LANSING, Mich. — Three businesses in Lansing are teaming up for a book drive that will provide kids with books that showcase Black characters in a positive light.
The Black Book Drive raises money to buy children’s books with Black characters, then donates them to kids in the community.
Visual Artist Mila Lynn says the hope is that when kids open the pages they get a sense of excitement knowing the characters look like them.
“I feel like if the children don’t have diverse reading materials and I have access to it, well I thought I could just make it accessible to them, sometimes you have to create your own solutions,” said Lynn.
“I think I started noticing when I got older a lot of books that had Black and brown characters were about slavery," said Lynn. "And these negative things and my mind was like geared to that, instead of like chasing dragons and being princesses and lighter stories.”
Lynn’s business, Mind of Mila LLC, along with Skin Studio 211 and Socialight Society organized the book drive.
Socialight Society is a Lansing Black community centered bookshop, and that’s where the books for the book drive will come from.
“We met Nyshell Lawrence who owns Socialight Society and we just thought, let’s keep it local, let's keep it local,” Lynn said.
Last year, more than 100 books were donated, but this year, Lynn hopes to give out more.
She says the support from the community has been overwhelming.They've raised over $1,300 so far.
“So last week, we had like $200 in donations and I have just started sharing it out and we’ve been able to increase that quite a bit,” Lynn said. “So I am happy we have the community support.”
The books will give be given out to kids on Sunday, Feb. 27, between noon and 3 p.m. at the Lansing Mall.
If you want to donate to the fundraiser, click here.
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