“If we make it cool to read books in the South Bronx…then it’s a victory” –Rodrigo Venegas, aka Rodstarz, one-third of the rap crew, Rebel Diaz, and founding member of the cultural collective
Welcome to The Richie Perez Radical Library, a new library created by the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective. The library, which was named for a South Bronx educator and activist who died in 2004, features “works by influential thinker-agitators, such as Angela Davis and Malcolm X, with writings by hip-hop luminaries including KRS-One, the RZA and Jay-Z.”
The collective partnered with Bluestockings, an independent Lower East Side bookstore, to gather 300 mostly donated books to get things started.
The small library is located in the same space where the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective hosts its monthly hip-hop open mic nights that draw rising rappers and their fans from across the city.
Their goal: “trying to convince these young people that the slickest rhymers are often also the sharpest readers.”
“We are what we eat — but we’re also what we read,” said Claudia De la Cruz, a collective member
via DNAinfo.com – Bronx Hip-Hop Collective to Launch a ‘Radical’ Library for Youth