Brandon’s Note: This series is all about getting to hear from members about how they made it to their first meeting and their experience in the space. I hope you get a direct sense of all the different paths that lead to book club and a first hand perspective of what it’s really like in the room. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

”I'm a writer and to supplement my living, I teach while I write. And that is what generated the curiosity. I've always wanted to be a part of a book club of substance. So the conversations that we're going to have, the books we're going to read, the conversations about those books and I just could never find anything that stuck for me. And then when I moved Upstate (New York), because I'm from Brooklyn, so when I moved up here in 2003, there's absolutely nothing.

I went back to school later in life. When I was doing my MFA, I don't remember which professor, but he assigned something written by Jess Row (two time Book Club author) and the writing struck me. So, I did a search to see what else he had out there and his interview on Lit came up. I watched it and then I was like, "Well, who's this guy (interviewing him)?" The conversation they were having about the writing was everything that I needed because pursuing my MFA, I was completely immersed and engulfed in literature. It was right up my alley, right in my element. When Yahdon started talking, he mentioned the book club and I said, "Okay, so what is this Book Club?" So then I inquired. I filled out the form, and it was as simple as that, that's how I got in.

It was Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy (July 2019). Why do I feel like I was in Book Club much longer? It feels like I've been there forever. I guess, in my spirit, because when we get together it just feels like we've been doing this for 10 years. You know what I mean? We've been together, kicking it like this for a long time. At that time in 2019, I'd already started working in the Bronx. I would leave work and go visit my grandmother for a little bit. She lives there in Brooklyn, not too far from where the meeting is taking place at Brooklyn Circus. So I came to Book Club by myself and then made my way back upstate.

Patsy was my first book and my first meeting. And it's funny because Nicole was my thesis advisor for a time during my MFA. I sought her out to be my thesis advisor because she's a Black Jamaican woman and so am I. She would take what I was writing and give me pointers, advice, guidance and direction. It was stellar coming into the book club and Patsy being the first book for me and my first meeting, it was kismet. It was like...this is absolutely meant to be.

I remember what I was wearing. I don't remember the (style) prompt. But I knew it had something to do with representing who you are or where you're from, or a combination of both. And I thought a lot about it before I came. Of course I have t-shirts that represent the Jamaican side of me. And I have shirts that represent the American side of me, which is always going to be Brooklyn. I wore a Brooklyn t-shirt because it felt like who I was the most at the moment. That's usually how I go into spaces, considering what I want to look like or what I want people to see when I hit the street.

The meeting itself was so warm and welcoming, but for the literature, just seeing how it was made to run. The focus really wasn't about Nicole, it was more about us as the readers, it felt like I'm home. And even though I'm a writer, every writer wants the reader to read the book. I'm a reader first, that's why I like writing because I love words on the page and just being in an atmosphere and an environment where everybody loves it too like how I love it, is really an amazing and incredible thing.

Reading Patsy was very familiar for me because it's a novel. Patsy could be anybody's aunt in a Jamaican family. A lot of the events and the things that were happening were familiar, some directly, some indirectly. Even though the place was fictional and imagined, I could relate to several elements that sounded like this place in Jamaica or this could easily be this little parish over there.

And then the characters, and just who they were to themselves and who they were to each other resonated with me. It felt like Nicole's writing a little bit of my life or my mom's life or my grandmother's life. So it was really comforting reading the novel. I didn't feel like I had to figure anything out. I just let the story play out because the characters felt super real to me.

I don’t remember what I said but I do remember speaking. I felt comfortable enough to overcome the parts of me that are afraid to speak up publicly. So, it provided a space for me to communicate how I was receiving the novel, the questions that I had to ask or wanted to ask. I remember at the end of the night feeling like oh my God, I cannot wait until next month because this was a really wholesome experience for a writer or a reader like me.

The people and the energy keep me coming back. Our energy, when we are in full discussion. It's the safest space to be who you are. No questions asked, no judgments and really mature. We don't always have to nor do we agree on whatever it is that we've just read for the month, because we all have different perspectives. But the level of respect that we have for each other in those conversations is what will always keep me coming back. When Yahdon recently got a new job, the first selfish thing I thought was, he better not cancel a book club. I know that with his new work comes a lot of time and pressure. So I was like, he better not. He better not divorce us.” - Tsahai as told to Brandon

Tsahai's First Book Club Meeting