As we begin the new year, the East Side Freedom Library team wants to say loud and clear: We want you to get involved with us. Our mission to “inspire solidarity, work for justice, and advocate for equity for all” can get traction only when our audience members become presenters, consumers of knowledge become producers of knowledge, and, as our collaborators in the Million Artist Movement put it, we become the change that we want to see. In this blog, we want to lay out a range of ways that you can become involved with ESFL—and, through ESFL, with each other.
Help build audiences for our events and programs
We are especially excited to be co-hosting—together with the University of Minnesota History Department, the Ramsey County Historical Society, and the Labor and Working Class History Association—a conversation between this country’s two most significant historians of African American workers. On February 10, Joe W. Trotter, Jr., from Carnegie Mellon University, and Will Jones, from the University of Minnesota, will discuss Prof. Trotter’s new book, Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America.
For the past two years, ESFL has been working with our Ethiopian, Oromo, Eritrean, and Somali neighbors to explore ways that Minnesota members of these diasporas can help nourish paths to democracy and justice in the Horn of Africa. Our co-curated programs and events have explored these challenging topics through poetry, visual art, photography, and music, as well as historical presentations and panel discussions. On Saturday, January 23, we will host, via our Facebook page and YouTube channel, a conversation with Abdul Dire about his new book, Oromo Witness.
Please share our Facebook events with your friends, co-workers, and family neighbors. You can also grab our webpage calendar listings and forward them as hyperlinks in emails.
Please also remind them that many of our past events are still available on our YouTube channel. And you might mention that many of these programs are now available as podcasts.
Do you have ideas about programs you’d like to see us organize and broadcast? Please let us know at [email protected].
We’re also working to educate the next generations about the histories of workers, immigrants, people of color, indigenous people, women, and LGBTQ+ people, through our participation in the National History Day program. Our team of mentors gathers, online, every Saturday morning in our “History Day Zoom Room,” and we advise middle and high school students in their research projects. Through their projects, these young scholars are taking ownership of American history and building their self-confidence. Please send your children to our “zoom room.” Let your friends know what support we are making available. How about joining our mentoring team yourself? Contact Peter Rachleff at [email protected].
Have you read a good book lately, one that stirred you up? Or, are you bursting with an insight about the complicated moment in which we are living? Share your thoughts with our community by writing a blog for ESFL’s webpage. Check out what others have written and send us something yourself. If you’d like some editorial assistance, reach out to Clarence at [email protected].
Join the Community Advisory Committee of our Housing Justice Program
We are convening a Community Advisory Committee of ten community members to reflect the diversity of experiences on the East Side in their relationship to housing and in their community identity. This committee will meet for two hours once a month, and will advise the East Side Housing Justice Working Group by presenting ideas and helping to plan events and assist with community outreach efforts. Committee members will be paid a stipend of $50.00 for each meeting attended. Please contact housing justice program director Benjamin Werner at [email protected] if interested.
Join ESFL’s Artist Working Group
This new formation, to be led by BIPOC artists, will increase the diversity of the lens through which we select and cultivate our programming, and will operate from perspectives of emerging cultural narratives that can inform our explorations about who we are. If you’d like to get involved in this project, contact ESFL Associate Director Clarence White at [email protected].
Join One of ESFL’s Board Committees
ESFL’s Board has a network of working committees which include non-board members as full participants. These committees include Development, Programming, Finance, and Recruitment & Governance. They meet once a month, and members often undertake some work between meetings. If this interests you, please contact ESFL Board chairperson Denise Rodriguez at [email protected].
Become a Member of ESFL’s Board of Directors
There are several seats currently open on our Board of Directors, the most important governing body of our organization. We seek to maintain a diverse Board with a significant representation of East Siders. The Board meets once a month and every Board member also participates in a committee which meets once a month. If this interests you or you have questions, please contact Rick Macpherson, chairperson of the Recruitment & Governance Committee, at [email protected].
We hope you’ll consider these opportunities to get involved, find one that fits you, and let us know! We look forward to working with you.
Love and Solidarity,
Beth Cleary and Peter Rachleff