East Side Freedom Library

Books (and lots of other ways to learn) are critical to the East Side Freedom Library. 

And they are under attack.

Efforts across the country to limit access to books and other works are increasing, and we need your help in fighting back! Join us in Read to the Max! - our 2023 Give to the Max campaign to help support our work against banning books. Sign up to be a fundraiser (use the Join This Event button on the picture above), and ask your friends and family to make a contribution to support free access to important books. 

Would you like a little help setting up as a fundraiser to join our leaderboard? Contact steve@eastsidefreedomlibrary.org and we will give you personalized help! 

Please feel free to just donate instead - and share your generosity so you can inspire everyone to Read to the Max!

Read to the Max is a day-long homage to banned books and the stories they hold. The afternoon of Thursday, November 16th, we invite folks to tune in to a livestream of community readers reading aloud from their favorite banned books. The celebration continues that evening, as ESFL hosts a zine-making pop-up, led by Professor of Book Arts Erica Rasmussen. The event culminates in a fireside chat featuring Minnesota librarians Tami Lee and Jody Gray.

The East Side Freedom Library’s mission is to preserve and promote knowledge about the East Side – its history, residents, and institutions – through educational collections and programs.  The ESFL is located in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota.   Its facility will house non-circulating research collections that appeal to interested general learners as well as scholars, with innovative databases and finding aids that make using the collections fun and vital.  Story is a major theme of the ESFL, and the telling and gathering of stories, through formal interviews, workshops, and small-scale public performances, will allow local residents and interested publics to learn more about the work and residential histories of the East Side.