A Reading Club for NYC LGBTQ Teens Launches at the Hetrick-Martin Institute

NEW YORK - Feb. 8, 2016 - PRLog -- On Friday, February 5th, the National Book Foundation launched BookUp LGBTQ, a new BookUp site for LGBTQ teens at the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI). Taught by Cave Canem fellow and poet t’ai freedom ford, BookUp LGBTQ will provide books and activities tailored to young LGBTQ readers. BookUp LGBTQ’s students will choose from a booklist curated by today's most influential LGBTQ authors, including Naomi Jackson, Garth Greenwell and 5 under 35 honoree Megan Kruse, and go on field trips to the New York Public Library’s Gay and Lesbian Collections, queer bookstores, and other historic and literary sites throughout the five boroughs.

Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) was founded on the belief that all young people—regardless of sexual orientation or identity—deserve a safe and supportive environment in which to achieve their full potential. Founded in NYC in 1979, HMI provides comprehensive counseling and case management for nearly 2,000 LGBTQ youth and their families. By partnering with HMI, BookUp LGBTQ brings BookUp’s engaging programming to a new constituency that will benefit from seeing their own stories and history reflected in LGBTQ books and more. “I am very excited about the partnership between HMI and the National Book Foundation,” says Juan Williams, HMI’s Director of Academic Enrichment. “I believe that this opportunity will empower our readers and budding writers to build on their strengths and flourish in their communities.” BookUp LGBTQ will be run in partnership with Lambda Literary, the oldest literary organization championing the works of LGBTQ writers and an honorable mention for the National Book Foundation’s Innovations in Reading Prize last year.

Created in 2007, BookUp has programs in New York, Texas, and Detroit, and has provided nearly 30,000 books free of charge to students to foster a lifelong love of reading. “Books give us our humanity and tell us we are not alone,” says the Foundation’s Program Manager Amy Gall. “BookUp LGBTQ creates a space where LGBTQ youth can see themselves as part of a dynamic community with a rich past and limitless future. We want to empower them to become the new generation of world changing readers and writers.”

For more information, the BookUp program video can be viewed http://www.nationalbook.org/bookup.html#.VrjEVtsrKUk.