The banning of books, clothing, flags, signs, and buttons by numerous school districts across the country has increased at an alarming rate over the past few years. This culture of silencing voices and lives creates assumptions and fear, promotes stereotypes and exclusion, and damages self-esteem, increasing the risk and incidence of suicide, and dismisses and diminishes lives. It breaks us.
 

Our Compassion Through Literature (CTL) project began with a simple idea. Could we build community and foster inclusion by reading books about people whose lives are different than ours? 

Reading and sharing diverse books is an opportunity for all of us to increase diversity literacy and make a positive impact in our world.  We encourage you to take full advantage of our CTL libraries here in Portland and all Read in Color diverse Little Free Libraries around the world by adding a book that shares some aspect you would like others to know about your life, and by picking up a book about someone else’s life that is unfamiliar to you. Read it with a CURIOUS and OPEN mind, then SHARE it in another library for others to read.  TALK about it with others to share what you learn and remember to LISTEN (hold back on those assumptions!).  By taking the opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes, hearts and eyes could open as we learn about the daily experiences of others.  

Thanks to a partnership with The Children’s Book Bank, the Portland Timbers, Third Eye Bookstore, and some skilled craftspeople from the community, 12 libraries were built and installed around the Portland metro region, and our CTL project was off to a sensational start!