On this day one year ago, at roughly the same hour, Whitney and I convened at her apartment on 149th st. in Harlem to discuss the themes of Silvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
We had initially gathered simply as friends with a shared interest in one of literature's great and troubled writers: Sylvia Plath. However, somewhere between the end of that stimulating and revelatory discussion of The Bell Jar, and the celebration of my 23rd birthday that followed, we had the idea to form "Uptown Literatti". The mission was simple: gather together as an intimate group of women with an insatiable appetite for books that have become known as the only name befitting of them: the classics.
When we started UL we knew there were so many women like us: twenty-somethings with a love for literature who wanted to read and discuss it with both a critical and objective eye, but also with passion and verve! Who doesn't love that moment when you experience the synergy between the parallels of your life and the fictional characters you discover? We hope to make UL apart of your circle, too. A place where you can come to share your stories, learn about someone else's, discover a new writer, add input about a book we're reading or one you've already read, or just be encouraged to write your own story. It's a community for the sassy, the quiet, the dreamers, the wish-ful thinkers and the deep thinkers, the realists, and everyone in between! We're hoping to incorporate our own list of a new generation of writers whose works will one day also be considered classics, and would love your input at any time. So pull out your book markers and highlighters because UL is just getting started!
Thanks for sharing in this anniversary, to which we hope to have many more!
Love,
Uptown Literatti
