Let's Talk About It Reading and Discussion Groups

One aspect of this initiative will be in-person reading and discussion programs through the established council-led Let’s Talk About It program, with themes that explore diverse perspectives and combating hate through the humanities.

Let’s Talk About It is a nationwide reading and discussion program developed by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1982. Themes include broad humanities topics such as American experiences from diverse perspectives, Oklahoma-specific narratives, and key moments in American history. Two new themes developed for this special project include:

• Most American - In the title essay of her collection Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place, series curator Rilla Askew posits that Oklahoma, although often obscured in the national narrative, is, in fact, the most American of places. Our state’s history, our simultaneous woundedness and hope, reflect the whole of the American paradox. This theme seeks to foster cross-cultural understanding, empathy, and community resilience by introducing readers to works that recognize the myriad ways we are they, and they are us. Read the full theme essay. The books in the the theme include:
  • Most American: Notes From a Wounded Place by Rilla Askew
  • The Roads of My Relations by Devon A. Mihesuah
  • Citizens Creek by Lalita Tademy
  • American Ending by Mary Kay Zuravleff
• Where We Come Together - Even in the midst of divisions within our culture, we often come together with others unlike ourselves. In the shared spaces of work, school, and other public settings we have interactions—some tense, some pleasant, some neutral—that help us learn more about one another and our shared goals and values as residents of these very diverse, but united, states. This series explores some of the American spaces where we come together, assessing through history, imaginative writing, and images how our interactions inform our sense of who we are, individually and collectively. Read the full theme essay. Books in the theme include:
  • A Different Mirror: A Multicultural History of America, with a new Foreward by Clint Smith by Ronald Takaki
  • Work: A Story of Expierence by Louisa May Alcott
  • Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White by Lila Quintero Weaver
  • The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
  • Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

If you are interested in hosting a reading and discussion program, please contact Program Officer Rayne McKinney for more information.

Apply to host a discussion group in your community!

View the full "United We Stand" Discussion Themes and Books List