The Goal: Raise money for the National Immigration Law Center, an organization

exclusively dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of low-income immigrants.

At NILC, we believe that all people who live in the U.S.—regardless of their race, gender, immigration and/or economic status—should have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Over the years, we’ve been at the forefront of many of the country’s greatest challenges when it comes to immigration issues, and play a major leadership role in addressing the real-life impact of polices that affect the ability of low-income immigrants to prosper and thrive.

The Method: As with so many other things, to me the answer was in a book.

For the month of February, I’ll be doing a readathon to benefit the National Immigration Law Center, a group seeking to defend the rights of those needing legal representation on their path to becoming American.

My reading will seek to center the voices of:

-Female and GNC writers;
-Writers of color;
-LGBTQ+ writers;
-Writers who identify as immigrants or first-generation Americans; or
-International writers whose work has made an impact in the United States

I invite you to donate whatever you can to this project. You can donate a “per book” number or a lump sum, and I’ll aim to keep the fundraiser open for a few days of March in case anyone wants to donate based on how far I get. Will you join me?

THE LIST

Here is the goal list of books I hope to carry on my journey with me. If you know of any books I should add to this list, let me know via the form at the bottom!

• Amistad, Walter Dean Myers
• Einstein on Race and Racism, Fred Jerome
• Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
• The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
• I Am Malala, Malala Yousefzai
• Immigrant America, Alejandro Portes
• My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor
• Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
• No Land’s Man, Aasif Mandvi
• Trans* in College, Z Nicolazzo
• Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
• This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz
• Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
• The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
• Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
• Yes, My Accent Is Real: And Some Other Things I Haven’t Told You, Kunal Nayyar
• The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
• The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende
• Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
• Sons and Other Flammable Objects, Porochista Khakpour