AFRO-ASIA

READING ROOM

(GOVERNORS ISLAND

NEW YORK, NY)

Welcome to the Afro-Asia Reading Room, a printed media, reference center dedicated to thinkers, artists, and book lovers who are invested in texts on decolonizing and liberation inspired by the dreams of revolutionary gatherings such as the Bandung Asian-African Conference of 1955. Designed as an alternative space to colonial library spaces such as the British Library’s Africa and Asia Studies Collection and the School for Oriental and African Studies, we encourage readers to consult with us on research projects related to topics regarding the Global Majority, translation, and radical traditions of knowledge production. With the intersection of African and Asian diasporas as a starting point, our archivists are prepared to help you think expansively about questions of futurity, sovereignty, and feminist worldbuilding. Each quarter shelves are curated by guests and members of Afro-Asia Group and Dark Lab, this growing in-person collection highlights classics and out-of-print and reissued editions ranging from poetry to visual art catalogues to critical theory to design and more. While works cannot be borrowed, readers are welcome to make appointments to visit and browse our collection of books, magazines, DVDs, journals, college readers, and printed articles. We welcome donations (tax deductible) via our fiscal sponsor and are grateful to our publishing co-sponsors for book donations which include Titled Axis Press.

TERMS

• We are not a lending library, but we do have a library box outside for exchange of titles you may wish to take and leave behind for the next visitor.

• The Reading Room offers free entry with registration.

• Please handle all titles with care.

• Items must be read, scanned, or photocopied within the space.

• There is limited WiFi connection on Governors Island. We encourage you to unplug and embrace the texture of the analog in our space.

METADATA

Together with Dark Lab In-House Archivist Marialuisa Monda, we are experimenting with undared forms of metadata categorization for our books and ephemera. In development, is a Black feminist finding aid, to which we welcome insights in how to ethically list was has been catalogued as a means of erasing it. Based on the conceptualization of Eddie Bruce-Jones and Tao Leigh Goffe’s “Mangrove as Method,” the final product will be an accessible portal which we intend to be duplicated and cited to free knowledge and critique the systems that order and archive it.

AFRO-ASIA READING ROOM CREDITS:

Founder & Creative Director: Tao Leigh Goffe

Archivist: Marialuisa Monda

Guest Curator: Kris Vida Alfaro

DONORS:

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Fiona Taylor

Tilted Axis Press