Diversity and Anti-Racism Little Free Library
Added 10/6/2020: we started an Instagram account to share what titles will be in our library. Check it out at: www.instagram.com/littlefreediverselibrarylw/
Hi! We are Ryan and Lizzie. We live on Marlowe Avenue in Lakewood and are first time homeowners. Lizzie is originally from Cleveland and recently moved back after spending 5 years in Boston. We frequently used Little Free Libraries in Boston and were happy to see some libraries in our new neighborhood. We are excited to be able to sponsor a library of our own now that we own a home. As parents of a toddler, we have been focusing on reading books to our daughter that highlight diversity.
We are building a Little Free Library with a focus on educating our neighbors and our community on anti-racism and diversity, inspired by the Little Free Diverse Libraries Project. More information about that project can be found here:
https://littlefreelibrary.org/why-sharing-diverse-books-in-little-free-libraries-matters/
For children, books are such an important place where they can build their self-confidence and self-worth, start conversations, and create change. Children of color deserve to see themselves represented in books and all children deserve access to seeing/reading about a broad variety of topics. We want to expand this opportunity in Lakewood.
Adults also deserve access to books which encourage critical thinking and understanding. The Little Free Library community has pledged to work harder to diversify the contents of their little libraries as a way to promote education and understanding. At the Little Free Library nonprofit organization, inclusion and representation are central tenets and so they want to create spaces where children and adults can specifically have access to inclusive material.
Diverse books include, but are not limited to; books about LGBTQ+, books where people with disabilities are represented, books that discuss and highlight different religions/beliefs, books featuring people from different countries, books featuring People of Color and Indigenous POC, and more.
The money raised through this GoFundMe will be used to purchase books to start our community collection and to continually purchase relevant books as needed. We will purchase our books from minority-owned bookstores.
If you’d like to purchase a book and send to our library directly, our Amazon wish list can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3U9FOB95ET3NE?ref_=wl_share
We are currently working on building our library and hope to have it installed in the next few weeks.
