On the last day of Black History Month, more than 30 people gathered in Black Garnet Books for the first meeting of Noname Book Club’s Twin Cities chapter.

Founded in 2019 by rapper Noname, aka Fatimah Nyeema Warner, the book club connects community members both inside and outside of prisons with radical books, according to its website. This involves monthly chapter meetings in cities across the world as well as sending free books to incarcerated people.

“We believe everyone (especially racialized and colonized people) should have access to unlimited educational materials,” the Book Club’s website says. “It’s our job to make sure our folks feel taken care of and not forgotten.”

Last June, University of Minnesota student LeShay Andrewin reached out to Noname Book Club in hopes of starting a Twin Cities chapter.

“I felt like we needed one,” they said. “When it comes to Noname Book Club, there’s more you can do with it, and the word gets out.”

It took until January to get a response. In the meantime, Andrewin started their own book club, The AfroReads Collective, to try to achieve the same community as a Noname chapter would.

“I’d see (Noname) post photos of all of the book club chapters, and there’s always a bunch of POC all reading the same book, and I was like ‘I need that in my life,’” they said.

Andrewin said they were thrilled when a response finally came. Though they said the set-up process was easy, they admitted that they were nervous the whole time.

Andrewin also didn’t expect to become the chapter’s facilitator, but they said they felt the first meeting at Black Garnet went well despite their nerves.

“I could’ve talked more, but it was a room full of intellectuals, and I was scared to open my mouth,” they said. 

Still, Andrewin said, “I feel like everyone left our discussion with something they didn’t know about before.”

February’s read was “Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle” by Thomas Sankara, the president during the 1983 revolution in the West African country of Burkina Faso.

The short, 50-page read covers two of Sankara’s speeches, one of which he gave to a rally of thousands of women in Ouagadougou, the country’s capital, on International Women’s Day 1987.

For Andrewin, it was quite different from the books they usually read, such as Black literature. Like many in attendance at Black Garnet, they were astonished that a man had made a speech in favor of women’s liberation.

“It was a really interesting viewpoint,” they said. 

Several chapter members who were the children of African immigrants said Sankara’s words starkly contrasted the attitudes of their male relatives.

Sankara gave the other speech shortly after the revolution’s triumph in 1983, detailing the roles women should play in the popular revolution. Some femme-presenting chapter members bristled against this, asking who Sankara, a man, thought he was to tell women what to do. Others at the meeting posited that lower-class women in Africa at the time weren’t aware of their own oppression and needed convincing to join the movement.

The general consensus became that oppressed peoples should lead their own liberation movements and that allies should support them, but ultimately step aside.

“No matter how radical you think you are, you still have blind spots,” said chapter member Cynthia Abalo.

March’s read is radically different. “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is a “Hunger Games” meets the prison industrial complex dystopian novel.

The wildest part, according to Andrewin, is that the book is set in the present. 

It’s even cooler to realize that the book is also being sent to incarcerated people.

“I feel like all of the Noname books are books I wouldn’t pick up out of my own curiosity, but it’s really good,” they said.

Andrewin said that you don’t even need to read each month’s book to attend chapter meetings. 

“If you’re looking for a sense of community with like-minded people who are passionate about making a change in the world and discussing the Black experience, even if you aren’t a Black individual, you should join Noname Book Club,” they said.

Those interested in joining can follow the Noname Book Club Instagram as well as The AfroReads Collective for updates on the Twin Cities chapter.