This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. Please email us to make sure there is still space at olivia@smithcenter.org.

with Cheryl Shaw

Our February Pop Up Book Club on February 2nd is very popular! We suspect that there will be more to share than an hour can hold so we have extended the Book Club session to 1:30pm. We understand if anyone needs to leave after the hour.

Welcome to “Pop-Up Book Club,” a community of book lovers diving into current and relevant book material.

For our first session, we will read The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama. On February 2nd, Cheryl Shaw will lead us in a lively discussion about the book. Please join us no matter how much or little of the book you have read. Please read below for a description of the new book.

Pop-Up Book Club will be on the first Thursday of the month from 12:00-1:30pm ET.

• February 2 (The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama)
• Future sessions TBD

“When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it,” writes Michelle Obama.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME’S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2022 • In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, #1 bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.

There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. In The Light We Carry, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with readers, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?

Michelle Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, she shares the habits and principles she has developed to successfully adapt to change and overcome various obstacles—the earned wisdom that helps her continue to “become.” She details her most valuable practices, like “starting kind,” “going high,” and assembling a “kitchen table” of trusted friends and mentors. With trademark humor, candor, and compassion, she also explores issues connected to race, gender, and visibility, encouraging readers to work through fear, find strength in community, and live with boldness.

Get The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times here: https://a.co/d/81gVgwX.

About Cheryl Shaw

Cheryl Shaw graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a BS in Sociology and continued her education at Golden Gate University in San Francisco where she studied for her MBA. She has held leadership roles in the nonprofit sector over a 30-year career with KQED Public Broadcasting, Bay Area Black United Fund, United Negro College Fund, Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and ADRA International. Her volunteer work includes leading mission trips to support vulnerable populations to provide hope and resources during their time of need while a ministry leader in her home church. She currently serves as a member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Metropolitan DC Chapter to empower Black women and girls towards financial stability and as a member of the Cancer Support Center DC – Community Engagement Advisory Council as they build a new facility to provide resources for support and treatment to those affected by cancer in Metro DC. As an entrepreneur, she created and developed the first African American women-owned art gallery in the Pacific Northwest and is now a top-producing Realtor in the Metro DC market. Cheryl currently serves as the Director of Individual and Corporate Gifts at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, is a two-time breast cancer survivor, an advocate of early detection, a mother of two, and a grandmother of two. She currently resides in Washington DC.