Singer/songwriter/performance artist and actress Solange recently announced via her Saint Heron foundation that she would use the organization’s website to host a free digital library of rare works by Black writers and artists. The Saint Heron Community Library includes “stories and works we deem valuable,” which are available to borrow.  A statement on their website lays out the mission, describing the SHCL as:

…a growing media center dedicated to students, practicing artists and designers, musicians and general literature enthusiasts. We believe our community is deserving of access to the stylistically expansive range of Black and Brown voices in poetry, visual art, critical thought and design.

The new library collection is being organized by a rotating list of curators, each of whom will add their own chosen works. The first tranche of literature has been selected by Rosa Duffy of the Community Bookstore, Atlanta, GA, and includes poetry by Audre Lorde, science fiction by Octavia Butler, and short stories by Nadine Gordimer.

Solange described the project this way:

These works expand imaginations, and it is vital to us to make them accessible to students, and our communities for research and engagement, so that the works are integrated into our collective story and belong and grow with us… I look forward to the Saint Heron library continuously growing and evolving and over the next decade becoming a sacred space for literature and expressions for years to come.

Visit the Saint Heron Community Library to see a full selection of available works, as well as more information on the project.