Greetings! I am Dinah, a Mount Hope resident, and like many of you, I’m looking for ways to better educate myself on how I can become actively anti-racist.
A couple weeks ago, I came across an Instagram account put together by Sarah Kamya of Arlington, MA. While walking past her neighbourhood Little Free Library recently, she thought to herself, “It would be great if we could fill that with diverse books by Black authors.” Sarah has since received thousands of dollars in donations and thousands of books and has set her sights on filling LFLs across the U.S.
I think we can do that here! So I’ve set up a project and I need your help. We are specifically looking for books by BIPOC authors and with BIPOC content (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour).
If you’re on Instagram, you can find me @KWLittleFreeDiverseLibraries for all the details and frequent updates. But here is the quick info on how you can pitch in:
1) Donate money. This option is great because money raised allows me to buy books from Black-owned bookstores in the GTA as well as from Wordsworth Books in Waterloo. Then we can support small biz! Money raised is spent approx 50-50 between one of several Black-owned bookstores and Wordsworth. I’d like to check out some small used bookstores locally, as well. Money can be sent to me at murdochdinah@gmail.com via PayPal or etransfer.
2) Click this link and you get to an Indigo registry I created with about 200 titles. You can click to order and the books are shipped straight to me. If there’s a title you love and it’s not on the list, go for it.
3) You can buy books at small or used bookstores yourself and drop them off chez moi. Contact me at murdochdinah@gmail.com for my address. You can also pass on books (that fit the bill) that you’ve read and enjoyed from your own collection.
My goal is to get books into LFLs all over KW. Especially into diverse neighbourhoods where children and adults may not have enough access to books that reflect their own lives and experiences.
Thanks in advance for your interest and your help! Please spread the word!
Dinah