East Side Freedom Library | |
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44°58′28″N93°04′17″W / 44.9745°N 93.0714°W | |
Location | 1105 Greenbrier Street, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA |
Established | 2013 |
Architect(s) | Charles A. Hausler |
Other information | |
Director | Saengmany Ratsabout |
The East Side Freedom Library is an independent, non-profit library in the East Side neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 2013 by Beth Cleary and Peter Rachleff, [1] it has occupied the Arlington Hills Carnegie library building since leasing it from the city of Saint Paul in 2014. [2] The building is located in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood which is known for being a working-class neighborhood with a large immigrant population. [3] [4] The library's collections and programming focus on the labor history and diverse immigrant communities of the neighborhood.
In summer of 2022, the East Side Freedom Library's board of directors hired ethnographer and community advocate Saengmany Ratsabout as the library's first paid full-time executive director. [5]
The mission of the East Side Freedom Library is "to inspire solidarity, advocate for justice and work toward equity for all". [6] The library's resources and activities serve to provide historical context for the communities of Saint Paul's East Side neighborhood, create connections among them, and encourage celebration of the area's diverse cultures. [1] Events held at the library include workshops, presentations on regional history, and tutoring [7] as well as meetings of clubs and unions. [8] The library also functions as a cultural center. [2]
The library's non-circulating collection of over 20,000 books and other items [9] focuses on the regional histories of labor, African-Americans, immigration, [2] and social movements. [10] The collections have been developed primarily from donations from the personal libraries of a number of scholars, including co-founder Rachleff. [9]
Since 2015, the library has also housed the Hmong Archive. [11] This archive was established in 1999 by Marlin L. Heise, Yuepheng L. Xiong, Tzianeng Vang, and others, [11] and is one of the largest collections of books, documents, and material objects related to Hmong culture and history. [9] It functions as an important resource to the large Hmong community in Minnesota, as well as to educators. [12]
The East Side Freedom Library features murals by Hmong-American artist Ger (Jackie) Yang. [13] Funded by a Knight Foundation grant, [14] these commissioned murals depict many of the peoples and immigrant groups who have lived in the East Side of Saint Paul, including the Dakota, Hmong, and Karen peoples, African-Americans, and immigrants from Mexico and Europe. [10] Another mural represents the history of labor movements in Saint Paul. [7]
In 2017, the East Side Freedom Library was awarded the John Sessions Memorial Award by the Reference and User Services Association division of the American Library Association. The award is given to libraries for accomplishments in highlighting the contributions of the labor movement in the United States. [15]
The Metropolitan Regional Arts Council awarded the library its Arts Achievement Award in 2017 for commitment to arts in the region. [16]
Saint Paul is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center of Minnesota's government. The Minnesota State Capitol and the state government offices all sit on a hill close to the city's downtown district. One of the oldest cities in Minnesota, Saint Paul has several historic neighborhoods and landmarks, such as the Summit Avenue Neighborhood, the James J. Hill House, and the Cathedral of Saint Paul. Like the adjacent city of Minneapolis, Saint Paul is known for its cold, snowy winters and humid summers.
Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the Laotian Civil War.
Mai Neng Moua is a Hmong-American writer and a founder of the Paj Ntaub Voice, a Hmong literary magazine. She is also the editor of the first anthology of Hmong American writers, Bamboo Among the Oaks.
The Saint Paul Public Library is a library system serving the residents of Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The library system includes a Central Library, twelve branch locations, and a bookmobile. It is a member of the Metropolitan Library Service Agency, a consortium of eight Twin Cities library systems.
Swede Hollow was a neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was one of a large group of neighborhoods collectively known as the East Side, lying just to the east of the near-downtown Railroad Island neighborhood, and at the northwestern base of Dayton's Bluff. It was capped in the north by the sprawling Hamm's Brewery, and in the south by the historic Seventh Street Improvement Arches. Although one of the oldest settlements in the city, it was also arguably the poorest as each wave of immigrants settled in the valley. Swedes, Poles, Italians and Mexicans all at one point called the valley home. A similar community just downstream called Connemara Patch also existed for Irish immigrants.
Saint Paul, Minnesota, consists of 17 officially defined city districts or neighborhoods.
The Arlington Hills Library is a 1916 Beaux Arts library building designed by Charles A. Hausler. It is one of three Carnegie Libraries in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It served as the Arlington Hills Public Library, a branch of the St. Paul Public Library, from 1917 until its relocation in 2014. The building is located in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood.
