Sister Library: Why this Bandra library aims to encourage reading more literature by women

For as long as Mumbai-based artist Aqui Thami read books growing up, it was always by male authors. As soon as she realised this roughly eight years ago, Thami also understood how she had a dearth of titles from female authors. She took a conscious effort to pick and curate books by women for herself. "We are so conditioned to read books that are by male authors," says Thami, continuing, "that we don't realise that we are missing out on reading books by women from different walks of life."

Library for women
It did not stop there because this was more than just her personal reading choices. It was the start of a lifelong journey of self-discovery and introducing people to better literature. So, the Mumbaikar decided to do something about it by collecting and curating books solely written by women and create a library for women. She explains, "I started Sister Library when I started reading works of women exclusively. Since I have been a part of Bombay Underground, we have been doing reading interventions in the city and I realised that people wouldn't readily pick up works of women." These people, she points out, were from different socio-economic backgrounds but not keen on reading any works by women. "Sometimes when I gave them books written by women, they would not take it and say they want to read something more general and not something that is women-specific or like a popular author," Thami adds.

This bothered the artist. More so because it was also a reflection of her reading choices, and that's when she also realised that some of her most cherished books were written by men. So, she started gravitating towards reading books by women in similar genres and that changed her perspective. "I saw how vastly different the interpretation was. If I was reading post-apocalyptic fiction, then something that George Orwell wrote is entirely different from what Margaret Atwood wrote. It was so stark that the female productive body was not seen as a resource when men wrote about the apocalypse." The 33-year-old threw herself a challenge and decided to read works by women authors for a year, and when she had done it, realised it was the best year of reading for her.

Book club before library
Interestingly, the seed for starting the library had been sown long before she put the library together. Since she had already moved to reading books only by women, she also had friends borrowing it from her on many occasions when she recommended the titles to them. "These books were so rare, I did not want to lose them, so I started maintaining a small diary of books that people had taken and it was a record of sorts. I didn't realise it would turn into a library then," she laughs. At the time, she was also thinking about how she could get women together to read in an intimate gathering.

It led the Mumbaikar to make a list of books that she wanted women to read and come together exclusively in the form of a women's-only book club. "I invited women, and we would sit together and read a book per month. When these women read, there would be an exhibition of works they created while they were reading the books by the end of it." Today, she has managed to successfully run the library out of a garage in a residential area just before Mount Mary steps in the Queen of Suburbs. However, it has not been without her share of troubles including housing societies that aren't keen on having a library on the premises citing ‘safety' concerns. Being at her current spot for four years, she is thankful to have it running - all with the help of the art grants she has received over the years to help her sustain. The library currently has over 1,000 books and 700 zines that people can enjoy while sitting there comfortably.

Travelling before settling in Mumbai
Just as she was laying the roots for Sister Library in Mumbai, Thami made sure to travel far and wide. She took the opportunity to learn more from feminist libraries around the world and thus understand better about what she wanted to do. By the end of it, she had a firm resolve. "I wanted a place that would be there to read works of women, celebrate works of women and then I started travelling with the library," she explains.

Carefully curating the books according to the experiences she's had in the city, she took them to various spaces through collaborations. Starting with India, she travelled to Delhi with 100 books. It was followed by Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and even an installation at the Kochi Biennale just before the pandemic. "I took the travelling library to Dhaka, Auckland, Kathmandu and London," she adds, while mentioning how they also sent zines to Colombo.

After travelling so much, ask her for favourites and Thami has two. The first one was in Dhaka for the Dhaka Art Summit at the Goethe-Institute. Since it was such a huge success, the cultural institute asked her for a permanent installation there. The second in Auckland is surely closer to her heart because of being an indigenous person herself. "I took two shelves of books that are written by indigenous women in South Asia. I wanted to take this collection specifically to Auckland because it is an indigenous place as well," she adds. Now, she wants to travel to Sri Lanka and other south Asian countries as well.

Pandemic-induced feminist literature
Unlike many others who were affected in different ways, Thami channelled her energy on taking the conversation forward by not limiting her medium to books by established authors. Even though the library has always been focused on women, it is open to men, who Thami says do visit often. However, the events have always had a women-centric focus to them, she explains. "There are specific events that focus on women and they include the Mahila Mandali and others like menstrual health that also see young girls come in." They read different kinds of books including those by Toni Morrison and Angela Davis but Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis has been a clear favourite among readers, she observes. The club will be reading works by Naga poet and writer Temsüla Ao on January 1.

However, this is only the beginning because even when the pandemic made it difficult for them to meet, she found another way out of it to tell her stories. Thami bought a small fridge-sized printing press to bring out ‘Sister Times' with a focus on women who didn't get the right kind of spotlight during the pandemic. She mixed it up with some poetry, posters and excerpts from her book clubs. "We also made zines celebrating women in South Asia and women who wrote in South Asian languages. Once the lockdown was lifted, we also taught women how to do printmaking and use the press and teach them about feminist history." While the publication is currently on hold, they hope to raise enough funds from their well-wishers to continue in the new year. The pandemic also made Thami start a podcast called ‘Sister Radio' as care calls during the lockdown but has now become a medium to talk to like-minded women to understand their life and give a voice to women around the world.

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