What does it mean to belong to each other in a world that so often feels fractured?
As we step into 2025, we find ourselves reflecting on how much has shifted—and how much still feels unresolved. How has it already been five years since 2020, since a global pandemic and worldwide uprisings reshaped our world? How has it only been a year since we began reading together, when it feels like we’re all irreparably changed?
As we enter another year of pivotal shared experience, we feel - deeply - the weight of this moment. But rather than dreading the divisions and tensions ahead, we want to reframe our approach—to be present, engaged, and intentional in how we show up for ourselves and for others.
We believe we all need a simultaneously renewed, and continued, exploration of belonging, renewed and continued exploration of how to extend unconditional compassion to ourselves so that we can offer the same to others.
Many of us have experienced being cast out of communities we once called home due to ideological shifts, while others have never fully felt a sense of belonging at all. Approaching this harm requires deep, intentional work.
This year, we will continue our year-long exploration of belonging through a monthly book club featuring a thoughtfully curated selection of titles, along with opportunities for connection and conversation in community with others.
Now more than ever, we need hope. We need to cultivate resilience, foster belonging in our own spaces, and stand in solidarity as we strive for a more just and equitable society. In a time of uncertainty, we can hold each other close, weather the storms together, and imagine new possibilities for the future.
About your facilitators:
Dr. Kholi Murchison is a femme-presenting nonbinary embodied movement practitioner, writer, and diviner of Black queer magic, who's been defining brands and gathering and growing communities through inclusive, communal actualization for almost 20 years. Learn more about Kholi.
Chelsea Kim Long (she/her) is a writer, creator, meditation teacher, and lay theologian. Entering motherhood catalyzed her deconstruction journey out of the white evangelical faith and into an expansive version of faithfulness to God that doesn’t require self-abandonment. She lives in San Diego with her husband and kids, where she co-leads an intentional neighborhood faith community.
Meeting dates:
February 28, March 28, April 25, May 30, June 27, July 25, August 29, September 26, October 31, November 28
We will meet on the last Friday of each month (adjusted as needed for holidays, etc) on Zoom at 12pm PST/3pm EST.
How this group will run:
The book club will run from February to November of 2025. We'll read one book each month and have a live Zoom call once a month.
Throughout the month, we will also offer an optional WhatsApp group chat and a book club through the app Fable. We want to offer you a space to connect with other folks to the degree that you want to - it can be really helpful to have a supportive digital community that encourages you to embody what you're learning through reading.
It's optional to join these ongoing spaces of connection, but it'll be there for you to share how you're processing the book throughout the month, or if you’re unable to join the Zoom call.
Kholi or Chelsea will respond to your messages in a timely manner. The other group members will be invited to respond and share as they have capacity and desire. We'll have some ground rules to keep it helpful and respectful.
What does it cost?
The Year of Belonging Book Club is for paid newsletter subscribers in Chelsea’s community (learn more and sign up here). You can participate for no additional charge as a thank you for being a part of her sustaining community. If you're already a paid subscriber and want to join the book club, email Chelsea to sign up.
*Please don't let finances be an obstacle; we are offering this book club on a "pay-what-you-can" basis with a suggested minimum payment of $5 per month. If you can't make that work, please email Chelsea and we are happy to have you join us. Registration will be open on an ongoing basis.
Also, you can pick up the books that we'll keep in a list on Bookshop.org or your local library (we recommend using Libby and Hoopla)!
About the books
We have curated a list that spans genres with the goal to create vibrant conversation around variations on the theme of belonging in theory and in practice. Some of the books are nonfiction and practical, aimed at helping you embody belonging in your life. Other books are fiction, and through story we will meditate on our own relationship with belonging both to ourselves and also with community.
We will be in conversation with the work of contemporary thinkers laboring toward belonging in real life and with writers both modern and classic imagining how people make belonging and what belonging can feel like, so that throughout the year we can continue a conversation on belonging from a variety of angles. If you're interested to see last year's books, find our 2024 selections here!
February: Teaching Community by bell hooks
March: Paradise by Toni Morrison
April This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley
May: Orlando by Virginia Woolf
June: The Overstory by Richard Powers
July: In the House of Me by Mel Gentry
August: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
September: How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone by Cameron Russell
October: The Leavers by Lisa Ko
November: What it Takes to Heal by Prentis Hemphill
