Another artist has created an online library featuring rare works by Black and Brown authors. Two weeks after indie rapper Noname announced the opening of her book club’s Radical Hood Library, singer and songwriter Solange Knowles’ platform opened the Saint Heron Community Library on Monday.
The library will have a guest curator per season with Rosa Duffy, the founder of Atlanta-based For Keeps Books, handpicking the first round of works. This season’s selections include Audre Lorde’s 1976 poetry collection Coal, Gwendolyn Brooks’ poetry collection Children Coming Home, Ntozake Shange’s poetry collection A Daughter’s Geography, Octavia E. Butler’s sci-fi novel Clay’s Ark, and Rita Dove’s story collection Fifth Sunday.
“The digital Library will spark new conversations about the breadth of rich artistic expression and the impact of black identity in creative innovation throughout history,” reads a post on Solange’s Instagram account.
In an interview with Saint Heron Community Library’s editorial manager Shantel Aurora-Pass, Rosa said she took particular interest in elevating the access to books that have become less and less accessible to Black readers.
“When people ask the purpose or mission of the space, it’s true accessibility because all of this stuff has existed for all of these years, it didn’t just pop up out of nowhere,” she said. “But the truth is that it’s either hoarded, or we just don’t know much about it. The folks that know its value sometimes are the ones that are keeping it from the people that it’s made for.”
The library went live via Saint Heron’s website on Oct. 18. As of Oct. 19, all 50 books are unavailable. Books are free to be borrowed by U.S. residents for a maximum of 45 days. Physical books are being sent to borrowers via Worldnet, which will provide shipping and return postage costs, according to Saint Heron’s Instagram.
Earlier this month, Noname announced the opening of Radical Hood Library, a brick and mortar in Los Angeles with a mostly rare collection of books by Black and Brown authors that’s also available for online borrowing through the library catalog app Libib.
