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In 2017, a group of people from different projects in Chicago decided to open a lending library and community center at Blood Fruit Printworks in Bridgeport. Since then, Blood Fruit has evolved and moved to the Little Village neighborhood in order to be the home base for La Red de Solidaridad de La Villita/Little Village Solidarity Network (LVSN), and support the fight against immigration enforcement and gentrification in La Villita and Lawndale. For over a year, Blood Fruit and LVSN have developed a powerful symbiotic relationship: a constantly growing network of engaged neighbors and friends fueling their shared struggle through the constant research and exchange of ideas to which our library gives life.
Blood Fruit Library remains committed to the goal of creating and providing access to a carefully curated selection of underground, radical, and self-published literature. By inviting people to share their favorite books, we aim to build a collection with the participation of an ever-expanding network of friends. We see the collectivizing of books as a strike against a culture of individualized learning, and the atomization of the digital age. Blood Fruit has served as an inclusive and intergenerational sanctuary where people can meet, connect, and form meaningful relationships. Through the co-creation of the library and its events, we have created new constellations of affinity that have given rise to fertile grounds of struggle. 
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Blood Fruit Printworks is no longer associated with the library, but Blood Fruit Library has taken up zine and poster making, and has published several original texts and translations. We are rebuilding our printing resources in order to publish and distribute more radical literature and materials for LVSN and other radical struggles. Our texts focus on the destruction of carceral society, by illuminating autonomous responses and resistance from around the world. Our original translations are primarily from Spanish, but we are working on expanding to include texts from Portuguese and French.
After the initial flurry of involvement in the project in late 2017/early 2018, it has been difficult to keep the doors open and the bills paid consistently, so we have transitioned away from being a fully volunteer-run coffee shop and library that holds regular business hours. Instead, since summer 2018 Blood Fruit has mostly been open for events and meetings upon reservation, and a regular open-hour schedule for people who just want to hang out and read. We are working towards buying and fixing up a building, and being a fully operational community space for Chicago’s west side neighborhoods. Our dream is to establish a land trust to help prevent gentrification in these neighborhoods, and build a radical social history archive in addition to expanding our printing and publishing operations. We’re so busy making this dream a reality that we have trouble promoting our activities on social media, which makes fundraising more difficult. Support our efforts to build a community library, archive, and radical print shop, by sharing our Patreon far and wide and contributing what you can! To collectivize your books or reserve Blood Fruit for an event: bloodfruit_library (at) riseup (dot) net. To support us and the causes we’re involved in, please subscribe to our Patreon. People who donate $15/month receive a free zine each month! |
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