Hi! My name is Lavender, and this is a webpage I've created to document the Olympia Marxist Reading Group (MRG), which was started by my friend Noraa, and which I helped run for just over two years.
The group started in October 2022, when Noraa was working at the Orca Books Co-op. She had just read The State & Revolution and wanted to encourage others to read the text. The book group was an instant success, with nearly 20 people attending the first session. Thus, the Marxist Reading Group was born, and ran on a nearly monthly basis until finally ending in November 2024, when we read John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World.
Each session, we created a poster in digital collage (neo-constructivist, if you will) style, posted it all around town (and online), and formulated discussion questions, which were distributed in a handout on the day of the session. Typically, Noraa took the lead on the posters, and I took the lead on the discussion questions, but near the end of the group's existence Noraa had to step away, and I took the lead on both.
Mostly, Noraa and I co-hosted the group, but there were times when only one of us could attend, or neither, in which case other members of the group stepped up to host.
This webpage is a work in progress, but I hope you appreciate it! Feel free to repurpose the art and discussion questions for your own reading group--just make sure to credit Noraa and I! And if you have any questions or want to reach out about something, you can email us at olymrg@gmail.com :-)
