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Shortly after dropping her first record of 2021, Noname took to Instagram to announce the official Noname Book Club HQ.
The Chicago-born rapper and activist announced that she’s constructing an official physical space for the book club to further provide services for the community, though the actual location was not revealed.
In the post, Noname said the space will host political education classes, tent drives, food and book drives, art shows, film screenings and book club meet-ups, and will house a radical community library that will be accessible to everyone. She wrote, “Everything in this space will be FREE. We service the community. We cannot wait for Biden or any other white supremacist politician to provide for the people”, ending with “Capitalism doesn’t end by itself. We have to start building a worker-led solidarity economy. The government would rather bomb Somalia than pay your rent.”
In the summer of 2019, she started the book club to highlight voices of color and voices from the LGBTQ community and spread awareness of texts regarding progressive topics such as oppression, political resistance, social justice, capitalism and more.
Its mission focuses on being a community-driven initiative, encouraging people to support locally-owned bookstores owned by people of color — with her website providing a directory of locations across the country. Noname went as far as to create a day known as National F*ck Amazon Day also known as Library Card Registration Day where club members are encouraged to divest from Amazon by using signing up for a library card.
The book club has partnerships with libraries in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Oakland.