Editor’s Note: The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

Latinos Urbanos Book Club and the 4Bronx Project unveiled a new community library box, “Kingsbridge Community Library,” outside P.S. 207 on Godwin Terrace in Kingsbridge on Feb. 15. Laura Levine-Pinedo of the 4Bronx Project told News 12 The Bronx on the day of the launch, “Power is knowledge and having kids have access to books right here on the sidewalk – anybody can come up, take a book, leave a book – I think it’s a big win for the borough.”

 

​According to its website, the 4Bronx Project, which, as reported, launched in December 2022, is a community service program focused on supporting the underserved and bringing diversity and inclusion to the community.

 

Meanwhile, the concept of mobile and pop-up libraries as well as free community library boxes, both volunteer-based and business-based, has grown steadily in the last decade in The Bronx, driven, no doubt, by the closure in 2016 of the last brick-and-mortar Barnes & Noble bookstore in the borough. While, fortunately, this is no longer the case, and some physical bookstores like The Lit. Bar in Mott Haven can still be found, they are still few and far between.

 

The award-winning “1.5 Million” documentary by Bronx filmmaker, Gregory Hernandez, also co-founder of Bronx Film 48, chronicles an intimate journey into the borough’s literacy crisis, and explores the political and economic forces that gave rise to it, including lack of access to books.

 

According to the documentary, as of 2016, only 56% of Bronx high school graduates were college-ready, and 70 percent of South Bronx third grade students were unable to read at their grade level. Meanwhile, NYC Department of Education (DOE) found that children who fail to meet the third-grade benchmark are more likely to drop-out of high school and remain in poverty.

 

The new Kingsbridge Community Library box launch comes as officials from the nearby Kingsbridge public library announced its reopening on Feb. 14, after closing temporarily in late January for repairs to the building’s heating system.

Among many other groups, The Bronx is Reading is an organization that promotes literacy and fosters a love of reading among children, teens, and adults through multidimensional initiatives. These include the annual Bronx Book Festival, the Bronx is Reading Literacy Program, monthly book club meetings, and pop up and online stores. The first Bronx Book Festival was held on Fordham Plaza in May 2018 and aims to promote literacy and foster a love of reading among children, teens, and adults.

 

Brandon Montes of Norwood Community Library’s grab-and-go library system told Norwood News in 2021 he’d been doing whatever he could to informally share books with the community through pop-up book events since 2019. In July 2021, the Norwood Community Library’s first community library box was opened outside the Keeper’s House on the Reservoir Oval in Norwood.

 

In October 2023, Montes opened the library’s second community library box at Norwood’s North Central Bronx Hospital, located at 3424 Kossuth Avenue. “A good book has the power to stay with you for a lifetime,” Montes said at the time. “I wanted to help my whole neighborhood experience that feeling.”

 

Other groups like Bronx Bound Books, as reported, took the alternate library concept further amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Founder, Latanya DeVaughn, drove around the borough in a mobile bus library, similar to what NYPL has done in the past during school and public library building renovations.

 

The mobile buses allow kids climb aboard and choose a book of their liking. The initiative was so successful, DeVaughn began operating a book kiosk inside Baychester’s Mall at Bay Plaza in October 2023, with plans now afoot to build a permanent brick-and-mortar store in 2024 via a GoFundMe initiative.

Latinos Urbanos Book Club has also partnered with Norwood Community Library visiting various City schools in recent months, handing out backpacks filled with school supplies and books donated by the community library. The club are also funded by donations from associations affiliated with renowned Puerto Rican rapper, Bad Bunny. One of their recent Bronx giveaways was at M.S. 244 The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge Heights.

 

Books in different languages are also still much needed. In 2019, Dr. Joan Kong, principle of P.S. X11 in Highbridge, said English was not the primary language for many of the school’s students. “They are coming to us not knowing the language,” she said. “Our libraries are deprived of those types of resources.”

 

Kong’s long-held belief in the power of education led her and her colleagues to campaign for better library services for the school, in the belief that when a real library is provided to kids, it instills in them not only a love of reading but a life-long research skill.

 

Another player who advocates for literacy across the borough is Bronx poet and spoken word artist, Lorraine Currelley. Executive director of both the Bronx Book Fair and the Poets Network & Exchange, as reported, Currelley leads a group of fellow word lovers on a mission to expand literacy in The Bronx, providing workshops for writers and promoting storytelling by underrepresented groups in the literary world.

 

She told Norwood News in 2020, “We need to address the issues affecting our community, like obesity, hyper-tension, and other health issues,” she said. “We need to utilize resources to bring attention to mental health issues. We don’t want to be just a literary group.”

With more and more community libraries popping up around the borough, including on East 205th Street between Mosholu Parkway South and the Grand Concourse, hopefully the next generation of readers will continue to be equipped to do just that.

 

New York Public Library provides a range of free services and events in addition to library services. Check out our regular Out & About listing on www.norwoodnews.org for details of upcoming events. For more information on the Bronx Book Fair, visit https://www.facebook.com/BronxBookFair, and for more information on the Bronx Book Festival 2024, visit https://www.thebronxisreading.com/. Follow Norwood Community Library on X (formerly Twitter) @norwoodcommunitylibrary. For more information on upcoming events by the 4Bronx Project, visit https://linktr.ee/4bronx. Follow Latinos Urbanos on social media @latinos_urbanos. Watch 1.5 Million on YouTube courtesy of BronxNet here.