Dear Sisters, Brothers, and Kin,
Despite the pandemic, the East Side Freedom Library continues to provide resources, from books and research materials to programs and community discussions, in pursuit of our mission to “inspire solidarity, work for justice, and advocate for equity for all.” We prioritize safety, so we ask community members to make appointments, wear masks, and maintain social distances, and we convene our programs online, via Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube. But we are eager for you to find your own ways to engage with us.
We are excited about new resources connected with our collaboration with Ramsey County Historical Society in the third year of our “History Revealed” program. The Roseville Library of the Ramsey County Public Library system will join us as an additional co-sponsor. For 2022, our theme is “Making Minnesota: Natives, Settlers, Migrants, and Immigrants.” This series will center the experiences of indigenous people, African Americans, and immigrants in Ramsey County from the 1800s through the current day. These presentations by historians, geographers, authors, and community members, online for the coming months, will provide resources which will enable us to see our forerunners, our neighbors, and ourselves in new ways.
We are excited to offer a related resource, access to free books which will allow our community members to dig even deeper into the subject matter. The generosity of the Phillips/Bloomstein family, East Siders, is making it possible for ESFL to purchase 5-10 copies of authors’ books to distribute. This gift is to honor the memory of Danny Phillips, who devoted his life to the struggle for labor rights, justice, and equity. A second generation Londoner from a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants, Danny became an attorney who represented members and families of the National Union of Miners from the mid-1980s strike until his death from COVID in 2020. It is quite a distance from the East Side of St. Paul to northern England, but struggles for justice bear quite a kinship. “Our family hopes that this series of discussions around immigration, class and race issues will evolve and be a meaningful reminder of Danny’s life as a radical organizer, activist, explorer of history, and mensch,” the family said as they announced their donation.
Our priority is to get these books into the hands of youthful readers and, ideally, engage them in conversations that go beyond the public presentations. We already have copies of the two books we featured in January, WE ARE MEANT TO RISE and SAINT PAUL: AN URBAN BIOGRAPHY, on hand to distribute. Please let us know ([email protected] or 651-207-4926) if you would like to get involved in this program.
We remain committed to making resources available to our community.
Love and Solidarity,
Beth Cleary and Peter Rachleff