Roosevelt Library Celebrates Black History Month With Read-In

ROOSEVELT, NY. — The Roosevelt Public Library celebrated the latest chapter in a decade-long tradition this month, holding its annual Black History Month Read-in Feb. 15.

Started by the Black caucus of the American Library Association in the 1970s, Black Heritage Librarian Carol Gilliam said read-ins take place across the country, often during Black History Month, as a way to celebrate a fundamental part of a library’s purpose.

“They decided to start a read-in, a national read-in, to just celebrate the joy of reading. And that's what we do, as librarians,” Gilliam told Patch. "So it was started way back then…we've been doing it for over 10 years at the Roosevelt Public Library.”

As for the Roosevelt program itself, Gilliam said it was relatively informal.

“I call it ‘come and share a book and have a bite.’ I always serve lunch…we had wraps and soda and chips. And I have people come in and talk about a famous their favorite African American author, and that author can be a playwright, it can actually be an artist, it can be someone who has written a memoir, it could be someone who has just done something in the community, actually, who is African American," Gilliam said. "They don't have to be just African American, they can be Caribbean American, but they have to be Black, because it is Black History Month. So I ask them to come in and talk about this person and what they have written and why you like it. I always start off the conversation by using someone that I like, and this year I chose Langston Hughes.”

Gilliam said the poet’s work is of particular import to her because of where her career started. She got her library sciences degree from Queens College before working as a children’s librarian in Harlem at the outset of her work in libraries.

“That particular library on 124th Street, between Fifth and Madison, is one of the libraries where Langston Hughes used to write his poetry,” Gilliam said.

While Gilliam’s connection to Hughes is a serendipitous one, the library where she works has a connection to Black history all its own.

“Our collection, the Black Heritage collection at the Roosevelt Public Library, is the third largest Black heritage collection in the state of New York,” Gilliam said, noting that the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem and the Langston Hughes Library in Corona, Queens are the largest and second-largest.

Gilliam said part of the organizing process for the read-in is getting the word out in the community ahead of time, whether it's to school groups, elected officials, nonprofits or a combination thereof. Among the community members in attendance was the Nassau County Legislature’s deputy minority leader Debra Mulé, who said the event gave light to Roosevelt’s, “unique and beautiful identity.”

“In every quest for justice and equality, the power of the pen and the written word are indispensable vessels for change, progress and celebrating a community’s unique and beautiful identity,” Mulé said. “That is why it is wonderful to see events like the Roosevelt Library’s Black History Month read-in succeed, and I thank Carol for her efforts in bringing this enlightening gathering together each year.”

When asked about the responsibility that comes with stewarding the collection and gathering people together for the read-in, Gilliam said it’s an important one. The Black Heritage collection, she said, allows people to come to the Roosevelt Public Library and get books they can’t find elsewhere, particularly Black history reference materials that are sometimes out of print.

“It's a whole collection of books, and they don't even make those books anymore. So it's very important to the community, and it's also very important to the outside community,” Gilliam said. “We have students who go to Columbia University, who come all the way from Columbia University out to our library to use the collection for various projects.”

Gilliam said local advanced placement students come to the library to learn how to use its archives as well, . While Black History Month might be wrapping up at the end of February, Gilliam said the library will continue celebrating Black history through its programming throughout the year.

“Every month we have some kind of African-American program, whether it be a concert, an artist exhibit, or anything having to do with something that an African American promotes,” Gilliam said. “We have that every month at the Roosevelt Public Library, so every month is Black History Month for us.”