This episode is based around an enlightening conversation with Banah el Ghadbanah, communications and social media manager at The Library Vintage in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Library Vintage is part vintage store, and part community space. It serves as a safe space for the queer and trans community, as well as serving the larger community in Northwest Arkansas as an inclusive place to gather and learn, and it has a crafting area for people of all ages and a free section.
Ghadbanah discusses why the Library Vintage decided not to apply for non-profit status under the current repressive regulations in America. They have hosted over a hundred events and collaborated with community partners on dozens more. The events include Queer sex-ed classes, documentary screenings, anti-oppressive teach-ins, community meetings, creative reuse workshops, book clubs, plant clubs, drag shows, mutual aid fundraisers, anti-Walmart craft nights, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color craft nights, top surgery fundraisers, fundraisers for community members facing deportation, and hosted other groups who put on poetry readings, Nakba day commemorations, art therapy workshops, sober recovery groups, knitting nights and more.
In their free section where they offer Plan B, COVID tests, HIV tests, overdose prevention supplies, shoes, clothes, and more. They also have a mutual cash jar that supports houseless folks in the area.
Despite their best efforts, they have had to reach out for public support through GoFundMe. This episode explores what the Library Vintage offers the Fayetteville community and what they hope to achieve if their fundraising campaign is successful.
The Library Vintage GoFundMe campaign.
Visit The Library Vintage Instagram –
Music played on this episode:
The Phlegms – https://thephlegms.bandcamp.com/
Jesse Welles – https://jessewellesmusics.bandcamp.com/album/masks-off
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