By: Saije Rusimovici, SFU Student
For Vancouver’s cultural communities, community spaces help preserve culture and offer a sense of belonging. As a hub for both educational resources and interpersonal connection, newly-opened Vancouver Black Library (VBL) is the comfortable space that does just that.
Close by to where the historic Black cultural hub, Hogan’s Alley once stood, VBL is a lofty, cozy space, complete with hand-crafted bookshelves, a movie projector, and several spots to read or study. Located in the basement level of the Sun Wah Centre on Keefer Street, it’s the ideal workspace for any college student. The minimalist decor offers a welcoming space for not only members of the BIPOC community, but anyone looking for a place to study and learn from Black perspectives.
Founder Maya Preshyon, a 21-year-old student at the University of British Columbia, wants people to feel at home in the space she describes as “a boujee community centre.” As a driven advocate for the Black community, Preshyon’s idea for the space stemmed from a desire not only to connect people to a source of information, but also to each other. As urban development has displaced much of Vancouver’s Black population, the purpose of VBL is to bring a sense of community back to the area.
“I wrote for my school’s magazine and was involved with the radio station [ . . . ] and I thought through that I could find a space that I felt like I was welcome or represented, but that wasn’t always the case,” Preshyon said. She noted there were structural barriers that made it difficult for her to find support within that environment. Inspired by the International Gallery for Contemporary Asian Art (also located in the Sun Wah Centre), she made it her goal to recreate a space with a similar concept for the Black community.
The library construction began as an almost entirely crowd-funded project, built to make people feel like “they were in a space made with intention and care, elevating the idea of a community space,” Preshyon said.
The library contains a collection of books by Black authors, as well as familiar favourites, with an additional 1,500 books in storage waiting to be catalogued in VBL’s unique system. Their goal is to create an inclusive, decolonial, anti-racist process of cataloguing, assisted by volunteer Nola Boasberg. The books are catalogued to highlight narratives and perspectives told by the BIPOC community, as well as allowing space for new and diverse voices.
“There are a lot of ways that categories can isolate people,” Preshyon said. “Community input and the advice of librarians has been super integral in making it good, and we’re constantly trying to make it better.”
VBL is accepting monetary donations through their GoFundMe page and are currently accepting books as well. “If you have a favourite and want to pass it on, we’d love to have it.”
Visit the Vancouver Black Library to learn more about the history of Vancouver’s Black culture, meet new people, and keep the culture alive.
