ABOUT THE PROGRAM

We are super excited to bring you RadRoots, a semesterly book club led by our JEDDI committee that we are trialing! 

It is designed to deepen students’ understanding of anti-oppression, decolonization, and equity through literature and student-led discussion. Our goal is to encourage students to think more critically about what it means to approach climate equity and food justice through an intersectional lens. What are the ‘roots’ of climate inequity and food injustice, and what are the many resulting forms of oppression that exist?

Books are chosen thematically by the committee in alignment with this purpose and with preference given to books written by local authors and/or authors of systemically marginalized backgrounds.

The Cohort will meet every Wednesday from 4:30PM to 6:30PM in the Embark Studio (SUB #1310) starting February 26, and runs until March 25. Preference will be given to registrants who can make all 5 cohort meetings this term, while those who cannot will be placed on a waitlist. Thank you!

Land Acknowledgement

Embark Sustainability’s work takes place across the unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛw̓əm (Kwikwetlem), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo, and Tsawwassen Nations. We greatly encourage our community members to reflect on the lands they are tuning in from; learn whose lands you occupy through native-land.ca.

Book selection

In celebration of Black History Month, the Spring Cohort will be reading “The Island of Forgetting” by Jasmine Sealy.

Themes: Black love, Black grief, Colonialism, generational trauma, Queerness

Content Warnings: This book features depictions of family death and Black death.

*** We recommend cohort participants with personal triggers to certain content share this in the registration form, and how we can accommodate accessibility needs relative to this. Research of the book’s themes ahead of meeting with the cohort is also recommended.

Summary

(via HarperCollins)

Barbados, 1962. Lost soul Iapetus roams the island, scared and alone, driven mad after witnessing his father’s death at the hands of his mother and his older brother, Cronus. Just before Iapetus is lost forever, he has a son, but the baby is not enough to save him from himself—or his family’s secrets. 

Seventeen years later, Iapetus’s son, the stoic Atlas, lives in a loveless house, under the care of his uncle, Cronus, and in the shadow of his charismatic cousin Z. Knowing little about the tragic circumstances of his father’s life, Atlas must choose between his desire to flee the island and his loyalty to the uncle who raised him.

Time passes. Atlas’s daughter, Calypso, is a beautiful and wilful teenager who is desperate to avoid being trapped in a life of drudgery at her uncle Z’s hotel. When she falls dangerously in love with a visiting real estate developer, she finds herself entangled in her uncle’s shady dealings, a pawn in the games of the powerful men around her. 

It is now 2019. Calypso’s son, Nautilus, is on a path of self-destruction as he grapples with his fatherless condition, his mixed-race identity and his complicated feelings of attraction towards his best friend, Daniel. Then one night, after making an impulsive decision, Nautilus finds himself exiled to Canada.

The Island of Forgetting is an intimate saga spanning four generations of one family who run a beachfront hotel. Loosely inspired by Greek mythology, this is a novel about the echo of deep—and sometimes tragic—love and the ways a family’s past can haunt its future.

Accessing the book

Embark has 10 physical copies of this book available on a first-come, first-served basis. It is otherwise the responsibility of cohort participants to source their own copies of the book by the first meeting on February 26.

The E-book version is available for loan at the following public libraries:

• Burnaby
• Surrey 
• Vancouver *hold only*
• Richmond 
• Fraser Valley

Paperback versions available for loan at the following public libraries:

• SFU Bennett Library
• Vancouver *hold only*
• Richmond

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jasmine Sealy

Jasmine Sealy is a Barbadian-Canadian writer. She is a graduate of the MFA program at the UBC School of Creative Writing where she won the 2020 UBC/HarperCollinsCanada Best New Fiction Prize. Her debut novel The Island of Forgetting was published in 2022. It was named a best book of 2022 by the CBC, The Globe and Mailand The Sunday Times in the UK. It was shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It won the 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

Event Accessibility

The RadRoots Book Club is free and open to Embark Sustainability members which includes Simon Fraser University undergraduate and graduate students, as well as Embark Sustainability Associate Members.

The program will be held indoors at the Embark Studio, room #1310 of the Student Union Building (SUB), SFU Burnaby. The Embark Studio is:

• wheelchair accessible
• welcomes all gender identities and expressions
• a tree nut and peanut-free zone
• a scent-free zone
• located near wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral restrooms
• provides access to a quiet space for personal meditation, reflection, or prayers

Other accessibility details include:

• As we’ll be addressing sensitive topics, it’s important that our attendees are able to address their needs in the moment. Attendees are free to opt in and opt out of activities as suits their needs throughout the event, including exiting and re-entering the event space.
• Unfortunately, we cannot provide ASL interpretation at this time.

We aim to make our programs accessible to as many of our community members as possible. If we can take further action to make this event accessible to you, please contact our Director of Engagement at engagement@embarksustainability.org.

Health and safety

Participants who register are agreeing to release Embark Sustainability Society from any liability related to COVID-19. Masks are optional but encouraged.

Community Agreement

By registering to attend this event, you are agreeing to be respectful when listening to and communicating with others, and be mindful of the space you are taking up amongst your peers.

Embark Sustainability does not tolerate violence or aggression against others on the basis of race, ethnicity, place of origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or ability. Please also refer to people using the introductions they provide and do not assume pronouns/gender/knowledge based on someone’s name or appearance.

If these agreements are broken by someone, we will have to ensure the safety of our community members by removing them from the event.

Questions

If you have any questions about this event, please contact our JEDDI Officer at jeddi@embarksustainability.org.