Black & Queer Literary Supper Club with The Amandla Collective: Rosewater
Join us for a Bajan meal inspired by Rosewater, a debut Black Queer romance novel by Liv Little. The meal will be paired with excerpts from the book along with prompts to spark conversation and celebrate Black Queer literature.
We're thrilled to host Amandla Collective's monthly literary supper club that takes culinary inspiration from books by Black and/or Queer authors. Each gathering is a celebration of story, sustenance, and solidarity—featuring a rotating mix of genres, cuisines, and dining formats so that there’s truly an event for everyone. Whether you’re drawn to fiction or memoir, communal tables or cozy corners, this series invites you to eat, read, and reflect in good company.
Your ticket includes dinner and a complimentary glass of wine.
Copies of Rosewater will be available for purchase at the event. Don't worry if you haven't read the book already, you'll still be able to participate!
Menu
Inspired by the flavors and foodways woven throughout the novel, this event features a Bajan meal of beef pepper pot, roti, rice and peas, and cabbage. Each ticket comes with a complimentary glass of wine. Please list any dietary restrictions in the ticket order form - we're happy to accommodate!
More about the book
For fans of Bolu Babalola and Tia Williams comes a “tender, soulful, and sexy” (Phoebe Robinson) debut novel about finding love in an unexpected place.
Elsie is a sexy, funny, and fiercely independent woman in south London. But several things in her life have gone terribly wrong. She’s estranged from her family; is failing to make it as a poet; and has just been evicted from her social housing. As fierce and independent as she is, even Elsie must admit that being a carefree 28-year-old is proving difficult―and that she’s running out of options.
Juliet, her best friend since childhood, has always been Elsie’s lifeline. So even though they haven’t spoken in months, Elsie is soon snuggled up on Juliet’s couch, back at home among the mismatched cushions and knit blankets.
Between their reruns of Drag Race and nights smoking on the balcony, something surprising begins to glimmer in Elsie’s heart. And as the days turn into weeks and then months, this feeling quickly becomes too fierce to ignore. Will Elsie be brave enough to open herself up to love?
Featuring the poetry of Kai-Isaiah Jamal, Rosewater is a deliciously steamy queer romance from a bold new voice. An electric and captivating debut, Elsie’s story teaches us that sometimes home is not always where we are, but who we are with...
More about the participants
The Amandla Collective is a New York-based community organization that aims to fill your soul full; through gathering a community of contemporary comrades, through social justice-oriented discussions, and through cultural meals. Directly translated “The Amandla Collective” means The Power Collective, because we truly believes that through our collective power we can make change. Inspired by Georgia Gilmore, who ran a restaurant out of her home that became the underground supper club that fed thousands of organizers in the civil rights movement, the collective honors this importance of food as a meeting place for community and liberation.
More about BEM
BEM Cultural Foundation (BCF) is the sibling nonprofit to BEM | books & more, a bookstore and culinary hub dedicated to global Black foodways and storytelling.
Established in 2025, BCF creates programs and experiences that deepen the public’s knowledge of Black culinary and literary traditions across the diaspora. BCF prioritizes communal gatherings, creating space to celebrate and explore Black food through literature while serving as a home for readers, writers, cooks, and eaters passionate about Black cultures in all their diversity.