The Anti-Racist Little Free Library: What it is and how you can help

Taking inspiration from the Little Free Library concept, this instillation on campus intends to specifically teach Anti-Racist and diverse positive lessons to adults and children alike.

In the political wake of George Floyd’s murder, many people have begun championing the ideal of not just avoiding racism and its many forms, but being explicitly anti-racist, fighting against and tearing down old ways of thinking instead, and with this concept came an idea from Eric Wilson-Edge and TeyAnjulee Leon to set up the Anti-Racist Free Little Library.

“We were looking for a way to do something for our community that would advance the ideas of equity, inclusion, and representation,” they said, when asked about the beginning of this project, “TeyAnjulee and I started talking about this project about a year ago. We’d originally planned to work with some faculty and students on campus to build a LFL that better reflect the campus community but we ran into issues that are ultimately pandemic related. It was also going to take longer to have something built and we ultimately decided to order a pre-made LFL from the Little Free Library website so we could start distributing books. In short, COVID delayed things and interfered with other plans we had.”

Right now, the pair are treating the current installation, located near the Snoqualmie Library next to the central staircase of the campus, as a Pilot Program. They have the intention to purchase more from local retailers such as Parable and King’s Books that they have partnered with.

For the future, the hope is that the current Anti-Racist Library will remain a permenant fixture on campus for the sake of young people in the community, as well as ideally expanding into an even more robust partnership, even one that could bring a library back to our local Hilltop community.

For now, Students can help the project grow by completing a survey, accessed via QR code from a bookmark that every book from the Anti-Racist library has. Not only will this provide crucial info for the opinion of the Little Free Library, but also what kinds of books people wish to be stocked, and how often stocking should happen.