Following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, a new spotlight has been shone on the issues of structural racism and inequality. In response to this, our Anti-Racist Reflection group decided a library would help people learn about the issues and give greater visibility to people of colour.

Our Anti-Racist Community library has reopened fortnightly now on Sundays between 11am-1pm located in the Millennium Park. The library has books for people of all ages – children, young people, adults. There are fiction and non-fiction books, serious and light-hearted but all center the lived experience of people of colour. Our library has a Climate Justice Focus: Climate Justice is Migrant Justice. We have a section of the library dedicated to conversations linking anti-racism work with climate justice work.

This is a FREE library. There is no charge for borrowing books, though you will be required to sign up for membership. Each member can borrow up to 5 books based on the number of people in their household. All books will be quarantined before they are re-loaned and we will follow strict Covid security to keep everybody safe.

On this library session, there will be Language Exchange. As this is a new activity, we will start by providing folk a safe, friendly environment to practice English. Then we will expand to other languages. We will have colour coded conversation cards to help the conversation flow.

These will be by difficulty so, if people wanted, they could choose a card based on what level they felt their English was at.

Participants will be offered a cup of tea and cake and a chance to sit and chat. This is a fun social space where people can connect with their residents of Woodlands and beyond.

This informal conversation will be a monthly occurrence and if people come regularly we could look at how there could be a more broad exchange of language where people could share some words and phrases in languages other than English.

Note: no one will be obliged to talk about anything they didn't want to talk about and they could end a conversation at any point.
Free vegan cake and tea!

We also have ongoing discussions the Nationality and Borders Bill and how our community is coming together to fight this racist bill. We have flyers in English, Urdu and Arabic for people to pick up and share with friends and neighbours to combat this bill and share awareness.

This Anti-Racist library is a collaboration between Woodlands Community and Aye Aye Books. Its conception is curated by local Woodlands resident Sapna Agarwal.

This Library will benefit our community for the days, months and years to come.

Any questions about the library or joining Woodlands Community’s Anti-Racist group please contact eo@woodlandscommunity.org.uk