With two months left in the six-month event series, Our Stories: Indigenous Book Club is collecting record-breaking engagement thanks to newfound accessibility through social media.
The virtual book club, a partnership between the National Arts Center’s (NAC) Indigenous Theatre program and the Ottawa Public Library (OPL), began in January.
Lysanne Fox, a supervising librarian and aid to the OPL’s program development, said the program has been successful since its launch, with about 100 to 150 people tuning in to discussions held with authors via Facebook Live.
More recently, Fox said the number of people participating in the book club has broken turnout records because of its online accessibility. Compared to previous in-person programs, the book club’s virtual format has reached a far wider audience.
Once the book club’s Facebook Live events end, recordings for those who cannot attend in real time are posted to Facebook where they continue to gather views. The book club’s conversation with author Yolanda Bonnell has 3,700 views on Facebook and the book club’s French selection with author Joséphine Bacon has 2,400 views.
“This is one of the silver linings of the pandemic because it has increased accessibility. We would have never had the capacity in either of our venues to have that many people participate in our programs,” Fox said.
The monthly discussions are hosted on the Facebook pages of both the NAC and OPL, and are the culminating event for book club participants each month. The library’s YouTube channel also has a playlist of the live event recordings, other Indigenous content and author talks.
YouTube has helped improve the accessibility of these events by allowing for closed captioning to be turned on by viewers.
“This is making the program more inclusive to a wider audience, and through the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, if someone puts in a request in sufficient time for live closed captioning, we are obligated to do so,” Fox said.
The selected books up for discussion are also generating interest. The virtual book club’s May title is Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, a novel by Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, musician and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
“I want readers to see Nishnaabeg worlds and be immersed in a different way of seeing, listening and being. I want readers to experience Noopiming and think about how they read and how they live in the world,” Simpson said.
According to Mairi Brascoupé, the Indigenous cultural resident for the NAC’s Indigenous Theatre program, Simpson’s novel was chosen because it fit perfectly with the diversity of Indigenous literature highlighted by the program so far.
“For the whole series, we were trying to get a wide variety of content. This is our only fiction novel,” Brascoupé said. “I love Leanne’s perspective on the world and on indigeneity in artistic practice. This novel encapsulates her idea of indigeneity in cities and she writes without leaning into the colonial gaze. That’s why we selected it.”
Previously selected literature has included Yolanda Bonnell’s Indigenous play, bug, the academic text, Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, and Joséphine Bacon’s book of French poetry, Uiesh – Quelque part.
Simpson said she thinks programs such as the Indigenous book club are important.
“Programs that highlight Indigenous literature and creative work help non-Indigenous readers connect with Indigenous literature and often serve to introduce new audiences to Indigenous creative work,” Simpson said. “They assist Indigenous literature and creative work in traveling the world.”
Both the NAC’s Indigenous Theatre program and OPL said they hope to continue the partnership with children and young adult versions of the book club, after the completion of the Indigenous book club in June.
Those interested in joining the Indigenous book club for its final month can find June’s title here: https://ottawa.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S26C1222075
Featured image by Harley Pan.
