Colgate University’s Community Reads Selection Committee announced its 2025 community read, “Primary Trust,” in an email sent Tuesday, April 1. This year’s selection, written by playwright and actor Eboni Booth, is the first play selected by the committee.
Each year, the Community Reads selection serves as a uniting text that all incoming first-year students read and respond to.
Booth, currently resident playwright at New Dramatists in New York City, won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2024 for “Primary Trust.” Set in a fictional upstate New York town, her play was staged at Syracuse Stage earlier this year.
Current first-year students can participate on the Community Reads Selection Committee. First-year Rachel LaCorte, a member of the committee, shared why “Primary Trust” felt relevant.
“I think ‘Primary Trust’ will be enjoyed by the incoming first-years as it explores themes of new beginnings and the emotions that come with them,” LaCorte said.
The email from Xan Karn, associate professor of history and university professor for first-year seminars, also discussed why the committee selected the play.
“[It] won over the committee with its well-structured plot, memorable characters, sharp dialogue and thought-provoking exploration of universal themes, including love, loneliness, resilience, memory and friendship,” Karn wrote.
First-year Caleb Quatrone shared how the Community Reads process works, from starting with a list of 12 books to their final choice.
“Each member of the committee read two to three over the winter break before coming back and talking about them in a roundtable discussion to try determining which books would work well for the Community Read,” Quatrone said. “We whittled the 12 works into three — our shortlist — and deliberated from there before anonymously ranking the works to determine which one would be chosen. The votes led to ‘Primary Trust’ being chosen by quite a significant margin.”
Quatrone also discussed how the unique format of “Primary Trust” made it an appealing choice.
“Because it is a play, we were interested in the potential for awesome programming to come out of it, which would make the reading experience more engaging and interesting for the incoming class,” Quatrone said.
All members of the Colgate community are encouraged to read “Primary Trust” and participate in programming next fall.
