Libraries for the Commons is a free, one-day gathering and celebration of local, mutual aid book & knowledge-sharing collectives. We invite anyone interested in learning about library projects in their own communities and knowledge sharing as a tool for resistance, sustenance, and abolitionist world-building more broadly. Come engage in conversations, workshops, and performances and leave the gathering with free and low-cost books, chapbooks, zines and other printed materials (and maybe a new friend!). Against the backdrop of recent city budgets cuts that suspended public library service on Sundays, we will gather on Sunday, April 7th to activate an unrestricted space of study. This event will be open to the public (with the option to contribute a sliding-scale donation upon ticket confirmation). All donations will go toward event costs and compensation for participating organizations and facilitators.

Participating groups include Wendy’s Subway, The Free Black Women’s Library, Interference Archive, Prison Library Support Network, Librarians and Archivists for Palestine, Brooklyn Book Bodega, and the Pilipinx American Library, among others.

• Tabling and offerings by The Free Black Women’s Library, Prison Library Support Network, Wendy’s Subway, Pilipinx American Library, Interference Archive, Brooklyn Book Bodega and Librarians and Archivists with Palestine.
• Workshop facilitated by Library of Study.
• Presentation and Q&A by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine.
• Conversation with Prison Library Support Network.

The Free Black Women’s Library

The Free Black Women’s Library is a social art project that features a collection of over five thousand books written by Black women and Black non-binary writers, a free store, a period pantry, a virtual Reading Club, a weekly book swap, and a wide array of workshops and free public programs. We are a literary hub, social site, Black Feminist archive, and community care space in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. All races, ages, and genders to read, write, work, rest, dream, and learn in our space. All are welcome to attend our art and writing workshops, film screenings, performances, readings, book signings, teach-ins, storytime sessions, and critical conversations.

Wendy’s Subway

Wendy’s Subway is a reading room, writing space, and independent publisher in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We support emerging artists and writers in making experimental, urgent work and create alternative modes for learning and thinking in community. Wendy’s Subway is dedicated to encouraging creative, critical, and discursive engagement with arts and literature. We prioritize collaboration and horizontal decision-making in our work towards being a responsive and sustainable organization. As part of Libraries for the Commons, Wendy’s Subway will be sharing a selection of titles from our library, including some books curated by our friends and former Wendy’s Subway residents Pilipinx American Library.

Prison Library Support Network

The Prison Library Support Network is an information-based collective founded in 2016 to support incarcerated people by organizing networks for sharing resources and building capacity for the movement for prison abolition in libraries, archives, and other knowledge-based institutions.

Interference Archive

The mission of Interference Archive is to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs including exhibitions, workshops, talks, and screenings, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements.

Librarians and Archivists with Palestine

Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP) is a network of self-defined librarians, archivists, and information workers in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Our network consists of individual members and a steering committee. Any librarian, archivist, or information worker who agrees to our principles may join the network, and will then have the opportunity to join working groups and help with various short-term and ongoing projects.

Pilipinx American Library

Pilipinx American Library (PAL) is a mobile, non-circulating collection and programming platform that celebrates and collects print histories and narratives by writers, poets, artists, and scholars across the diaspora. PAL centers the Filipinx experience through the reading and sharing of texts, and other printed works and ephemera, in public as pop-up libraries, performances, and readings.

Brooklyn Book Bodega

The mission of Brooklyn Book Bodega is to increase the number of 100+ book homes for kids 0-18 in NYC. Brooklyn Book Bodega provides access to and ownership of books, builds community, and creates a passion for learning through free events and literacy-based community programming.

We get that things come up, but we rely on headcounts in our programs to survive as a business. If you request a refund...

More than 4 weeks before event → 100% refund

More than 2 weeks before event → 50% refund

Fewer than 2 weeks before event → No refund

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