Shaya Ishaq

LIBRARY OF INFINITIES

In the fall of 2017, artist Shaya Ishaq began a project called Black Libraries Matter during a residency at the Khyber Centre for the Arts in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This community generated initiative created in partnership with the North Branch Memorial Library was a celebration of resistance through literature and valued ideas as a catalyst for hope and change around issues of social injustice pertaining to the Black diaspora. This space composed of books, music, film and video work by Black and Afro-Diasporic creators based in Canada and beyond was activated by a reading group, film screenings and art making workshops co-facilitated with local African Nova Scotian and Black artists.

In the summer of 2021, Shaya Ishaq revisited this project in a major solo exhibition called Library of Infinities at SAW in Ottawa, Ontario. In this new iteration, the entire facility was transformed into a library and community action space. Library of Infinities was a collective attempt at envisioning liberation of the imagination through literature, solidarity, and the narratives of resilience woven through black diasporic communities across Turtle Island. Contributions to the project (book titles) had been made by community leaders, artists, writers, activists, teachers in Halifax where it originally began when it was formerly known as Black Libraries Matter. By activating a space with the multiplicity of Black voices on this land, we are creating a portal of resources and stories that can empower and open minds.

To accompany the physical exhibition space and off-site collaborations, a beta version of the Library of Infinities website was launched. The intention and hope of developing the library into a digital realm is to allow visitors to contribute to a growing database of user submitted book titles. This has the potential to reach audiences across the country, around the world and ultimately engage people well beyond the exhibition. This digital space is a portal. Not one that boasts of one monolithic understanding of Black people but rather one that holds space for a boundless constellation of interrelations.

As this project continues to evolve, questions that informed Shaya Ishaq include: How can a web platform be a generative space for learning and sharing? What does collaboration look like in this digital realm? How can the Library of Infinities facilitate dynamic ways of storytelling?

Library of Infinities was generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and supported by SAW.