CRYSTAL’S CHAMPIONS
The Women of Color
Reading Group WITH JENN WILMOT
8
What prompted you to create this book club? I had a few motivations behind starting the Women of Color Reading Group (the WOC), but it started with my little sister, who’s actually not so little. She’s a 2L at Temple Law School. But, for my birthday last November, she sent me a new copy of one of my favorite books, Flyy Girl, by Omar Tyree. A few weeks earlier, I had commented on how impactful that novel was to me when I read it in high school. As a young girl growing up in West Philadelphia - a Black, urban, low-income community - my friends and I were trying to maneuver growing up and coming into our own against the typical teen angst we all feel, but also against some serious societal barriers. These same friends - facing stressors and burdens in life even adults shouldn’t face, let alone children/teenagers - still found time to be ardent readers of literature that reflected our lives.
