From our collection : 270 New + gently read titles ready to go to a school library in need!
1. In the comments - nominate yourself or another school library who wants 2SQTBIPoC stories for all ages!
2. In the comments - nominate a donor / or nominate yourself to buy the set and send these books to the school in need!
3. Share this post!
I Dream Library partnering with a school library in need and a donor to purchase this all ages collection, funds the return of idreamlibrary.com a digital archive / library of video, film, art, books, exhibitions and teaching resources.
#schoollibrary #readbannedbooks #teachers #blackhistorymonth
Read the full announcement 🔗 in our bio
Thank you @governmentofbc and @nikisharma.bc Congratulations to the other 4 Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award winners. It’s great to learn about the incredible leadership you offer British Columbians everyday.
The BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award in the category of Breaking Barriers has been received in past years by trailblazing human rights organizations including @endingviolence@rainbowrefugeecanada and @pirsvancouver . We are honoured to be included in this lineage of B.C. changmakers, and receive this recognition as a sign to keep fighting a bold regression of environmental rights, human rights, and civil rights across Turtle Island and globally.
It’s been an honour to work in small and large communities across B.C. in collaboration with individuals and organizations in sectors ranging from justice, to health and the humanities.
Being formally / institutionally celebrated is a rare day in this work. Too many stay afraid of what they might lose if 2SQTI/BIPoC people have a equity: people and culture represented bountifully, our history taught beyond a footnote, our humanity held, not criminalized, not tokenized. This award comes after a heavy year of DEI defunding, personal and professional attacks for our activism, and many of our Canadian colleagues experiencing the same.
The Breaking Barriers Award is a reminder to keep going. We need you on this journey with us.
We invite schools and public learning spaces like museums, galleries, community centers, and libraries to collaborate with us in presenting education, stories, and exhibits that represent 2SQTI/BIPoC pride.
We invite individuals, organizations, and foundations to collaborate toward, and invest in, our infrastructure, teaching resources, and archive.
Thank you to all. Most importantly, my #1 reason @r4kim_3
Link in the bio to sign and share this petition!
#FreedomToTeachCanada is a campaign started by I Dream Library founder Aisha Kiani during Canada’s #FreedomToReadWeek in February 2025.
Years of experience fighting and facing book and education bans in Vancouver and across Turtle Island inspired Aisha to connect the isolating experiences of erasure with others across the country to tell a fuller story.
CANADA!
We’re taking this conversation on the road beginning in Vancouver, September 21, 2025.
Authors, Librarians, Teachers, Community leaders who want to be a part of these discussions in:
Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto (GTA), Montreal, Halifax, and ??
Get in touch! It’s a journey inspired by the moment so we need venues and sponsors to collab in creating the containers for changmaking dialogue.
Each one Teach one ✊🏽
See you there!
We begin the second year of FREEDOM TO TEACH CANADA with gratitude to all those raising awareness by adding their signature and voice to this important campaign.
Year 2 / 2026 - We introduce the larger goals of this campaign :
1. End book bans - on K - Gr. 12 books that hold the stories of Black, Indigenous, Asian + Pacific Islander (BIPoC), Two-Spirit + Indigiqueer (2SIQ), LGBTQIA+ disabled, neurodiverse, mad, chronically ill, migrants, the rights and survival of women and children, and stories that broadly and critically examine colonial systems of oppression historically and presently
2. End discriminatory hiring and employment practices - for all education workers
3. End district bans on diverse + decentralized teaching resources - encouraging schools and teachers to utilize, hire and acquire learning support from diverse (2SIQ/QTI/BIPoC disabled, mad, chronically ill) authored curriculum and lesson plans, community organizations, or independent educators are critical in ending persistent skill + learning gaps that perpetuate various forms of oppression, generation after generation.
Toward this goal - we are publishing our first journal, that includes quotes from this campaign, as well as the history of censorship and segregation in Canada.
Copies of the journal will be introduced to audiences through a series of gatherings, lectures, workshops, and panel discussions to meet you in-person and virtually. Now is the time to share, listen and teach each other about how segregation and discrimination show up differently and similarly across the country, and what we can do next.
