West Library hosted a read-in of the Angie Thomas young adult novel “The Hate U Give” Wednesday afternoon as part of the second annual TxWes Reads program.

The TxWes Reads program was put together to get students at Wesleyan to read and connect over a single book, Reference Librarian Risa Brown said.

“We pick one book and we try to get as many students to read it as possible and shape our programs around it for a year,” Brown said.

According to Brown, the read-in was put together as a collaboration between the West Library and the Black Student Association (BSA).

“June Jones, one of the sponsors of the Black Student Association, wanted to incorporate the event with TxWes Reads,” Brown said.

Jones, the library’s circulation coordinator, felt that it was only fitting to have the library and BSA work together on this event since the library was already reading the book for TxWes Reads.

“Since we were already reading that book for the library,” Jones said, “I thought it would be fitting to go ahead and use it for Black History Month as well because there’s a lot of current events in that book.”

Brown described the flow of the read-in and how it functioned.

“BSA wanted to read selections from the book and then have a discussion and that was the event,” Brown said. “It was designed to help us get into the book a little deeper and show us the lives of people of today.”

The students at the event were active participators, Jones said, which helped to make the read-in an overall success.

“I thought it was a successful event. We had a lot of participation from the audience and engagement from students that came to the event,” Jones said.

BSA Vice President Briana Veasley described why people need to read “The Hate U Give.”

“People should gain the knowledge that that are people going through it, and it’s not just for black people,” Veasley said. “It’s for all races, all lives should matter.”

Veasley is also a student worker at the West Library and spoke of future plans the library plans on hosting as part of the TxWes Reads program.

“There will be more events for ‘The Hate U Give,’” Veasley said, “It’s likely there will be more read ins and we’re trying to get the rights to play the movie.”

Jones said that she wishes to use these events to really bring the student body together.

“We just really need to target these students,” Jones said, “and unify us all as a whole.”