Today we’d like to introduce you to Cameryn Hunter.
Hi Cameryn, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I started Cozy Black Girl Book Club (CBGBC) officially in January of 2023, it was nothing more than a way to hold myself accountable to reading for fun. Post-pandemic, many of my friends had moved to the DMV area, and we found ourselves seeking out community and stories centering Black women. With no real expectations, I drew a graphic to use as a logo and planned a first meetup at Call Your Mother Cafe in Dupont DC.
What started as a small brunch hobby with close friends, choosing monthly popular titles like “You made a Fool of Death with your Beauty” and “Black Women Must Die Exhausted”(fondly called ‘Brunch n Books’), grew larger than I could’ve ever imagined.
CBGBC was never just a book club, it had evolved to a community SPACE full of readers, writers, crochet artists, researchers, activists, and more.
At first, it was just the small change from small monthly book club meetings to in-person Q&As with authors and meetups with 20-40 attendees. We collaborated with organizations like The DC Pop-Up and Black Girls Love Coffee Shops, connecting with other Black women-led obusinesses to cater to more of our members’ interests. We did activities like book trivia, book bingo, book show and tell, guided meditations, vision boards, and so much more. We even held a 3-part Writing Salon at Mixxed DC with the Black Women’s Writing Group so that our readers could offer free feedback to aspiring Black women writers in the area (creating guided Feedback cards).
But what really changed the trajectory of CBGBC was the realization that our platform could extend further than just “a book club”.
Community organizing is something I’ve always invested in with free time. In 2020, I had even started a mentorship organization for underrepresented high school students in Loudoun County called Loudoun Mentors. Working with students had made it abundantly clear how much literacy and lack of Black representation in literature affect our youth modern day, now more than ever. So, in February of 2025, I attempted a Black History Month project with my eboard called the Black Book Block Party — an event aimed at raising $500 to donate as many books by Black authors as we can for local educators in need.
For the event, we brought out over twenty different Black community organizations in the DMV area to table and host activities (e.g. Choc City Cornhole, Friends in DC, Knot Okay Crochet, Soul Brain Trivia, etc).We also offered raffle prizes, a book swap table, and a “Pass the Mic” segment where local authors and leaders could speak to attendees about their work. What started as a small idea ultimately blossomed into an incredible success — raising $1000 and nearly a thousand book donations (a combination of fundraised book class sets and donations by best-selling authors).
The “Black Book Block Party” became a way for me to use the growing CBGBC platform to give back in the space. We held our next Block Party late August at the Morrison House Hotel in Alexandria. That event was another exciting change with over 800 RSVPs, over thirty different vendors and organizations, a book-themed menu, childrens’ book giveaways, teacher class-set giveaways, author and activist panels, book swaps, and bookmark-making stations.
After the February Block Party, a Philly organizer named Serene Nembhard (Rooted in Rest) also came across our “Pass the Mic” media and asked if we could bring the event to PA. Agrant for Philadelphia public schools to fund school libraries/librarians had been lost under the current administration, and it seemed like the perfect way to bring attention to the cause. So, in September, we brought the block party to Philadelphia in partnership with Rooted in Rest, with a focus on giving out books, gender-affirming care, sanitary products, free hair services, yoga, meditation, a science fair, art workshops, and so much more. Fittingly, on the Philadelphia Day of Literature, we were able to host a day full of community and celebration at Plant and People Cafe in West Philly.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Running a book club has been full of unexpected turns and lessons, but I wouldn’t necessarily call them obstacles. Like any social club, there are always people coming and going, reading the monthly books or just looking to be in community with other Black women. Sometimes it can feel like additional pressure to curate a space that caters to everyone, but that isn’t always realistic. Not everyone is going to like a specific genre, and that may even include me as a club facillitator. But, ultimately, realizing you don’t connect to a book or even disagree with another’s opinion, is what makes a book club fun. We’re not editors or publishers, we’re just finding community in diverse conversations about livelihoods we experience everyday. The best thing you can do sometimes is to relinquish control and let the space curate itself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Professionally, I work as a health consultant and also run a mentorship program called Loudoun Mentors. However, in my free time I do organizing through Cozy Black Girl Book Club, Diaspora Dinner Club (i.e. a cook book club with friends where we research culinary anthropology through the Black diaspora), and science workshops for young black girls.
My passion is creating spaces in pursuit of justice and advocates for representation and equitable education. I believe that there’s always a way to make in impact, some people are just looking for an avenue to do so. You can make a change by even picking up a book.
How do you think about luck?
Luck and coincidence are undeniable aspects of life. Sometimes it’s just a matter of the right person at the right time — maybe the book club has only worked because of alignment, that’s always a possibility.
But I’m also a very firm believer in putting yourself in spaces to tip the odds in your favor. I’ve met so many incredible mentors through this book club just because they happened to reach out or vice versa, someone went on a limb to put themselves out there.
The organizations we collaborate with are people we admire. The incredible authors who have done Q&As are people I had to set aside fear for, reaching out with a random email, praying that they may be available.
I’ll send out a hundred emails before giving up on an idea — I’d just rather see it come to fruition if I have anything to say about it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cozygirlbookclub
- Other: https://linktr.ee/cozygirlbc
