During the midst of the pandemic that shut the world down in 2020, I stumbled upon the world of Bookstagram/Booktube and I fell in love with what seemed to me to be an online haven for people like me. Bookish people. Without too much pondering, I decided to create a bookstagram and booktube of my own to highlight and showcase my own literary and reading for pleasure universe. Due to the stay-at-home mandate and culture that marked the pandemic, I spent a lot of time at home thinking about how very caught up I had become in living to work instead of working to live. I wanted to reclaim my life back and I was identifying the things that could help me do so. I created, “The Lit Agenda,” short for “The Literary Agenda” to be more intentional and consistent about making time for the things that matter to me. That simple. That’s it. I’m using literature to help me take back my life. That’s my agenda. 

This pandemic has really given me a chance to take a break free from my rigid work schedule, to slow down and meaningfully reflect on the importance and necessity of shaping a life that just feels good and authentic to me. Naturally, being the person that I am, reading and writing for pleasure make it somewhere near the  top of the list of things that are critical for me in shaping a life that I love.

For any avid reader, I don’t think the concept of literature as being life-saving comes as a shock. If you are new to the world of reading or simply reading for pleasure. Please allow me to explain my meaning. For me, literature has been so fundamental in shaping my understanding of life and the world. Literature has given me the opportunities to experience things beyond the capabilities of my own imagination, it has fostered and deepened my curiosity and fascination for life and the world. Literature has enabled me to experience wonderful adventures and discover new domains of understanding; too many times it has functioned as a great equalizer of sorts for me — many times allowing me to go, experience, and learn things that the world would attempt to deny me access.

With my bookstagram and booktube account, I want to showcase and explore the genres of African & Afro-diasoporic literature, world literature, magical realism, and poetry. I’m also very fond of literary fiction in general, most especially world literature that explores colonialism/post-colonialism, interculturality, identity politics, and the concept home/belonging.

As a writer who believes that next to reading and writing, being in community with other writers is one of the most important things one can do to improve one’s craft, I’m looking to start a Reading As Writers Workshop (#RAWWorkshop) to be in and help foster community with other writers as well.

I aim to create a community eager to explore the meaning, purpose, impact of literature as an art form through reading, book reviews, conversation, foreign language, and craft development. I hope to engage a global community of readers and writers who believe in the life-saving nature of literature. 

If you’ve made it all the way here, it means you’ve made it all the way to my blog, and I thank you for it. Please feel free to introduce yourself and tell me more about your reading experience, and/or the type of stuff that make it on your list of things that matter and are critical in shaping a life that you love!