An independent library in Humboldt Park is fighting to keep its doors open after operating for nearly 16 years.

The Read/Write Library in Humboldt Park is not your traditional city library.

“This is an incredible artist’s book with a music piece that is really like nothing else you would see out there,” said Nell Taylor, founder of the Read/Write Library.

You can find creative books among collections of zines, neighborhood newspapers, poetry, novels, cookbooks and personal narratives by people who are incarcerated. Publications, Taylor says, you won’t find at a Chicago public library.

“This is within the Cook County temporary juvenile justice center,” Taylor says opening a book. “The very first thing I turn to is a poem called, ‘What’s it’s like to be a smart girl,’ and thinking about the amount of promise and talent that so many people have.” 

“I always wanted to be challenged, but I can’t because I live with so much violence. My mind is a terrible thing to waste,” the poem states. 

The Read/Write Library is filled with unique publications like creative books, neighborhood newspapers and personal narratives by people who are incarcerated. (WTTW News)

Taylor was in her early 20s when she had the idea to create a space where people could connect to different parts of the city through art and culture using local media.

“Pretty much right away we started to get librarians in the living room and talking about what are all the problems when stories get left out of the record,” Taylor said. “What are the problems in cataloging, in the way it misrepresents people into certain places they don’t identify with.”

It started in 2006 as the Chicago Underground Library, and over the years the community-driven project kept growing until they found a permanent space for the last 10 years on the corner of California and Walton. 

“It’s been such an incredible space to grow in to. When we first started we were just in the back here, and we could maybe fit 10 people around the table,” Taylor said. “A few years ago, when we were able to expand to the front room, that gave us 1,600 square feet. A lot more flexibility”

Taylor says the independent space has focused on hosting community programing and pop-up libraries aimed at giving the community access to local stories. Now the volunteer-run library is losing its space at the end of the month.

Hoping to keep the operation alive, Taylor is searching for a new location in Humboldt Park where it can continue to flourish.

The Read/Write Library, located at California Avenue and Walton Street, will lose its space Dec. 31. (WTTW News)

“We put so much work and energy into this and thought into how a typical space, which use to be a neighborhood bar, so now to lose that and have to start all over again, and look for another place that can give us that, and support us in growing, is really huge mound to climb,” Taylor said.

It’s been 15 years since Taylor took on this passion project running solely on donations. In order to save it and find an affordable space, she is hoping to raise $50,000 that will help move and store more than 6,000 local publications. With those donation she is also hoping to switch from volunteers to paid staff.

“Over the years it has been something so difficult in trying to do this with next to no budget. It’s really been like why does a space like this need to exist? When we do these programs and see the ways that people react to the power of being told your story does matter,” Taylor said.