Saint Paul is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, the county seat of Ramsey County, and the state capital of Minnesota. The origin and growth of the city were spurred by the proximity of Fort Snelling, the first major United States military installation in the area, as well as by the city's location on the northernmost navigable port of the Upper Mississippi River.
Downtown Saint Paul is the central business district of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River to the south, University Avenue to the north, US 52 to the east, and Kellogg Boulevard to the west. It is bounded by the Dayton's Bluff, Summit-University, West Seventh, Frogtown, West Side, and Payne-Phalen neighborhoods. The West Side neighborhood is on the other side of the river, and can be accessed via the Robert Street Bridge or the Wabasha Street Bridge. Interstate 35E and Interstate 94 run through the north side of the neighborhood, providing a separation between the Minnesota State Capitol and other state government buildings with the rest of downtown.
Frogtown is a neighborhood in Saint Paul in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Built around University Avenue, the Thomas-Dale neighborhood is colloquially known as Frogtown. Historically, Frogtown was a subsection of the current Thomas-Dale neighborhood. It is bordered by University Avenue on the south, the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks to the north, Lexington Parkway on the west and Rice Street on the east.
The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary is a city park in the Mississippi River corridor in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Just east of the city's downtown district, the sanctuary includes towering limestone and sandstone bluffs that date back more than 450 million years, spring-fed wetlands, abundant bird life, and dramatic views of the downtown Saint Paul skyline and Mississippi River. The park was opened to the public on May 21, 2005, and was named after its early supporter U.S. Representative Bruce Vento.
Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Minnesota-based Lao American spoken word poet, playwright, and community activist. She was born in 1981 in a refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand. In 2020, she received a National Playwright Residency Program grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Foung Hawj is an American media producer and politician who is a member of the Minnesota Senate. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), he represents District 67, which includes the east side of Saint Paul in Ramsey County.
The Hmong people are a major ethnic group in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. As of 2000, there were 40,707 ethnic Hmong in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The 2010 U.S. Census stated there were 66,000 ethnic Hmong in Minneapolis-St. Paul, giving it the largest urban Hmong population in the world. Grit Grigoleit, author of "Coming Home? The Integration of Hmong Refugees from Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand, into American Society," wrote that the Minneapolis-St. Paul area "acted as the cultural and socio-political center of Hmong life in the U.S."
Jay Xiong is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Xiong represents District 67B, which includes parts of Saint Paul in Ramsey County, Minnesota.
Chia Youyee Vang is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research and writing deals with the Hmong diaspora, other Southeast Asian diasporas and refugees and on community-building efforts among Hmong people in the United States.
Kao Ly Ilean Her was an American attorney, activist and leader in the Hmong American community in Minnesota. Her was the first Hmong person elected to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, where she served from 2019 to 2021, and she was executive director of the state government agency Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans (CAPM) from 1997 to 2012. She was a pioneer for the Hmong community in Minneapolis-St. Paul, becoming the first Hmong woman to be admitted to the Minnesota State Bar Association, founding several nonprofits, and leading the Hmong Elders Center.
Hmongtown Marketplace is an indoor-outdoor marketplace focused on Hmong American products and culture in the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Hmongtown was the first Hmong-owned and operated market in the United States and is today noted for its cuisine and produce, with the Star Tribune calling the food court "one of the state's top culinary gems."
The Greater East Side is a neighborhood and city district in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The community lies in the northeastern corner of the city and is bounded by Larpenteur Avenue on the north, Minnehaha Avenue on the south, McKnight Road on the east, and Johnson Parkway and English Street on the west. It is part of a group of neighborhoods collectively known as the East Side.
Payne-Phalen is a neighborhood and city planning district in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the United States. It is Planning District 5. The area includes several smaller neighborhoods, namely Railroad Island, Phalen Park, Rivoli Bluff, Vento, Wheelock Park, and Williams Hill. It ranges from a blue-collar area to the south to a middle-class area north of Maryland Avenue, including upscale real estate around Lake Phalen. The neighborhood is part of the larger area known as the East Side of Saint Paul. Major streets in the neighborhood include E. 7th St, Phalen Boulevard, Arcade Street, which hosts U.S. Route 61 and Payne Avenue. Payne Avenue has been a major commercial corridor for the east side of Saint Paul since the 1930s.