“THE RAD LIBRARY”

The Rad Library is a Perth-based mobile community library full of books, zines, DVDs, and games. The library has been stocked with many resources that uniquely focus on marginalised perspectives, or on issues of social change that can sometimes be difficult to find in public libraries. The purpose of the library is empowerment, for those who tell their stories through the resources, and for those who seek to learn and grow through reading or using them. The library made its debut appearance at the Really Really Free Market at Hyde Park on Sunday 19 September 2010, and now runs from the same location, the North side (Vincent St side) of the park, every Sunday between 12 and 6pm. Our opening hours may vary slightly seasonally and according to volunteer availability.

As hinted at, the library is special (rad) because it is full of resources, most of which:

are hard to find and/or expensive to obtain

present perspectives and voices that are often marginalised in our society

are donated by people who hate to see things collecting dust on shelves when they deserve to be read or watched!

Some of the themes we’ve organised our collection into include:

– queer, gender, feminism and sexuality

– race and Aboriginal/Indigenous/First Nation

– health, ability and mental health

– environment

– religion, religious issues and spirituality

– food, gardening and DIY

– exposé

– praxis, community and collective organising

– political theory and philosophy

– Australian/local

– fiction (including speculative)

– young adult

– kids

– autobiography/biography

– the arts (inc. poetry, scripts, performance, visual arts)

Please pay us a visit and tell your friends. 🙂

The Rad Library was inspired by the amazing library at the short-lived ‘Charlie’s Galley’ social centre in North Perth, as well as by the Anarchist bookshops and libraries in Sydney and Melbourne. These projects empower people through education and community and are about putting into practice our dreams for tomorrow, today. If you’ve got some books, zines or other resources that you think are rad, and that you’d like to donate, we’d love to share them from the library.

Email the.rad.library@gmail.com for more info or to donate. You can also contact us on 0426 273 124, or visit the facebook group (search for ‘the rad library’).

Check out the ‘Our Rad Collection’ section to see all the fantastic books and DVDs that we’ve got!!!