via Instagram @solangeknowlesLife & CultureNewsLife & Culture / NewsSolange’s creative agency launches a digital library for Black voicesTitled the Saint Heron Community Library, the initiative aims to spotlight BIPOC authors through a curated catalogue of books, zines, art, and moreShareLink copied ✔️October 21, 2021October 21, 2021TextHannah Bertolino Since its launch in 2013, Solange’s creative agency, Saint Heron, has established itself as a champion of Black creatives – spotlighting Black culture through podcasts, performance art, music, and more. Now, the musician is debuting her latest project: a digital library. Titled the Saint Heron Community Library, the initiative aims to spotlight BIPOC authors by featuring a catalogue of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, zines, and history books – all curated by Rosa Duffy, the founder of Atlanta’s For Keeps bookstore. Each new season will see a new curation of library materials. So far, the collection showcases a selection of extremely rare and out-of-print works, including a collection of photographs and poems by Amiri Baraka, a copy of Langston Hughes’ 1942 Shakespeare in Harlem, a number of poetry collections by Audre Lorde, and Clay’s Ark by Octavia Butler. All 50 library books can be rented for free for up to 45 days on a first-come, first-serve basis from anywhere in the United States. “The Saint Heron Library continues the work we have been building by preserving collections of creators with the urgency they deserve,” Solange told Complex. “Together we seek to create an archive of stories and works we deem valuable. These works expand imaginations, and it is vital to us to make them accessible to students, and our communities for research and engagement, so that the works are integrated into our collective story and belong and grow with us.” Speaking about the collection, Duffy explained that her curation aims to highlight classic and popular works by celebrated Black creatives – especially focusing on the overlooked details of their work. “This is the stuff that people were writing for us since the very beginning to help us get through day-to-day life, to help us get through times that we’re facing right now,” she stated. “They did this for us, and the reason that they’re such popular names is because they had such a strong voice. So that’s what I wanted to cover. It varies day to day. There’s so much. We are like a goldmine.” Check out the Saint Heron Community Library here. Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MOREHow to date when... there’s a wage gapIs Substack still a space for writers and readers? Jean Paul GaultierJean Paul Gaultier’s iconic Le Male is the gift that keeps on giving‘It’s self-consciously cool’: Inside the chess club boomWoke is back – or is it?What can extinct, 40,000-year-old Neanderthals teach us about being human?Inside the UK’s accelerating crackdown on student protestsHow is AI changing sex work? Where have all the vegans gone?Could ‘Bricking’ my phone make me feel something?Love is not embarrassing ‘We’re trapped in hell’: Tea Hačić-Vlahović on her darkly comic new novel