Many students know about the amazing Human Rights Institute (HRI) that is located inside the Nancy Thompson Library. And for those who don’t, no worries as one will quickly learn what it is all about.

Every semester HRI host a book club series. This semester, starting Wednesday, January 27, 2016, HRI will be hosting not only a book club but as well as an exhibition titledGround Surge: Communities Rising created by photojournalist and advocate Syd London.

London captures moments from harsh realities in and out of New York City. Her work for the exhibitionGround Surge: Communities Rising will reveal the harsh realities that people go through in order to live in a country where it is commonly known as the land of the free. It will showcase low income families especially those in a minority community and those who are a part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, inter-sex, non-conforming (LGBTQ) community.

The exhibition will run from January 25, 2016, through March 25, 2016. There will be an opening reception on Tuesday, January 26, 2016, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. and London will be at the event with special guest. The reception will be held in the HRI Art Gallery. London comments that her exhibition will take viewers to places where people have no health care and or are discriminated against because of their race, sexual orientation, ability and more.

Not only will there be a gallery for people to see but there will be a four-part book club series starting Wednesday, January 27, 2016. Below are details of the book club:

• On Wednesday, January 27, 2016, is the first book club date. Attendees will read the book Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Nock with a supplemental reading the novel by Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues.
• On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, attendees will have the chance to discuss the book Queen (In) Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States by Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie and Kay Whitlock with a supplemental reading of Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde.
• On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, attendees will be discussing the book Critiques which is edited by Caitlin Wood with a supplemental reading Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag.
• On Wednesday, April 27, 2016, is the last book club of the spring semester and attendees will be discussing the book Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money From Mass Incarceration which was co-edited by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright. The supplemental reading for that day will be On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau with Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Please register for the book club by visiting the Human Rights Institute book clubpage. The HRI is located in the Nancy Thompson Library on the left upon entrance and is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The exhibition and the book club series is free and open to the public. For more information about the book club please e-mail HRI athumanrights@kean.edu or call HRI at 908-737-4670.