A selection of books from the Little Free Diverse Library RVA
After the killing of George Floyd earlier this year in Minneapolis and the resulting protests against police brutality and racial inequality, educator and parent Casey Taylor believed the best was she could make a statement that Black Lives Matter was by advancing that message through books.
Taylor, a Midlothian resident, started the Little Free Diverse Library RVA, inspired by the efforts of the Massachusetts-based Little Free Diverse Libraries, created this summer to amplify and empower Black voices.
As a book lover and a former first grade teacher in Fairfax County, literature was a way that Taylor connected to her students, validating their diverse backgrounds while educating her classes.
“Books are a passion of mine,” Taylor says. “Stories are a neat way to tap into culture but also support the idea of representation in children’s literature.”
Stocking existing Little Free Libraries — those quirky boxes on posts in front of homes, stores and community centers around Richmond — with diverse books for children, teens and adults has been a meaningful way for Taylor, her husband, Jared, and daughters Margo, 5, and Harriet, 2, to discuss the racial reckoning occurring across the country and beyond this summer.
The Taylor family
Getting to know the area, meeting other people running Little Free Diverse Libraries around the country, and meeting authors and other book lovers has been an unexpected perk.
“When friends and family, or my daughters and I go out to new locations and make deliveries, we typically try and take about eight to 10 books,” Taylor says. “We snap a picture to post [to Instagram] so the locations we visited are public and people can know where to go to look for books.”
There are 100,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide, with dozens in the Richmond area. During the pandemic, as libraries and bookstores closed, Little Free Libraries took on more importance, giving people access to free reading material. Some people have also stocked the libraries with canned goods and other foods as the economy has taken a hit.
By publicizing the Little Free Diverse Library RVA and its Amazon wish list on a dedicated Instagram account, Taylor has collected more than 200 books and delivered to 30 locations from Church Hill to Chesterfield, Midlothian to Shockoe and West End to Bon Air.
“My original goal was to get enough diverse books for the Little Free Library at my community’s pool clubhouse,” Taylor says. “Then we set a goal at 10 local Little Free Libraries. We set up an Amazon wish list. It picked up speed pretty quickly.
“I think people are really craving a tangible way to get involved from a justice standpoint, as well as here at the beginning of a new school year, [and] this feels like something people can do to be helpful for children.”
With titles such as “I Like Myself,” “It’s Okay to Be Different,” “A Is for Activist,” “Under My Hijab,” and “Don’t Touch My Hair!” the 150 books on Taylor’s wish list promote diversity and inclusion.
She cites the “windows and mirrors theory” to explain why such literature is important. “With respect to books, this means that readers can see through to something that is not like them — different cultures, different abilities, different family dynamics,” she says, “and mirrors being that they are able to see themselves in the books they read. In the start of kind of an unusual school year resource-wise, we’re able to take donations from people [who] are able to provide [books] and distribute them to people who need them very much.”
At the end of the summer, the Taylors built their own Little Free Library in front of their Walton Park home.
“I wanted to use this as a springboard with our neighbors and the people that we’re meeting in our community to say, ‘Here are some books that you might not have considered,’ ” Taylor says, “and also making sure that kids who need to see themselves in the books have those — but also for families that are entirely white, like my own, that we are learning to reach for stories that offer our children a new perspective, I think will go a really long way right now.”
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