Queer Book Club | Busboys and Poets Books
Date and Time
Feb 26, 2023 6:00 pm
Location
Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20012
Feb 26, 2023 6:00 pm
Takoma
Every last Sunday of the month we'll be hosting Queer Book Club led by Nathan, the Takoma Bookstore Supervisor, at Busboys and Poets Takoma. There we'll gather to discuss a specific book by a queer author or about a queer subject matter. This book club is for anyone who identifies as LGBTQIA+ and wants to talk about queer books - you can also show up as an ally or if you're questioning! Show up for good food, good books, and good friends- plus, the more frequently you show up, the more goodies (in the form of discounts and priority book-pick) you can collect.
For the month of February, we’re celebrating a few occasions: Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, and Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week. In honor of all three, we are reading Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J Brown.
"Just like Darren’s misunderstanding, popular media often depicts discussions about asexuality as “a mistake” or in the worse, as deviant, sinister, or abnormal behavior. This narrow view ignores the myriad of ways people love and connect beyond sex; the exact opposite of what asexuality focuses on. With the definition from Brown and Orlando, we are urged to see asexuality not as lack, but a deep sense of knowing oneself, despite the [sexual] demands of society" - M. A. S. Frimpong at Love Black Girls
You can pick it up at any Busboys bookstore or wherever books are sold, including through our Bookshop.org page. This book is also available from our partners at Libro.fm as an audiobook- please choose whichever form is most convenient for you!
We can’t wait to see you at our second meeting, but if you can’t make it but still want to be involved visit us on Discord! We’ll keep the conversation going between book clubs, and this is the perfect way to stay in touch with other fans of queer authors and books.
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality - Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong.
The notion that everyone wants sex--and that we all have to have it--is false. It's intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that's not queer enough, seen through a lens of perceived lack: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.
In this exploration of what it means to be Black and asexual in America today, Sherronda J. Brown offers new perspectives on asexuality. She takes an incisive look at how anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, heteronormativity, and capitalism enact harm against asexual people, contextualizing acephobia within a racial framework in the first book of its kind. Brown advocates for the "A" in LGBTQIA+, affirming that to be asexual is to be queer--despite the gatekeeping and denial that often says otherwise.
With chapters on desire, f*ckability, utility, refusal, and possibilities, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality discusses topics of deep relevance to ace and a-spec communities. It centers the Black asexual experience--and demands visibility in a world that pathologizes and denies asexuality, denigrates queerness, and specifically sexualizes Black people.
A necessary and unapologetic reclamation, Refusing Compulsory Sexuality is smart, timely, and an essential read for asexuals, aromantics, queer readers, and anyone looking to better understand sexual politics in America.
Nathan (they/them) is the Bookstore Supervisor at Busboys Takoma, and is thrilled to be moving and expanding their long-running Ace and Aro Book Club over to Busboys. They are an event organizer with Aces and Aros of the Mid-atlantic, which is cosponsoring this club. They are a life-long resident of Washington, DC and are most passionate about reading science fiction, horror, fantasy, queer theory, and queer romance - but this book club will not be limited by their tastes!
