When Safe Is Not Enough: Creating Brave Spaces at the Libraries

Abstract

With the Black History Month Read-a-Thon in February 2020, the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee launched its new Brave Spaces program. Based on the Brave Spaces principles laid out by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens in their work “From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces,”1 and as an extension of last year’s Safe Space program developed for the Libraries, Brave Spaces are designed to encourage challenging conversations around principles of “IDEA”. The Committee recognizes that tolerance is not enough, that as Library employees we need to move into affirmation and action.