OTP CLUBS

A conversation series

Kicking off in parallel and in conversation with our Oakland Theater Project’s 2025 Season: Reckoning, join Co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran for either a Book Club or Film Club to immerse yourself in deep thought, conversation, and community. These clubs are FREE to join, but space is LIMITED! Sign up below to reserve your spot.

May - December 2025

1. Reckoning with Hope:
   Oakland Theater Project’s 2025 Book Club

2. Reckoning on Screen:
   A Film Series

BOOK CLUB

Reckoning with Hope:
Oakland Theater Project’s 2025 Book Club

In conjunction with Oakland Theater Project’s 2025 Season: Reckoning, this free, in-person book club invites readers into a nine-month exploration of what it means to confront crisis—and move through it toward renewal. From civic urgency to philosophical inquiry, and finally to spiritual imagination, we trace a path of reckoning with hope.

Our readings mirror the season’s tone and themes—grappling with authoritarianism, justice, survival, beauty, and community—not through direct adaptation, but through diverse voices and ideas that challenge and inspire. Together, we’ll reflect, discuss, and deepen our engagement with a world on the edge, imagining how it might be remade.

The book club will be facilitated by OTP’s Co-Artistic Director, Michael Socrates Moran. Participation is free and open to all, though attendees will need to purchase or borrow their own copies of the books. Discussions take place the last Monday of each month from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, listed below with adjusted dates in May, Nov, and Dec.

Cost: FREE!
Dates: Below
Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Location: Zoom, online (possible in-person sessions TBD)

2025 Book List & Meeting Dates:

May 19 – (adjusted date) On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
June 30 – Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (title to be confirmed)
July 28 – Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
August 25 – The Burnout Society & Saving Beauty by Byung-Chul Han
September 29 – Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
October 27 – The Gift by Lewis Hyde
November 17 (moved for Thanksgiving) – Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr
December 22 (moved for holidays) – Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Join us for a year of meaningful conversation, community, and imagination as we read and reflect together on what it means to reckon—and to hope.

FILM CLUB

Reckoning on Screen:
A Film Series

Join us for 9 films over 9 months, each exploring themes of power, justice, resistance, and renewal. From dystopian thrillers to visionary Afrofuturism, this series presents bold, provocative cinema that reflects the spirit of Reckoning in a changing world.

You’re invited to watch each film on your own or join us for on-site screenings at Oakland Theater Project. Screening dates will be scheduled monthly, based on group interest and OTP’s rehearsal calendar.

Each film will be followed by a monthly in-person discussion, facilitated by OTP’s Co-Artistic Director Michael Socrates Moran with a special guest videographer/filmmaker joining one or more of the discussions. Participants are responsible for accessing each film through rental, streaming, or on-site viewing at OTP.

Discussions take place the first Monday of each month from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM, with one adjusted date in May.

Cost: FREE!
Dates: Below
Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Location: Oakland Theater Project (1501 MLK Jr Way, Oakland, CA 94612)

Film Lineup & Discussion Dates:

May 5 (adjusted date) – The Lives of Others (2006, Germany)
Surveillance, truth, and the authoritarian state
June 2 – Neptune Frost (2021, Rwanda/USA)
Afrofuturism, resistance, and digital liberation
July 7 – Children of Men (2006, UK)
Collapse, hope, and the survival of belief
August 4 – The Florida Project (2017, USA)
Precarity, exhaustion, and the search for freedom
September 1 – Pina (2011, Germany)
Art as ritual, body, and spirit
October 6 – Network (1976, USA)
Media spectacle, rage, and the death of truth
November 3 – Cabaret (1972, USA)
Desire, distraction, and the rise of fascism
December 1 – The Salt of the Earth (2014, Brazil/France)
Witness, reciprocity, and beauty in a broken world