Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture That Shapes Me
BY Aisha Harris
Thurs, April 2, 6:30 pm
​*MEET THE AUTHOR*

BEST READS OF 2023: New York Times Book Review • USA Today • The Skimm • Bookpage • St Louis Post-Dispatch / BEST HOLIDAY GIFTS 2023: Publishers Weekly / MOST ANTICIPATED READS OF 2023: ELLE • The Millions • Essence
“Aisha Harris is one of our smartest, most entertaining modern cultural critics (…) which might as well be parlance for, “Read me immediately.”--ELLE


Aisha Harris, known for her sharp takes on film and TV, turns inward in this collection of essays, revisiting the pop-culture moments that shaped her nineties childhood and the tropes that still shape us today. In this thought provoking read, she digs into the story behind her own name, traces the “Black Friend” trope from Twain to the Spice Girls to Clueless and New Girl, and explores how taste and identity get tangled—pushing back on the idea that “you are what you like.”  The result reads like time with your funniest, smartest, most pop-culture-savvy friend.

Content considerations: discussions of ​racism and microaggressions, stereotyping and tokenism, sexism, being childfree, body-image talk, and media representation issues.

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PAIRED WITH:  Margins "GUARDIAN VITAL"

Much like Wannabe, this wine shows up looking light, bright, and easy to enjoy—then quietly reveals how layered it really is. Aisha Harris blends humor with sharp cultural critique, and this Pinot and Assyrtiko blend does something similar: playful at first sip, but grounded by real structure and intention. Both the book and the bottle challenge assumptions, mixing wit with depth and delivering something that lingers long after you’re done. A thoughtful, surprising pairing where the “light and fun” exterior gives way to something serious and memorable.

Just as the book may make you think differently about what you’re watching, this wine invites you to think about what you’re drinking—who made it (a queer woman winemaker), who harvested the fruit, and how the land was treated along the way. It’s a reminder that pleasure and consciousness can coexist, and that paying attention can make both the story and the wine even richer.  

The Guardian Vital label is an open-source label project in collaboration with The Vinguard and Líderes Campesinas to raise awareness of vineyard workers' safety and rights. In order to use this label, a strict checklist of both organic farming and responsible vineyard labor practices must be satisfied. 

Purchase the wine by the glass during Book Club Meeting!

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BE SURE TO RSVP

Come enjoy some wine and tell us what you thought of the book with an informal discussion. Registration will be capped, so please register early if you are planning on attending. Remember, if you RSVP and attend, you get a Bingo bonus stamp! ​

RAVES & REVIEWS

“Harris, an astute observer of the artist-audience relationship, hosts NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, and her refreshing debut essay collection weighs in on the music, movies, and TV shows that have had an impact on her life. She explores the racist pushback against the casting of a Black actor as the lead in The Little Mermaid  and the lack of narrative closure promoted by Hollywood’s endless parade of reboots, remakes, and prequels, serving up insightful perspectives in animated prose.”
- Publishers Weekly, Holiday Gift Guide of 2023

“Come for the hot takes but stay for the thoughtful analysis that will stick with you long after the last word.” 
- ELLE - Best New Books to Read in Summer 2023” round up

“Refreshing . . . an astute observer of the artist/audience relationship . . . insightful perspectives in animated prose that affirm Harris’s status as a first-rate cultural critic. As incisive as they are entertaining, these essays are a treat.”  - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"If you’re looking for engaging nonfiction for your next trip or just love all things pop culture, add to cart ASAP." - The Skimm
“[E]nlisting movies and TV to explain the world is Harris’s expertise, arriving at ‘inadvertent self-formation by way of popular culture.’ For readers already inclined to read culture to understand themselves, WANNABE is a compelling affirmation that they’re looking in the right place.” - New York Times Book Review

“Aisha Harris is the pop culture maven millennials have been waiting for. In this collection of essays, Harris brings a refined, journalistic scrutiny to subjective nostalgia, which makes Wannabe a truly magical summer read.” - BookPage, Top Summer Reading Collection

“[T]hought-provoking...essays….Adorned with witty remarks, tongue-in-cheek humor, and an unmistakable grasp of Internet culture, the memoir reads like an intimate gossip session, inviting readers to share Harris’s enlightening epiphanies.” - The Progressive

"An incredible journey through pop culture’s enduring and indelible impact. In Wannabe, Aisha Harris unpacks the (sometimes better, often worse) ways that pop culture has shaped her own life, charting a course for the rest of us along the way. Harris’s essays are brilliant, incisive, heartbreaking, and completely unforgettable. This is one of those rare books you’ll pick up and not be able to put down -- it blew me away." - SUSAN RIGETTI, author of Whistleblower and Cover Story: A Novel

"[Wannabe] probes a number of timely questions about our relationship with culture in the public dialogue, in an era when our preferences are an extension of ourselves -- a prescient analysis at a most essential time." - SHAMIRA IBRAHIM, culture writer and essayist

“…lively essays… this collection offers a thoughtful and incisive discussion on how pop culture, whether intentional or not, influences the way we move in the world….vibrant, well-researched view on how current pop culture both reflects and informs our society.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Like many of us, Aisha's brain has been molded, sculpted, broken, busted, and reconfigured by pop culture. But what distinguishes her, and what makes Wannabe such a joy to read, is that she exists in the intersection of critic's critic and Black girl's Black girl--deconstructing what, how, and why we consume in concert with her progressive recognition that she never quite needed to find herself because she was always there. It's like if Nola Darling, Rob Gordon, and Nora Ephron had an atheist baby." - DAMON YOUNG, award-winning author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir In Essays

“Harris teases out the connections between her identity and her love of pop culture with wit and elan.” - THE MILLIONS, A Most Anticipated Book of 2023
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“Aisha Harris is one of our smartest, most entertaining modern cultural critics. The nine pieces offer insight on Stevie Wonder, the Spice Girls, Pen15, and New Girl—among many other pop artifacts, of course—which might as well be parlance for, ‘Read me immediately.’” - ELLE, A Most Anticipated Book of 2023