Hello friends!

I'm excited to be participating in my first ever READATHON! 

Books are great, and libraries are great, and libraries are also so much more than books. When I was a child, I looked forward to our family Saturday library trips and was well aware of the maximum number of items you could check out on one library card (first my mom's, then my own). As a student, I returned to libraries countless times to study and was well aware of their closing hours. :) When traveling, I've sought out libraries when I needed a place to sit and work, or take a virtual meeting, or just exist and rest for a moment.

Here in Ithaca, I've used TCPL to check out books, tutor students, print things, check out audiobooks, check out ebooks, host meetings, attend classes, and more. The library is ever-growing, with its library of things, the maker space, the teen center, and countless things I'm forgetting. The other day I went there for a tenants union workshop, and when I took a break to walk around I watched a kids' robot race in the corridor!

I'm also really proud of TCPL for standing firm for accessibility, free resources, and outspoken inclusion in the face of bigoted attacks, particularly on queer youth. These are trying times, and the library is truly a gem amid them. Can you make a donation to support the library's work? 

I'll be reading We Won't Be Erased, a comic book featuring trans kids by Sophie Labelle, and part of the prologue to Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, by Kim Kelly. Both pieces discuss issues I care strongly about (trans rights and workers' rights), and both are works I found out about from local events at TCPL and Autumn Leaves respectively :)