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A Blueprint On Self-Exploration To Justice: Introduction To “Referencing Audre Lorde” & “Lesbian Librarianship For All”, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz
A Blueprint On Self-Exploration To Justice: Introduction To “Referencing Audre Lorde” & “Lesbian Librarianship For All”, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz
Publications and Research
My approach to social justice problematizes the profession by challenging the librarian to focus inwardly to a space concentrated with identity and self-exploration. To galvanize justice, the librarian may impose her or himself into the reference interaction as an element of praxis.
Referencing Audre Lorde, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz
Referencing Audre Lorde, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz
Publications and Research
This chapter is close a reading and textual analysis of canonical texts, speeches, and archived audio recordings of Audre Lorde. It embraces Lorde’s many identities, including her identity as a librarian who chose to depart from the library as a means of survival. The author urges reference librarians to study Lorde’s example and learn from Lorde’s choice to act in a space where silence can be transformed into language and action. Acknowledgment of the limitations and opportunities that Lorde teaches us in reference service and institutional structures, may allow for librarians to move toward a realm of justice.
Lesbian Librarianship For All: A Manifesto, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz
Lesbian Librarianship For All: A Manifesto, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz
Publications and Research
This essay intends to bridge the gap between two under-appreciated communities by committing to ways that each enhances the other. The complications for being a lesbian librarian outlined here may be applied to any librarian or any lesbian by acknowledging how the two communities mirror each other in positions of marginality, struggle, and implication for silence, each active in a movement toward justice. I intend for this chapter to act as a type of autobiographical manifesto, coupled with an invitation for both lesbians and librarians to stake a claim as lesbian librarian.