Black Book Community Library Launch in Sydenham

On 26 July we opened the Lewisham Black Book Community Library at Sydenham Library.

It’s a curated, reference-only collection of 300–400 titles by Black British authors — picture books, poetry, memoir, contemporary fiction, historical texts. The full range of Black British life on one set of shelves.

We launched with readings from Lola Jaye and Salma Ibrahim, family storytelling, and a room of people of every age reading together.

We started BBBF in 2021 to build a space where Black British authors are celebrated, not sidelined. That work doesn’t stop at the festival. It lives in boroughs, in libraries, in the places people already go.

Sydenham follows Croydon. It won’t be the last.

Drop in and see what’s on the shelves.