The Radical Lending Library has closed. Stay tuned for future developments.
To Our Community:
I’m writing to let you know that the Radical Lending Library project, in its current incarnation and located at the Root Social Justice Center, has come to an end. This is due to the fact that our mission, to operate collectively and provide intellectual and educational materials and programs to the activist community of Brattleboro and beyond, is no longer in concert with the mission of the Root Social Justice Center. Essentially, we’ve been asked to leave.
The collection will be redistributed to communities and projects that can truly make use of it; many of the books are going to a variety of books-to-prisoners projects, including Greater Falls Books Through Bars in neighboring Turner’s Falls. The zine collection has been returned to its founder and former Radical Lending Library collective member, Vince Gonzalez. Vince has a passion for the potential of political zines, and has curated an excellent collection on economic, racial, and sexual justice, and will hopefully find a new home for the collection in Bennington, where he now lives. And finally, I will be working with various community members to bring about a sustainable Seed Library project for the Brattleboro Community. Poverty and food insecurity are among the most pressing social justice issues facing rural Vermonters, and the movement for seed libraries, community gardens, CSA’s and farmer’s markets are all part of a bigger project to address the economic and environmental issues that are increasingly impacting all our lives.
I hope to reconstitute the Radical Lending Library project at a future time for the Brattleboro/Connecticut River Valley communities, in a location that is more friendly, welcoming and accessible than the Root was able to be. If you are interested in continuing this project, get in touch so that we can start planning a stronger, more vibrant, and more sustainable project, one that is truly able to serve Brattleboro’s wider activist communities, and not just the niche that comes through the doors at the Root.
With love and devotion,
Dena for the Radical Lending LIbrary Collective
dmarger@gmail.com
I’m writing to let you know that the Radical Lending Library project, in its current incarnation and located at the Root Social Justice Center, has come to an end. This is due to the fact that our mission, to operate collectively and provide intellectual and educational materials and programs to the activist community of Brattleboro and beyond, is no longer in concert with the mission of the Root Social Justice Center. Essentially, we’ve been asked to leave.
The collection will be redistributed to communities and projects that can truly make use of it; many of the books are going to a variety of books-to-prisoners projects, including Greater Falls Books Through Bars in neighboring Turner’s Falls. The zine collection has been returned to its founder and former Radical Lending Library collective member, Vince Gonzalez. Vince has a passion for the potential of political zines, and has curated an excellent collection on economic, racial, and sexual justice, and will hopefully find a new home for the collection in Bennington, where he now lives. And finally, I will be working with various community members to bring about a sustainable Seed Library project for the Brattleboro Community. Poverty and food insecurity are among the most pressing social justice issues facing rural Vermonters, and the movement for seed libraries, community gardens, CSA’s and farmer’s markets are all part of a bigger project to address the economic and environmental issues that are increasingly impacting all our lives.
I hope to reconstitute the Radical Lending Library project at a future time for the Brattleboro/Connecticut River Valley communities, in a location that is more friendly, welcoming and accessible than the Root was able to be. If you are interested in continuing this project, get in touch so that we can start planning a stronger, more vibrant, and more sustainable project, one that is truly able to serve Brattleboro’s wider activist communities, and not just the niche that comes through the doors at the Root.
With love and devotion,
Dena for the Radical Lending LIbrary Collective
dmarger@gmail.com
