20 May 2025
Dear Incoming Sagehens,
My name is Molly Chakery, and I am from Grand Prairie, Texas. As the current First-Year Class President, I am thrilled to welcome you to Pomona College and I am excited to introduce you to the Orientation Book Program, which was a memorable part of my own first year experience.
After much deliberation and review of many worthy contenders, we have selected Hanif Abdurraqib’s They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2017) as this year’s book. This brilliant collection of essays uses conversation about music to truly make us listen to the culture we are living in and question our role in its sound. Abdurraqib, through his commentary on the connectivity of live music, and his praise (& criticism) of various musicians across all genres, arranges a powerful record of living as Black, Muslim man in pre- and post-9/11 America. Written like a well-composed album, this book takes you through the essence of a specific moment in American history and leaves you wondering why listening to that moment now feels uncomfortably relevant.
As someone who considered herself an avid reader before coming to college, as I’m sure many of you currently do, the Orientation Book Program was invaluable in that it redefines what I termed “college level” writing. Valuable writing, in my mind, was synonymous with writing that was formal, academic, and seemed with every sentence to have a clear purpose. The program, however, directly called for a change in that perspective by providing guided seminars and Zoom discussions with the Center for Speaking, Writing, and the Image (CSWIM), and indirectly by fostering conversations with my new classmates on our OA trips, and even in an Instagram groupchat we made to discuss our reservations and praises of the book. After hearing my peers highlight the value of the author's intention in sections where I couldn’t seem to find it on my own, I found a new desire to loosen my grip on my preconceptions of value as I entered my freshman year. I am delighted to share with you that the author, Hanif Abdurraqib, will visit Pomona during your first week of classes and give a talk to the college community on Thursday, August 28, 2025.
What I’ve enjoyed most at Pomona, thus far, has been spending my first year immersed in the perspectives of my peers – from trying foods mailed frozen from the home countries of my friends to listening to music in languages unfamiliar to me. This book, if you let it, will uniquely prepare you for what I think Pomona really has to offer you: a full and fulfilling experience. I encourage you to not just read each essay but to pause and listen to the songs and albums mentioned – it will enrich your experience tenfold.
Please look out for the “3 Things” emails from Student Affairs, including opportunities to engage with the book this summer. I very much look forward to meeting you soon.
With love,
Molly Chakery ‘28 :)