To host a conversation please get in touch at [email protected]
Aisha Kiani (they/she)
founder, I Dream Library + Freedom To Teach Canada
BHM Storytime Day 4 : The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
A foundational pillar of my life, my family, and I Dream Library, this text reads as Black / American history and present day happening offering us wisdom and way-finding through vulnerable moments of building a Nation and leaving it behind.
This excerpt from Chapter 16, OUT - on betrayal and beginning again shares the moment Malcolm came up against a leader desperate to hide abuse of women and power.
#MalcolmX #BlackHistoryMonth #Storytime #ReadBannedBooks #Teachers
BHM Storytime Day 3 - JAN WADE : SOUL POWER
Reading excerpts from the exhibition book published by the @vanartgallery including a transcript of conversation between @bowen_deanna and @jan.wade.18
(There is an incorrect statement about Deanna’s participation in the exhibit which is later corrected - My long-Covid brain should have taken a nap before I did this Storytime, but the inspiration hit…)
Jan Wade is presently part of the group exhibit The Chromophiliacs @richmondartgallerybc curated by @chanakova
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I Dream Library in 2021 wrote the Teaching Guide for this exhibit in collaboration with VAG Ed Director @susannancyrome - we reached out to Jan during the resource design process. Since then, Jan and I Dream Library have continued to support each others success and share stories together inside galleries and beyond them.
Black History, Today, Tomorrow ✨
Black History + Black stories are for everyone in the classroom!
In 2018, I Dream Library founders Aisha + Rakim were told that Black History Month would not be celebrated in their school library. One reason the Vancouver librarian gave was that the Black student population was insignificant, and the stories irrelevant to the well being of White and Asian students.
In #BHM 2019 we announced idreamlibrary.com a digital library of 2SIQ/QTI Black, Indigenous and AAPI books for all ages free for anyone to access - as a way to mitigate the rise in Black history books bans sweeping the US and Canada.
In 2022 we released a short film written by @ai___ma___ and produced by @lushcosmetics that shows adults the how and why of making intentional decisions about the books your students have access to.
Find the link to the full film in our bio,
We hope you find this resource useful and share it. Get in touch with us for support on creating a liberatory library of your own! Everyone classroom needs a literary collection that fuels equity, diversity of culture and experience, and critically engages the minds and hearts of the future adult decision makers.
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I Dream Library needs your support to continue producing high quality, publicly accessible, and intersectionally relevant education - contribute to our GoFundMe.
#BlackHistoryMonth #ReadBannedBooks #BlackStoriesMatter #teachers
Black History Month 2026 marks our 7 year anniversary as @idream_library - Here is one of the books that started it all!
GRANDAD MANDELA from Zindzi, Zazi, and Ziwelene Mandela illustrated by @sean_qualls
Education is Liberation - Give to & share our GoFundMe to continue challenging systemic racism and delivering free, accessible, and decentralized 2SQTIBIPOC story + education.
Thank you all who support the vital work of I Dream Library and the founding family. 🔗in the bio.
Thanks to those who joined us on IG live - I Dream Library’s HQ CLOSING SALE includes books, studio furniture and pieces from our archive bought for exhibits over the years.
Purchases support our digital library / archive coming back online for thousands of people on Turtle Island and around the world go to idreamlibrary.com for FREE ACCESS to 100’s of pages of curated collections of 2SQTI/BIPoC books, films, lectures, artworks, and rare texts.
On now - Jan 30
DM / Check our stories for collections to purchase now
Comment DREAM for invite & details to our private sale of what remains Saturday, Jan 31st.
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It really is something to look back on 7+ years of building cultural infrastructure & challenging institutions for the right to read, speak, create and teach, as a Mother.
The reason I keep going is beside me as I write this. He grew up learning how to show up. Beside me. Whether you see him or not, always beside me. And in the hardest moments of this work, Rakim reminds me, “There would be no I Dream Library without me!”
Ameen
