Ever wondered why all the great and influential art you have ever come across was mostly by men? Weren’t there any female artists that could create an impact on you?
There are a lot of women who have done impeccable work in their fields of art, but they weren’t getting the amount of audience and appreciation as they truly deserve. This is where the Sister library came into the picture. The Sister Library is a community-owned space in Bandra. It consists of more than 1000 books, zines, and publications, all by female artists. With hot pink coloured walls and bookshelves stacked with literary art, all created by women, this place aims to celebrate, promote, and appreciate the impeccable work of female artists.
The library was found by Aqui Thami, who is a scholar, artist, and activist. She is a self-taught artist who uses her art to address socio-political issues. Her projects also include the artist collective Bombay Underground and The Dharavi art room. A few years ago, she noticed that her personal collection has as few as 20 percent of books by female authors, and that is when she decided to read more works of women and started to grow her collection. After this, she decided that she must do something to promote female artists, and that is what the Sister Library stands for.
It all started when she started traveling with her personal collection of 100 books and zines by women to major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Goa, and Cochin. The sister library has also been exposed to foreign countries like New Zealand and Bangladesh. With all the efforts to promote and appreciate the contribution of women in the creative field, Aqui discovered the potential that a permanent space might have. After raising the money through fundraisers and a crowdfunding page, the Sister Library came into existence.
It is South Asia’s first community-owned, community-run feminist library. It is not only working for people to acknowledge women and their work but also to put an end to the antecedent caste supremacy. The discussion about feminism is highly dominated by the traditional hierarchy of caste and socio-economic factors. The founder wanted to give the indigenous women a platform to showcase their work and art. The library is a space that is welcoming to everyone. It is designed in a way to provide opportunities to learn and share experiences with different people and to create an environment completely out of this world. It allows people to interact through discussions, workshops, and readings.
The library has also recently started a podcast called ‘Sister Radio’, which is a platform to learn through women from all walks of life about culture and history through interviews and discussions. The podcast solely aims to celebrate women and build and share ways of life away from the male perspective. It is a space created for women to grow and learn.
Amidst the wake of the COVID situation, it started its ‘reading women book club’ online. The library has also opened again after the lockdown with proper precautions. To visit, now you need to book a slot for yourself in advance, and the library will make sure that there are no other visitors present at the time to make your reading experience safer.
Sister library is an experience to witness art and to get to know the stories of different women. The library wants people to look back and think about the cultural norms and celebrate women for any form of creativity. It wants people to be surrounded by the thoughts of so many strong women and empower themselves.
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