Celebrity News

Solange Launches Online Library Highlighting Black Literary Work

Solange's Saint Heron creative platform is giving back to the community through literature. Saint Heron's Instagram page announced the launch of a free community library that will highlight rare literature from Black writers.

"This free community Library is dedicated to creating access for communities to experience texts from authors, poets, playwrights and artists that engage radical conceptual imaginings. Together Saint Heron and Rosa Duffy have curated a digital and physical Library that will be home to over 50 titles, including a signed 1st edition of In Our Terribleness by Leroi Jones, Maren Hassinger,1972-1991, a signed The Meeting Point by Austin Clarke, Martin Pureyear: Public and Personal and more," read the caption.

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Rosa, who is the founder of Atlanta's For Keeps Books bookstore, is the guest curator for the library, which includes over 50 digital and physical pieces of literature. Saint Heron also partnered with skincare brand Aesop.

How it works is that those who are interested will have to fill out an online registration form and choose one book to reserve (You can only check out one book per guest). The book will be shipped out for free and will include a return label, that way the borrower won't have to pay anything out of pocket. The borrower has 45 days after the check-out date to return the book back to the library. This is based on an honor system and its first come, first serve.

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In a statement, Solange said: "The Saint Heron Library continues the work we have been building by preserving collections of creators with the urgency they deserve. Together we seek to create an archive of stories and works we deem valuable. These works expand imaginations, and it is vital to us to make them accessible to students, and our communities for research and engagement, so that the works are integrated into our collective story and belong and grow with us. I look forward to the Saint Heron library continuously growing and evolving and over the next decade becoming a sacred space for literature and expressions for years to come."

This is the first season of the free community library and it will run from October 18 to the end of November. Check out the library here.

Featured image by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for The Town Hall