London’s iconic Feminist Library is set to move into its new home after a successful crowdfunding campaign

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Credit: 2020 Feminist events calendar: New Suns, A Feminist Literary Festival

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London’s iconic Feminist Library is set to move into its new home after a successful crowdfunding campaign

By Lauren Geall

6 years ago

The Feminist Library is in the process of moving to its new home in Peckham after supporters raised over £65,000 in a crowdfunding campaign

At the end of March, we told you about how you could support London’s Feminist Library to thrive in its new home. The iconic feminist institution, which is host to a large archive collection of feminist literature, had been forced to move out of its home in Southwark after the building was put up for redevelopment.

At the time, the library had raised over £40,000 thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign, but was still short of its £48,000 target. However, thanks to the generosity of hundreds of supporters and a staggering £20,000 in offline donations, that number reached an amazing £65,000, and the library is now preparing to move into its brand new home in Peckham.

The library was founded in 1975 at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement, and has since provided a space where women “could network and educate themselves,” according to the website.

The library is set to move to Peckham’s Sojourner Truth Community Centre over the summer, which is aptly named after the famous African American activist and abolitionist. In a sneak peek at what’s going on behind the scenes, the Feminist Library shared a picture on their Instagram of the commemorative Sojourner Truth plaque which sits on the outside of the building.

“Yesterday we popped by our new home (to be), and have finally managed to catch it in the daylight allowing us to capture the dedication to the incredible Sojourner Truth outside of the building,” the post reads. “We love the new space for many reasons and Sojourner Truth being its matron is definitely one of them!”

The extra money raised on top of the library’s original fundraising goal will go towards making the new Library “an even better resource and community space,” the organisation said in a statement on their website. The new site in Peckham, which is 50% larger than the old home in Southwark, is being put together by a team of all-female and non-binary designers headed by spatial designer Lucy Sanderson, who is keen to put equality at the centre of all her work.

“With any work I do, I want to give a leg-up to people who could be deemed [less privileged] – in terms of race, gender, culture, sexuality or nationality – if I can,” she told stylist.co.uk in October. “I don’t think that white privileged men should predominately be designing all spaces.”

The Feminist Library is just one of a number of dedicated feminist libraries and museums across the UK. Speaking to the Standard, the library’s fundraising co-ordinator Magdalena Oldziejewska explained how important it is to maintain these feminist spaces in 2019.

“The rise of right wing extremism and Trumpism means safe spaces like ours are needed more than ever,” she said.

“It’s so important to have places where women and non-binary people can talk freely and securely about the issues that matter to them.”

If you’re interested in supporting The Feminist Library, you can sign up to their #Shero friends scheme for as little as £3 a month to support the library’s future. 

Image: Getty

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