Patti Smith, a punk rock singer and National Book Award winner, has written a letter in support of the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Library. She (pictured, via) hopes to mobilize bibliophiles to urge Mayor Bill de Blasio and local city council members to approve of a budget increase for these three institutions.
Library patrons have been tasked with submitting their own advocacy letters and one-sentence stories on what the library means to them. Follow this link to check out some of the one-sentence stories that have been collected thus far.
Here’s an excerpt from Smith’s letter: “My first great love was the book. Little Women, Peter Pan, A Child’s Garden of Verses. A voracious reader, my thirst for literature and need for a variety of reference books could only be appeased at my second home—the local library. And right now, our library needs us.”