Academic days at Williston are usually routine and uneventful, with few pauses for introspection and self-analysis. Hoping to slow down an increasingly fast-paced culture and add some variation to a typical school day, the English Department introduced Tea and Read as an artful form of self-care.

Students dropped by the Dodge Room for Tea & Read’s inaugural event, Thursday Feb. 24 at 9:40 for some quiet free-reads with snacks and tea. Though an email before the event encouraged students to bring their own book, the teachers, including Mr. Liebowitz, Ms. Sawyer, and Ms. Tancrell-Fontaine, provided an assortment of novels, as well as poem and short story collections, for people to choose from.

Tea & Read, though new to campus, has a precedent in pop culture. Cartoonist and comic strip author Calvin and Hobbes said, “Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” T-shirts with the print “Drink Tea Read Books” sell fast on Etsy. Reading and tea are often conceived as the two elements that intertwine and bring bliss and content.

That said, reading quietly in a group is a new experience for most students. They often read at dorms during study hall or at the library, alone and undisturbed. Still, the English Department, prior to the event, was expecting a large breadth of reactions and opinions.

“We are still ironing that [the frequency of Tea & Read] out,” said MattLiebowitz, the Head of the English Department. “We are going do a test run, and depending on how many would show up and [are] interest[ed] in further get togethers, we will sort of adjust the schedule. I’d like it to be a regular thing.”

Liebowitz said he thinks Tea & Read will tap into a specific need of the students.

“I hope people really enjoy the kind of break [Tea & Read] provides, and the sort of communal kind of relaxation and rest from the numerous things [students] have to do every day,” Liebowitz said.

He is right. Many were eagerly anticipating the first Tea and Read.

Sari Yamagata, a senior from Tokyo, Japan, said, “I think it’s really nice because I have always wanted to read more after receiving recommendations from my friends. I think Tea and Read will make me recall the joy of reading.”

Sari said she reread “Giovanni’s Room,” [by James Baldwin]. “I am a slow reader, but I enjoy the time I spend reading. It lets me experience situations and scenes I have never been through before, and makes me empathize with the characters on an emotional level – the same with movies and comics, but books have more words, so there are[is] more space for imagination. It’s kind of fun.”

Edward Bergham, a senior in Liebowitz’s AP Lit class, agrees with Sari on the transformative power reading brings.

“Right now, I am working on reading “Gilgamesh” by Sophus Helle and “Mutual Aid” by Dean Spade. I have yet to start Helle’s translation of the classic epic, but I’m excited to start it during Tea & Read.”

He purchased the book to get inspired for his Williston Scholars Performing Arts production.

As of Spade’s informational field guide to healthy community systems, Edward said that he has “struggled to find the time to finish reading those last fifty pages just because Williston tends to facilitate overscheduling its students,” and that he is very excited to have “an excuse to do some independent reading during the school day.”

Edward admitted he’s also excited to drink strawberry pomegranate green tea during the session.

As for me, I have sacrificed some sleeping and gaming time to finish the 1100-page long “1Q84” by Haruki Murakami since I know I will not have ample time to read during assessment week. However, I am excited to start something new during the break and plan to settle for my book choice during the Tea & Read session with recommendations from my peers.