Woodlands Pride to open Woodlands Community Pride Library

What can an organization do when censorship advocates and special interest groups, behind widespread book removals in local school districts, infiltrate public libraries?

He opens his own library.

The Woodlands Pride, a nonprofit pride organization based in The Woodlands, will host the grand opening of the Woodlands Pride Community Library on Friday. Participants can browse approximately 300 titles featuring minority and LGBTQ narratives and feature stories about different races, religions and cultures.

According to Rachel Walker, engagement specialist and chair of community outreach for The Woodlands Pride, the library will stock books such as Kwame Mbalia’s. Black Boy Joy and that of Martin Pistorius ghost boy and other texts deemed controversial.

“These books come from people in the community who have donated,” Walker said. “We have other organizations that help us with their own smaller book drives. People have made monetary donations, which we use to purchase new books through Village Books.

The library will be located in the back room of Village Books, owned by Teresa Kenney. Kenney and Walker discussed the possibility of establishing the library after a Montgomery County Commissioners Court meeting they attended in late March.

The commissioners took action following a new policy from Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough that would remove librarians from the Montgomery County Memorial Library System’s book review board and replace them with five residents appointed by the commissioner.

The decision to replace these subject matter experts with members who were not required to follow guidelines to be selected to review texts intended for children, adolescents and parents was adopted by 3 votes to 1. The commissioner of Montgomery County Precinct 2, Charlie Riley, was the lone dissenter.

The Woodlands Pride had collected titles from a book drive launched last summer in response to widespread book challenges by neighboring public school boards — notably Conroe ISD — and growing legislative attacks on LGBTQ youth.

The organization planned to donate these books to the Montgomery County Library System. However, its plans changed after the new policy was approved, and members feared the titles would never be available on shelves.

“Afterward, when the vote didn’t go the way we wanted, we went out for coffee and kind of talked,” Walker said. “We both had the idea that using these books and starting a library would be a wonderful idea, and she (Kenney) so kindly offered her space.”

Village Books will house the library; however, the library is a separate entity and is not related to Kenney’s operations. Those wishing to donate books to the community library can purchase titles from a wish list curated by Kenney or contribute financially to The Woodlands Pride. The organization will use these funds to purchase books at the store.

“For Village Books, it was important for us to do this to give a voice to those whose voices others are trying to take away. This was a way for us to do that,” Kenney said. “Particularly, because if they are removed from library shelves or school libraries, not everyone can go out and buy them, and we recognize that, and they should still be available to them.” That’s why it was important to us to ensure that all voices were respected, heard and honored.

Kenney, a strong supporter of anti-censorship and literacy, also fought individually against book banning. His store has a section that features titles retired from school districts locally and nationally.

The community library will be available to the public during Village Books hours of operation, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, except Sunday, when the store opens at noon and closes at 5 p.m.

Walker said the library won’t be staffed until it determines the level of foot traffic it will attract. Instead, visitors can use the Libib mobile app — used by other nonprofits and by teachers who catalog their classroom libraries — to browse and return titles.

Walker added that community members who would like to donate books they did not purchase from Village Books can contact media at thewoodlandspride.org to arrange a time for a volunteer to collect the titles.

“We just hope that we can be a place that elevates the voices that outside influences seem to be trying to silence,” Walker said.