DIVERSITY Reads Podcast Bookclub

Jul 10 2021 8 ep. 56 mins 4

DIVERSITY Reads Podcast Bookclub artwork

Want to read stories we weren't taught in school? DIVERSITY Reads is more than a book-club, it's an exhilarating space for learning, discussion and a place in which to open ourselves wide to the multitude of rich narratives around us. Join our host, Afro-Latina storyteller, producer, and activist Coral Santana, twice a month to plumb the depths of captivating reads alongside authors, writers and other creatives who are out to disrupt and deepen our world view. Follow us on IG to stay tuned @diversityreadspodcast!

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Decolonizing Spirituality, Feminine Divinity and Honoring Anger in Nikita Gill’s The Girl and The Goddess

Jul 10 2021 53 mins

Host Coral Santana and Emerging Curator Hana Amani discuss Nikita Gill's The Girl and The Goddess. Meet Paro. A girl with a strong will, a full heart, and much to learn. Born into a family reeling from the ruptures of Partition in India, we follow her as she crosses the precarious lines between childhood, teenage discovery, and realizing her adult self. In the process, Paro must co

Live Podcast Recording: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo with Cicely Belle Blain and Stephanie Bokenfohr

May 06 2021 62 mins

*Unedited live recording* Host Coral Santana, author Cicely Belle Blain and Vancouver Art Gallery's programmer Stephanie Bokenfohr discuss Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly wo

Dystopian Stories, Privilege, and Community Caring in Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves

Apr 17 2021 52 mins

Host Coral Santana and author and Critical Indigenous Studies professor Daniel Heath Justice discuss Cherie Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves. In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's Indigenous people, and it is their marrow that h

Residential Schools, Generational Trauma and Healing in Michelle Good’s FIVE LITTLE INDIANS

Apr 10 2021 49 mins

Host Coral Santana and Inuk arts worker Emily Laurent Henderson discuss Michelle Good’s debut novel, FIVE LITTLE INDIANS. Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, supp

Traditional Knowledge, Power, and the "Nigerian Harry Potter" Myth in Nnedi Okorafor's AKATA WITCH

Apr 03 2021 53 mins

Host Coral Santana and writer Hope Lauterbach discuss Nnedi Okorafor's Nigerian Fantasy YA novel, AKATA WITCH. Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is b

Hope, The American Dream and The Immigrant Reality in Souvankham Thammavongsa's How To Pronounce Knife

Mar 06 2021 56 mins

Host Coral Santana and Activist Indra Hayre discuss Souvankham Thammavongsa's How To Pronounce Knife. A young man painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A father who packs furniture to move into homes he'll never afford. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. In her stunning debut book of fiction, O. Henry A

Family, Grief and Belonging in Elizabeth Acevedo's "Clap When You Land"

Feb 20 2021 68 mins

Host Coral Santana and Community Builder Mikaela Joy discuss Elizabeth Acevedo's novel Clap When You Land. Camino Rios lives with her aunt in the Dominican Republic, and waits all year for her dad to visit her for the summer. Yahaira Rios lives in New York with her parents, and asks every year if she can go with her dad on his annual business trip. Neither sister knows about the ot

Home, Displacement and Identity in Dany Laferrière's "The Return"

Feb 06 2021 56 mins

Host Coral Santana and Author Njamba Koffi discuss Dany Laferriere's most celebrated book since How to Make Love to a Negro, The Return. At age 23, the narrator, Dany, hurriedly left behind the stifling heat of Port-au-Prince for the unending winter of Montreal. It was 1976, and Baby Doc Duvalier's regime had just killed one of his journalist colleagues. Thirty-three years later, a