Solange Knowles is launching a free radical library.
Once again, Solange Knowles is using her popularity for a good cause. Last night on Instagram, the polymath poet, culture worker, and song stylist announced a new literary project.
An archive sponsored by Saint Heron, Knowles’ “multidisciplinary institution reverencing the spiritual act of creation,” will house and lend a rare collection of Black and Brown intellectual, literary, and art works. Knowles is the founder and creative director behind the Saint Heron Community Library.
Per its charter, the library is a new “literary center dedicated to students, artists, creatives and general book/literature enthusiasts” interested in the often underserved corridors of the archive.
Based on a 2021 collaboration with Rosa Duffy, founder of Atlanta’s For Keeps Bookstore, the library aims to be an open educational resource. States-based readers can follow Solange’s Insta stories for registration details. And, when the portal’s up and running, borrow works for 45 days, for free.
A glance at the archive reveals a dazzle of rare resources that one would usually need the Schomburg’s help to track down. Saint Heron’s packing poetry, art catalogues, histories, monographs, and anthologies. One could request Ntozake Shange’s A Daughter’s Geography, or a rare bundle of June Jordan essays.
Out-of-print, rare, and first-edition titles make up the bulk of the collection. So works by Wanda Coleman, Pope L., and Ruby Dee sit next to titles by Octavia Butler and Audre Lorde.
The physical book borrowing system will be honor based. Each borrower may reserve one book per person, with requests fulfilled on a first-come, first-served basis. Shipping will be complimentary, but if your book isn’t in by the deadline, a credit card will be charged on file. But details to come on this logistics front.
In the meantime, hooray for the archive! Have you thanked a Knowles sister today?
