The Alternatives Library is a collection of resources dealing with social change. Because we believe that our futures depend on discovering new, nonexploitive ways to live and work, we provide, zines, books, magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers, which can provide information and opportunities for the community to work together for social change.
The Alternatives Library was a Student Government Association (SGA) funded and student determined collection of resources which operated with support of the Public Services Department of the Salem State College Library during the 1970s. The two primary purposes of the Alternatives Library were to provide materials not generally available in the main library collection and to participate in community outreach activities.
The collection started with Public Services Librarian, Janet Freedman, who worked with students to collect resources that were of interest to the student population. A small portion of the student activities fee went towards the purchasing of materials. The Alternatives Library was housed in the old library in a space that was welcoming to students. It overlooked Salem Harbor, had comfy seating (bean bags!), plants, and opportunities for students to come together to talk and share ideas. It was the precursor to a Student Union.
At some point in the early 90s the ALC was disbanded and the collection was dispersed throughout the general stacks where they lay hidden until they were (re)discovered in December 2023 by Zine Librarian, Dawn Stahura.
Students in Professor Tiffany Chenault's SOC 302 - Black Political and Social Thought created a 'blind date with a book' display to go along with the work they did with the alternatives library collection. Each student selected two books from the collection, read and reviewed them. Later, they wrapped and decorated their books. The list below are the texts they selected. If you are interested in checking out these works, please stop by the IDEA Den and see if you can guess which book is which!
To read the student reviews, click on the titles below.
Black Rage by
a psychiatric analysis of the intersection of various identities with the black american identity, and how it is the root of a collective feeling of discontent and rage among black communities.
It's a New Day (poems for young brothas and sistuhs) by
A collection of poetry focusing on positivity towards the black identity and taking an optimistic future into your own hands. Includes poems written for specific impactful individuals in the author's life.
Prison Notes by
A real, raw, and autobiographical account of the period the author, Barbara Deming, and a number of other civil rights activists spent in the city jail of Albany, Georgia in 1964.
Black Lesbian in White America by
Comprised of essays, interviews, and letters Cornwell's work provides a vulnerable perspective of black lesbianism in America.
New York Head Shop and Museum by
This collection of poems writes from the perspective of living in New York City with the resounding themes surrounding Audre Lorde's identity as a Queer Black Mother
Organized Labor and The Black Worker by
1976 was the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence yet it has only been 110 years since African Americans would own land. Foner was a history professor at Lincoln University publishing over 100 books regarding social issues in the labor. exploit their stories for maudlin effect. They serve, rather, to point up how urgent was the task for the working class to organize into a force powerful enough to reverse conditions and get the production lines moving again. Learn about the conflicts Workers had to deal with there wasn’t just a mutual conflict with employers and Black workers, there were controversies on the subject of gender, mental health and the colonial concept of work.
The Fact of Blackness by
Cultural Studies. African American Studies. Visual Arts. THE FACT OF BLACKNESS: FRANTZ FANON AND VISUAL REPRESENTATION is a collection of essays that create a far-reaching and original dialogue between cultural theory and visual practice. The rich insights which emerge from this collection explain why Frantz Fanon's seminal texts of the 1950s and 60s, Black Skin White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, have re-emerged at the forefront of postcolonial studies. Ranging between the contemporary politics of location, everyday traumas of social inequality, and the structures and technologies of representation, these dialogues re-affirm the contention of Fanon's writings: that narrative, the media, image and symbol lie at the very heart of the practice of politics and social knowledge. Includes essays by Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hill, bell hooks, Kobena Mercer, Françoise Vergès, Lola Young, and many others.
The Black Panthers Speaks by
A culmination of essays and interviews of the founding members of the Black Panther Party; Their court battles, structures, marxist critiques, and critical points around community, policing, education, and general domestic life
The Storefront: a Community of Chiildren on 129th Street and Madison Avenue by
This book covers the creation of a community-based kind of educational space packed into a storefront. O'Gorman presents to the reader, an audience of educated white folk presumably, the challenges that kids from these urban spaces go through in comparison to what O'Gorman's growing up looked like and why the demonization of these children only pushes them further away from success.
Black Maria, vol.2 no.4 by 