NDN Girls Book Club Launch Event
It’s finally here! The official release of the NDN Girls Book Club was celebrated with a launch event held on Saturday, April 23rd at Palabras Bookstore in Phoenix, AZ.
Founded by Kinsale Hues, NDN Girl’s Book Club brings free literary and writing workshops, Indigenous author talks, programming, and pop-ups to Native peoples, mainly Native youth and girls.
“Inspired by an imaginary book club idea I had as a lil’ girl, NDN Girls Book Club is a series of collaborations w/ Native writers and women artists to inspire young people to keep writing & find community in art,” Kinsale explains.
“NDN Girls Book Club hosts free community workshops for Native people, especially Native youth & girls, in poetry, zine-making, editing, book trading, Native literatures talks, and more. We also co-host events that aim to build community for Native art and literature!”
Before its official launch, NGBC has ordered 190+ books, sent out titles by 45+ Indigenous authors, prepared 90+ FREE care packages for Native youth, supported 5+ Indigenous indie bookstores, and sent free books to three tribal libraries. They were recently featured in Teen Vogue, on Indian Country Today, Source NM, News from Native California, and Yahoo!. The Book Club even received a Tweet of acknowledgement by Dr. Ibram X Kendi.
The event featured an outdoor Indigenous market with Abalone Mountain Press, boba tea by Blue Corn Custom Designs, beadwork by Pony Beads, stickers by Inspired by Diné Bizaad, and sustainably made Indigenous undies by Shy Natives.
Inside, attendees were able to choose a free book from a various selection of Indigenous authors for subscribing to the NGBC website! There was adorable NDN Girl’s Book Club merchandise available including bedazzled sweaters, “See you at book club ” tees, sticker packets, and more.
Several of these authors, including Taté Walker, Darcy Little Badger, Tanaya Winder, and Kinsale Hues had scheduled book signing times. I was super excited to meet and get my book “Snake Falls to Earth” signed by Little Badger.
The book signings were followed by powerful readings by the above authors and a performance by Queen IIWAA! Many more talented poets stepped to the stage during the open mic. I share a few poems from my book Seeds: Stories of Afro-Indigenous Resilience. These pieces included “She is Afro-Indigenous,” “Three Sisters,” and “The Battle of Hayes Pond.”
The evening ended with a beautiful sunset over Palabras and a community of Native authors, bookworms, and enthusiasts. It was a good day to be an Indigenous author.
You can support Kinsale and the NDN Girl’s Book Club team by:
Shopping their merch. Each purchase fund their community programming.
Donating books to them by purchasing directly from their registry with Quiet Quail Books. Any books donated will be shipped straight to them and distributed to community members or programs they support! The money supports Quiet Quail, an independent California Native woman-run bookseller.