In times that seemingly test the strength – or fragility – of American democracy, Rebecca Solnit takes solace in one of our oldest, most elemental institutions: the public library.  

The renowned author, historian, and activist recalls deciding as a first grader that she wanted to be a librarian, surrounded by books, before concluding that she’d rather write them. She stands today as one of our most versatile and penetrating writers, having published more than 20 books on feminism and social change, on popular power and insurrection, on western and indigenous history, on hope and disaster. 

Still, Solnit says, libraries remain essential to “who I am and what I write.” In a special online presentation marking the wider reopening of the Kansas City Public Library’s physical spaces and services on June 1, Solnit looks back at their influence on her career and life. And she examines the indispensable role of libraries in our country and society today – as community connectors, as wellsprings of information, as agents of engagement in the democratic process. 

They are, she says, “the last refuges of a democratic vision of equality, places in which everyone is welcome, which serve the goal of an informed public, offering services far beyond the already heady gift of free books you can take home.”