One Week til FWT 2016
I’m still home in New Orleans for winter break but I’ll heading to New York City next week to begin my Field Work Term. I started this blog last year to record my first FWT experience at the Iron Rail Book Collective. For me, radical librarians are one of the key resources for all communities, but especially those struggling to sustain a healthy and fulfilling life. For activist groups and participants of social movements, radical librarians are to be used as information bearers who will go out their way to find educational literature. But even public librarians assist in activist causes by providing literature for learning of all ages, internet access and classes to improve computer skills, helping those seeking employment, and providing tons of books, movies, and music for pure entertainment. Libraries are also centers for public use as quiet oasis's, productive study and learning spaces, and for discourse and community meeting. Radical librarians and archivists also seek to preserve their community’s history and heritage. Protecting precious earlier artifacts, they also document the lives of current residents and continue provided relevant resources for their patrons.
Although I’m speaking in third person now, I’m using my time at Bennington to gain the skills needed to be a radical librarian myself. This year I will be assisting Alex Kelly at the New York Public Library with the Community Oral History Project. With volunteers and branch libraries conducting interviews with patrons, the project aims “to document, preserve, and celebrate the rich history of the city's unique neighborhoods by collecting the stories of people who have experienced it firsthand.” I’m more than excited to work at NYPL with this project and learn more about New York City through New Yorkers themselves. I’ll also be working at Civitella Ranieri Foundation, which is great for my musical side so I may begin working in arts administration.
This should be a good Field Work Term and excited for the work I’ll be doing. But until then, I’ll continue to enjoy being home with the great food and my family.