PBC next and beyond

I'm excited about the next meeting of the PBC (Philanthropy Book Club). There are two sessions scheduled:

• 26 June at 14:00 PST; 17:00 EST; 00:00 BST; 09:00 Melbourne
• 30 June at 9:15 pst; 12:15 est; 17:15 BST

We're reading How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue. It's the story of a Nigerian village ravaged by oil company exploitation. It's about capitalism, exploitation, colonialism, health, sickness, environmental destruction, communities, and violence. It's a brilliant, painful read. Sign up to join the group by the end of this week (13 June 2025) to receive the call-in information.

Today, I've been listening to my favorite book interview podcast (I listen to a lot of book pods - need to distinguish between them), Between The Covers with David Naimon, interviewing adrienne marie brown about her Grievers Trilogy. I've only read the first in the series, Grievers. The PBC is the perfect opportunity to read the subsequent two books, Maroons and Ancestors.

I suggest the PBC tackle this trilogy over the next few meetings after this month. I know, it's (northern hemisphere) summer and you all want a break. This is a science fiction, pleasure-oriented, survive-crises trilogy that is vacation worthy

If you don't know adrienne marie brown's work you can check out her social change strategy books, her brilliant and accessible scholarship on Octavia Butler, and her podcast on how to survive the future. Here's an interview about Grievers with Kiese Laymon. That's brown is writing fiction now, in a career filled with social activism, scholarship, doula work, nonfiction writing, singing, and music making is simply too wonderful a chance to pass up.

I'm also hopeful that I'll be able to feature an interview with David Naimon in a future blog post. David's Between the Covers podcast has been part of Tin House Publishing's marketing strategy. But Tin House was just sold to a new company and the future of the podcast is uncertain. In the years David has been hosting the podcast he has built a lot of community and a lot of support. This work exemplifies both the communities that artists build and ways to build communities of dispersed listeners. I reached out to David after the sale when he asked for advice on philanthropy. I told him that I know a lot about philanthropy but little of it is practically useful for folks trying to raise money. As an example of the mixtape of funding that artists, writers, podcasters and others build and must constantly nurture, Between the Covers's current position will be familiar. Maybe David will join a PBC meeting....

I know I will learn something from talking with David, and I'll do my best to pass it on. As long time readers know, I believe artists show us the future in ways similar to what brown quotes Grace Lee Boggs saying about Detroit - it is now what everyplace will become.

I'll also reach out to invite adrienne marie brown to join the PBC. For that I'm very grateful to the financial supporters of this blog - those funds will be used to provide a stipend to future book club guest speakers.