aequa Library first event 📚

aequa’s Equity Library is opening its doors on the evening of December 10th for a collective reading and book swapping event.From 6.30pm to 7pm, we will share some food and get to know each other.

From 7pm to 7.45pm, we will read each other texts that speak of “Home” and that also resonate with the mission of the aequa library. Home might be a feeling you miss, a challenge you didn’t ask for, a welcomed relief, or an exciting journey. It might be something constant or ever-changing. Together we will travel through reading and gift ourselves a moment to reflect on stories from home.

Then we will take a short break and from 8pm to 8.45pm, we will book swap! There will be one table for lending to each other and one table for trading. Bring any book(s), zine(s), DVD(s), etc. that you think should be shared with the world and get ready to be curious about what others want to share with you ! 

This is an in-person event at aequa CC (Exerzierstr 14). aequa’s Covid-19 Hygiene concept
This event is “3G+”: everyone should have a test ahead of time, if possible with digital/official results. Vaccination alone is not sufficient. If more than 20 people attend, then masks are mandatory. Below that number, we’ll find consensus of what feels safe between us.

The library’s mission

The Equity Library was created in the summer of 2020 to meet an unfulfilled need. A small group of readers, writers, book collectors and activists came together online and began to dream of a community resource that highlights marginalised writers and subjects connecting to the work of the aequa community – solidarity, mutual support, and social equity. Precisely the resources often missing from mainstream libraries.

We imagined a space not only to lend out books and zines but for people to connect to others when they want to, to exchange thoughts and ideas. We imagined community members discovering the library one day and finding an unexpected gem on the shelves – a book they’d always wanted to read, or something surprising that would take their learning in a new direction. We imagined the moment in which they found a resource that made them feel more seen and less alone.

Later in the year, we began to pool these resources from donations and to create the structures needed to run the project. The work of organising a library brought us together as an international and horizontal collective and created a caring space to dream together under a winter of pandemic lockdowns. aequa community supporters -volunteers, co-workers and members of working groups – began to make appointments to take out resources and told us how much they enjoyed them. The library was becoming real!

Now that the community centre that hosts the library is open again, more is possible and our dreams are expanding. More book events. More discussion groups. More spaces for people to sit quietly together and enjoy the materials we’ve been so fortunate to receive.

We’re excited to start on this new part of the library journey and if you’d like to join us in organising it, or become a member of the library itself, we look forward to hearing from you at aequa dot library at gmail dot com.