When Black Women Gather Around Books, Something Bigger Happens
- Aug 22
- 4 min read
Inside CABWCEI’s Where The Stories Continue Summer Reading Series at AC Bilbrew Library
On July 25, 47 people walked into the Black Resource Center at AC Bilbrew Library and sat down together around a book. By the time they left, they were carrying something that had nothing to do with the plot.
Three things, specifically. We are not alone. We do not have to be the strongest. Time heals all wounds.
Those were not themes from It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan, though the book holds all of them. They were what the room named for itself. What the community said out loud when given the space to do it.
That is what the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute (CABWCEI) is building with the Where The Stories Continue series. Not a book club. A room where Black women tell the truth.
Why the room matters as much as the book
There is a long tradition of Black women gathering around literature. Not because they needed an excuse to meet, but because the book gave them a container for the conversation they were already carrying.
Toni Morrison. Alice Walker. Zora Neale Hurston. Terry McMillan. Anna Malaika Tubbs. Synthia SAINT JAMES. Their work does not just put Black women on the page. It gives Black women something to hold up and say: this is us, and we deserve to see ourselves clearly.
When California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute brings a community together around that work, the book is the entry point. What happens in the room is the destination.
At the July 25 gathering, participants shared moments from their own lives that connected to the grief and resilience in McMillan’s novel. Strangers sat next to each other and found they were not strangers at all. The Department of Mental Health SPA 6 was also present, invited by AC Bilbrew Library to share community mental health resources alongside the day’s conversation.
“That is not programming. That is infrastructure.” |
Every movement needs places where people can think together before they act together. For generations, Black women have created those spaces in churches, living rooms, beauty salons, classrooms, and community centers. Where The Stories Continue is part of that tradition. And California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute’s role is not simply to host it. It is to hold it, sustain it, and make sure it keeps happening for Black women and girls across California.
This is how California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute advances power
California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute’s mission is to advance the power, leadership, and economic mobility of Black women and girls throughout California. That mission lives in SheWorks, in the Holly J. Mitchell Empowerment Leadership Institute, in the State of Black Women in California report, and in the advocacy the organization drives from Sacramento to South Los Angeles.
It also lives in a room at AC Bilbrew Library where 47 people reminded each other that they are not alone.
Power is not only built in boardrooms or at the Capitol. It is built when Black women gather and speak honestly about what they are carrying, and leave stronger and more connected than when they arrived.
Where The Stories Continue is that room, held consistently, all summer.
Three chapters. One summer. One community.
Where The Stories Continue runs at AC Bilbrew Library through September. Each gathering centers a different book and a different author or artist. Each one builds on what the room discovered the time before.
Chapter One: We Are Not Alone
It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan. July 25 at AC Bilbrew Library. Forty-seven people gathered and left with three truths the room named for itself. The series started here.
Chapter Two: Give Them Their Flowers
The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs. August 22 at AC Bilbrew Library. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Anna Malaika Tubbs joins the community in person to discuss the women who raised Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and James Baldwin. The question at the heart of it is the same one California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute is built on: what happens when we finally give the women behind the movements their credit?
“We must highlight the experiences of Black mothers and appreciate their ability to bring life no matter how often it is denied them. Their humanity is removed when they are forgotten, when they are not given the credit they earned, and when their names fade from history.” — Anna Malaika Tubbs |
Chapter Three: See Yourself Here
My Multicultural World Vol. 2 by Synthia SAINT JAMES. August 29 at AC Bilbrew Library. Synthia SAINT JAMES’s images of Black women and girls have lived on the walls of museums, libraries, and homes for decades. On August 29 she is in the room, talking about what it means to put yourself on the canvas and to see yourself fully reflected there.
In September, the series closes with one more chapter. One more room. One more set of truths the community names for itself.
The books matter. But the room changes people.
If you were in the room on July 25, you already know. If you were not, August 22 is still open. So is August 29. So is September.
Come to the next chapter. Come ready to talk, to listen, and to be surprised by what the room holds.
The story does not end when you close the book. It continues when you walk into the room.
Aug 29th, 2026
Sept. 19, 2026
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