edim to encourage indie-bookstores to launch local book-clubs “with the goal of amplifying diverse voices and supporting emerging writers of color” (ABA announcement).
The first meeting of the AAMI book club will take place on May 16 at 6PM with a discussion of Nicola Yoon’s 2016 bestseller The Sun is Also a Star. The program is free, but an RSVP is requested and can be found on the AAMI website. Those who RSVP may show their registration confirmation at Next Page Books for a 20% discount on a copy of The Sun is Also a Star.
The AAMI plans to continue hosting monthly book-club meetings discussing titles that can be purchased at Next Page Books. In September, the book club will take part in the national program’s book selection along with other groups at independent-bookstores throughout the country. An interactive map of participating-bookstores can be found on indiebound.org. During the fall of 2019, Glory Edim will visit a number of these participating stores and skype into participating book-clubs.
More information about the AAMI/Next Page Books partnership and book-club can be found at blackiowa.org/WRBGbookclub or by contacting Communications Associate Jennifer Beall at jbeall@blackiowa.org.
Next Page Books (NPB) is a locally owned, independent-bookstore situated in the historic New Bohemia (NewBo) district of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Established in July 2012 as New Bo Books by Mary Ann and Chuck Peters, the store has grown to become a valuable community-asset serving the greater Cedar Rapids area. More information is available atwww.npbnewbo.com.
About AAMI: The African-American Museum of Iowa is a statewide museum dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and teaching Iowa’s African-American history. As Iowa’s leading educational-resource on the topic, we educate more than 30,000 people each year through museum-tours, traveling-exhibits, research-services, youth and adult-education programs, and community and fundraising events.
