University grad starts book club to raise literacy levels

With the advent of social media and its constant revolution, recent university graduate Jameika Johnson believes that reading among youth has seen a sharp decline, as they are attached to the connectivity of their digital devices.

Johnson is on a mission to revitalise reading and literacy among the nation's youth, so she decided to form her own book club called Chapters.

"It is a new generation book club for millennials and GenZs. The club will act as a hub for writers and other creatives to showcase their skills and talents, as well as to network with other like-minded individuals. Through monthly meetings, we will bring back reading, coupled with riveting discussions that will be centred around the selected book or collection for that period," she said.

A lover of the arts, Johnson shared with the news team that reading was embedded in her lifestyle during her early childhood. She recounts how she read a novel which was gifted to her by an aunt, until she could recite the book in its entirety to her mother.

"The project was seen as a means of 'bringing back reading' and salvaging an appreciation of what seems to be an almost lost art. It was also created with illiterate adults in mind, as I have been privy to many throughout my life, and have seen the adverse effects of illiteracy, not only on those who are illiterate, but also on their families, their children," Johnson said.

The 23-year-old, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in literatures in English and a minor in linguistics, stressed that her project is a necessary intervention, not only to improve the literacy rates, but to also address societal ills that are stemmed from a lack of education.

She said that Chapters is for citizens "to use what is right about Jamaica to fix what is wrong with Jamaica; and by starting small, we're able to band together to create noticeable and effective change".