The Liberatory Library seeks to facilitate the sharing of knowledge in its many forms and creative resources that support learning within and sustainability of people’s movements for liberation
Liberatory Info for All
Statement of Intention
Liberatory information should be accessible to those who are striving for liberation in its many forms. The Liberatory Library seeks to host free resources and access to liberatory information to resist epistemic oppression (the oppression of knowledges) and uplift access to information for people’s movements for liberation.
Our Story
In 2011, a group of activists took to the streets around the United States and the world to protest abuses by big banks and Wall Street in a social movement called Occupy Wallstreet. When the movement came to Portland, Oregon, Liberty (They/Them), a Queer Portlander and PSU student of European descent, spearheaded the Occupy Portland Library. They had in hand one book and a cardboard sign with the word “Library” written in sharpie. Within weeks, citizens had donated 1500 books and countless zines, infographic posters, creative works and supplies to this collective living sculpture of knowledge. Volunteers strung up tarps into the trees to protect the books from rain and hung art and signs on the tarp walls.
The library boasted a core organizing team of 8 people and hosted educational workshops, and meetings that provided rich soil for the growth of various other grassroots initiatives. Profound dialogues and workshops stretched throughout the days and deep into the nights as people gathered in the library to conceptualize their liberation, read, write and create revolutionary art pieces. Whether people were donating books, leading a pop-up workshop, reading a zine or composing a letter on the library’s typewriter, the library itself was a medium for the creative flow of collective dreams and images. It was also a place of refuge for people profoundly concerned with or affected by the collective traumas of our society.
The library operated for 5 weeks before the camps were evicted by Portland Police. The books and materials were redistributed to various projects and People’s Libraries around the city and the energy from the Occupy Portland Library split into multiple other efforts including Our School, the Occutour, G.O.S.S.I.P (Guild of Scholars, Scribes and Independent Posties), and Community Supported Everything (a community building hub on Alberta St.).
Although many people have participated in this project over the years, Liberty & Kai, builders of the website, are proud to share these resources with you on this platform.
Over the decade that this project has been evolving, the greatest barrier to success has been activist burnout. Grassroots and street activists face high rates of burnout, which often leads to unfulfilled visions, infighting and conflict. The fact that this website exists is as huge testimony to the persistence of the participants and the commitment of various contributors to the process over the long term.
Though there are still big visions for a future library mobile, the Liberatory Library will continue through the current website and allow those working towards liberation everywhere to have access to both mainstream and independent resources aimed to support people’s liberation movements. In the context of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests worldwide, the time is ripe to provide knowledge to people seeking to be involved in the collective dialogues and learning happening online and on the streets.