Mayor Poe starts book club, hopes to start discussions

The mayor of Gainesville, Lauren Poe, started a new community book club that will use books to spark discussions on a broad range of topics, Poe said.

Mayor’s Book Club will have its first official meeting Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. at the Library Headquarters downtown. A new book will start every three months, he said.

The first book is the award-winning “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The book deals with race issues and what it’s like to be black in America, Poe said.

“I wanted to pick books that are challenging,” he said. “Get us to ask questions of ourselves that we usually wouldn’t consider or give us a perspective on something that we don’t currently have.”

Mayor Poe, who has not read the book yet, said he wants to experience it at the same time as the rest of the club.

Faye Williams, a community organizer for the Porters Quarters neighborhood, said she knew the author’s father when she owned a bookstore in Washington, District of Columbia. She said she loved the power and voice Coates’ writing had even before he won awards.

Gainesville is still segregated, economically and geographically, Williams said. She said she hopes people will read the book and feel empowered to become active in their communities.

“I’m really impressed with Poe, when you think about it — this is a southern white-man mayor who chose a northern black man’s book,” she said.