The DC Public Library Foundation's DC Literati Society, had its inaugural launch last night at Marvin with Peter Birkhead talking about his book Gonville. The room was full of literature lovers and cause lovers alike. All were there for the books and the community that came with it.
The DC Public Library Foundation is a board of members that would normally hold small events to raise money for the libraries around the DC area. Well, recently they’ve been inspired and decided to take it to the people.
Anna Fuhrman, a board member, sees the potential for the foundation and is trying to push it so the community can see the benefits of it. Within the foundation there will now be monthly meetings with authors and music shows to bring help fundraise for the areas libraries. With these new plans in mind and making the board and the foundation’s activities more transparent, many people seem to be excited about the foundation and what it’s doing.
BYT: So this is for the foundation for public libraries?
Anna Fuhrman: The public library foundation and it is housed in the DC public library in Martin Luther King. It is very much a part of the library, but it in the private fundraising part. It is the foundation that contributes directly to go for enhancing programs, enhancing materials that are available and aid that is available. So libraries get money directly from the DC government for operating purposes and the foundation gives to the libraries for all their extras.
That’s awesome. How did you get involved with that?
I am on the board of the foundation now. And I got involved after the fire at the Georgetown Library, which is my neighborhood library and where I had been taking my, at that time, two-year-old daughter to story time. And it was the first time that I had really used the DC public libraries. And during that time I realized how many programs in the District were there for me to check out books. There are just so many programs that make the community. So many of my neighbors used the library, and how many people didn’t necessarily live in the neighborhood, but used the facilities and the fire really hurt them.
Some of the libraries that I’ve attended had internet access, not only the books, with that taken out of the community it really is hard.
It hurts more than every now. People are using it more than ever right now, people who are walkers or unemployed need these places to go where they have access to information. It just makes so much sense, but at the same time that I was noticing that I was also noticing that the Georgetown Library was dingy. It’s a beautiful building in a beautiful position, but it needed a lot of help. So the idea was much on my mind, thinking about how much people use libraries, how much communities should support the libraries. There is public funding that people should be contributing to, to make the libraries better and to give what, do what, if they can help what is happening.
I have enough book cases in my house, but every week we always went to a library.
And there are so many libraries in the city, for a city this size.
Really?
Yes, when Washington DC was first mapped out by Pierre L’Enfant. It was L’Enfant’s plan that every neighborhood have a library. It goes back that far. In every neighborhood.
Education and community involvement were that important.
Yeah it was great.
That’s amazing.
So, it was sort of a blessing in disguise and I got a call to help support after the fire, people started coming out and fundraising. But there’s so much of the city that needs help.
So the funds from the foundation give money to all libraries in DC?
All over the city.
What was the inspiration to have a book reading?
Well the foundation already existed, but it was fairly closed off. There were fundraising drives and book sales, but when I got involved we produced a cd and had a performance at the 930 Club with all of the bands who participated in the cd. And that got more people involved. It wasn’t just people writing checks for $4,000 anymore, it was someone buying a ticket for $20 and coming to events like this. This gives us a wider base to work off of.
So you are bringing the community in.
There’s such a community in DC of people who are artistic and readers are interested in so many things. Getting them to know about the library and its something that everyone can get involved in.
So the inspiration was to get everybody involved and to make it more of a grassroots project. Have you seen a lot more people come out?
When this is literally our first event. But we’ve had a lot of interest. It’s been being planned for about a year. So we finally said okay we’re gona down the bullet and do it.
But we were also talking about having an event called “Rock the Stacks” where you have music in the library and entertainment in the library, like a party almost. So it is just not about the reading part, but about being a part of the community being involved.
“Rock the Stacks” would be so cool because I’ve always been shushed in libraries!
So that would be afterhours have a lot of fun and we would probably have the bands that did the cd help us with this too. They clearly cared and were clearly readers. So that connection can be made between literature, and music and it can come full circle.
So what are your goals for this evening?
The goal for this evening is to let people know who we are and to consider coming out.
Do you have any goals of how often you’re going to have book readings with authors?
Once a month at different venues. Right now our list of people coming in will probably being changing and adapting to the people becoming members of the foundation. The goal right now is to have a $50 a year membership with free admission, but we want to make it enough that it makes sense. So we know that the money will be going somewhere and not just for the events they are going to.
You guys have brought it down to an every man level.
That’s what we tried to do. And you know we all resisted calling it anything that involved young professionals, because there are so many young professional groups that don’t deal with reading. So we wanted it to be social, we wanted it to be fun, but we want it to be people who are every walk of life. Like at a library.
So it’s almost like an urban book club?
Exactly. I think it’s a nice bridge for that too because students, people who are in their early 20’s, are used to college and have an outlet for that. I remember that. There was a weird feeling that you’d been doing a lot of growing and bouncing ideas off of smart people. And then suddenly…you graduate. So through this you can keep your brain moving.
To create an atmosphere where you harbor an atmosphere of learning is great!
There are so many authors in town and so many book signings in town and our foundation can be a place for people to consult about who is a good author and what books are great. We might be able to put together something like The New York Times Best Book. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do some really cool programming. Just bring people together, and that’s what we’re working to do.
For more details follow DC Literati on Twitter and check out their tumblr: http://dcliterati.tumblr.com/
Previously in I Heart DC:
- 2/13: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use:
- 2/13: 101 Reasons To Love DC-Part 1
- 2/10: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/9: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/8: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/8: Perfect Date Outfits + Outings
- 2/7: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use
- 2/6: DC News You Can Maybe Use:
- 2/2: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use:
- 2/1: DC News You Can (Maybe) Use:
God loves a cheerful giver.
"Yes, when Washington DC was first mapped out by Pierre L’Enfant. It was L’Enfant’s plan that every neighborhood have a library. It goes back that far. In every neighborhood."
No. There's not a word of truth to this statement.