Dear Article Clubbers,

We had a great discussion last Sunday. Thank you to everyone who made it so!

It’s almost August, which means two things:

* It’s my birthday soon

* I get to announce our article of the month

I cannot adequately express how honored I am to share with you August’s article of the month. We are going to be reading and discussing “They Burn Books to Burn Us Too,” by Saint Trey W.

Published in April in Notes From The Undrowned, the essay explores how regimes, most notably the United States government, have banned books in an attempt to dominate Black bodies and to erase Black memory. The goal, Saint Trey writes, is “not only control, but the elimination of imagination.”

But no matter the government’s violence, Black people will not be silenced. They will not be unwritten. Saint Trey writes:

What they do not know is that we were never written in the first place. We were sung. We were carved into tree trunks and kitchen counters and braided into our mother’s hair. We are older than their archives. And our stories do not end with silence.

They begin in fire.

My hope is that you will consider reading Saint Trey’s essay. I also hope that you will make space to reflect on his words. If you are moved — as I predict many of you will be — I encourage you to join our discussion so that we can all connect and have a conversation in community.

➡️ Inside today’s issue, you’ll find:

* My conversation with Sarai Bordeaux, Poet Laureate of Eureka and Article Club correspondent, on what she appreciated about the essay and how it felt to interview the author

* A few more excerpts from the article, plus my handwritten annotations

* A short biography of the author

* More information about our discussion on August 24, plus an invite

One more thing: My gut says, if you’re a high school teacher (e.g., Ethnic Studies, World History, U.S. History), your students would appreciate reading this piece.

They Burn Books to Burn Us Too

I could quote the entire essay because Saint Trey’s writing is so beautiful. But here are a few excerpts that I’m still thinking about.

On reading The Bluest Eye for the first time:

I remember reading that first chapter and feeling the air change — like God had walked into the room, barefoot and breathless. I didn’t know then that some people wanted to bury what I had just touched. I didn’t know that entire states would one day strike Morrison from the classroom like a curse. I didn’t know that the truth could be illegal.

On the government’s campaign to ban books:

They said they wanted to protect the children. But it was only certain children they meant. Not mine. Not me. Not the children who walk into classrooms carrying the weight of a lineage they’re not allowed to name.

What I know now is this: when a government begins to fear its own history, it has already declared war on the people who survived it.

On resistance and the power of memory through human connection:

Long before we were permitted to read, we were remembering. In hush harbors and under moonlight, memory traveled not through paper but through people. The griot, the elder, the preacher, the mama at the stove — all became librarians of the unwritten. The story didn’t need a school board’s approval to be gospel. It needed only breath.

And breath, for us, has always been sacred.

By Saint Trey W. • Notes From The Undrowned • 13 min • Gift Link

➕ Bonus: Here’s the essay with my handwritten highlights and annotations.

About the author

Saint Trey W. is a Black queer poet, essayist, and organizer from Brooklyn, New York. His voice carries the salt of survival, the smoke of protest, and the sacred ache of becoming. He writes from the ruins and the rivers, from pews and dancefloors, from the edge of the altar and the underside of America. His Substack publication, Notes from the Undrowned, is not simply a newsletter. It is also a vessel, it is a prayer, and a political reckoning. It is a place to tell the truth when the world demands our silence.

About the discussion

My hope is that you’ll read “They Burn Books to Burn Us Too” and want to talk about it.

We’ll be meeting up on Zoom on Sunday, August 24, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. We’ll spend the first few minutes saying hi and doing short introductions. Then after I frame the piece and share our community agreements, we’ll break out into small, facilitated discussion groups. The small groups usually include 5-8 people, so there’s plenty of time to share your perspectives and listen to others. That’s where we’ll spend the bulk of our time. Toward the end, we’ll return to the full group, sharing our reflections and appreciations of fellow participants.

If this sounds interesting to you, sign up by clicking on the button below.

If you’re unsure, I get it. If you don’t know me, it might feel strange to sign up for an online discussion with total strangers. But I am confident that you’ll find yourself at home with other kind people who like to read deeply and explore ideas in community. We’ve done this 58 times, and by now, it’s not a surprise that we’re able to create an intimate space, almost like we’re in the same physical room together.

I hope that you read the piece. If it resonates with you, I encourage you to take the plunge and join us on August 24!

Thank you for reading and listening to this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀

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