The leadership of Oak Park Public Library is under fire from former staff and community members over their handling of an event celebrating Palestinian culture and the elimination of two community engagement staff positions.
They accuse some members of the leadership team of treating the event differently from similar ones held at the library in the past, and question whether the motivations were racist and reactionary as the Israel-Hamas war heads deep into its fifth month.
“We want the Oak Park Public Library back,” said Rebekah Levin, the first public commenter of the evening. “The one that had been transforming for many years into one that was far more inclusive and embracing of diversity.”
At the OPPL’s board meeting Tuesday, roughly 30 community members submitted public comments or spoke to protest the library’s practices regarding the two events.
The first incident involves an event at the library. Oak Park Neighbors for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel and the Oak Park and River Forest High School’s Middle Eastern/North African Student Alliance hosted a Jan. 21 event celebrating Palestinian culture that was attended by more than 400 people.
Its designation as a “community” rather than a “library” event confused critics.
Typically, a community event, like this one, is hosted and planned by the outside group, and is not advertised by the library, said Joslyn Bowling Dixon, the library’s executive director.
Library events, on the other hand, are collaborative, meaning the library would have a hand in planning and advertising. Staff do not have the capacity to do that for every program, Dixon said.
In this case, the library liaison for the event, Juanta Griffin, the multicultural learning coordinator, told Dixon that this event was not a library program, Dixon said.
Griffin, however, said she was on medical leave from October to December 2023, and another staff member became the contact person for the event. She said she had never heard the term “library-led event” before. A library should be a safe space to celebrate culture, she said, and many other multicultural events had been promoted by the library.
Later on, the event was changed to a library program, Dixon said, without her knowledge. She asked for it to be changed back to avoid confusion.
But it did create confusion. For months, the groups organizing the event thought the library was indeed a cosponsor, commenters said. Once the Palestinian culture event was specified as a community program, commenters said the event was taken off of the library calendar and denied promotion on its social media platforms.
“If I was there, it would have never gone off the calendar,” Griffin said.
Griffin said she’s tried to kill ignorance and racism in the community and help build relationships with people. She said she did the same work she did for any other group, and when she came back from medical leave, everything had changed.
Wednesday Journal had reached out to staff members for comment, but Dixon said that if other staff were speaking to the news media, “they really should not be” and that “they really aren’t authorized to,” citing the library’s communication policy.
“Here’s our library’s current media practice: ‘The executive director serves as the official library spokesperson and conveys the official library position on issues of general library-wide significance or situations that are of a particularly controversial or sensitive nature,'” Jodi Kolo, the library’s media contact, wrote to the Wednesday Journal in an email.
On Wednesday, Griffin gave the Journal permission to include her comments, but said her remarks are her opinion and she is not representing the library. She said it was “bullying” to not be able to speak out.
“It’s time for Oak Park to stop putting Black women, especially, in positions of power and thinking we’ve solved racism,” Griffin said.
Tatiana Swancy, a former library employee, said some community members who were part of the event felt discriminated against. Others agreed.
“When you treat a group of students differently … because of their race, you are telling them at a very young age [that] they are less valuable,” commenter Leila Massouh said at the meeting, which prompted a roaring round of applause.
Suzy Wulf, the library’s deputy director, also criticized the community engagement team for misleading community members about event promotions, Swancy said.
“She [Wulf] told us that it was the wrong time to support the event because ‘there was a war going on over there,’” Swancy said.
Another commenter, Dima Ali, said that as an Arab-American woman, the library’s actions made her feel unsafe.
“We are not terrorists,” Ali said. “I am ready to challenge the racists in the community.”
Dixon, a Black woman, said she takes concerns about racism seriously and would never want anyone to feel unsafe.
A social media post from the Activate Oak Park Facebook page illustrated some critics’ frustration and drew an unusually public rebuke from the library’s leaders. The post said library leadership treated the Palestinian cultural event “in a racist way” which “led to reprimands and silencing tactics.”
In response, library officials took a defensive stance in a Facebook post against what they called the “narrative” about the library that has “many inaccuracies.”
That Facebook post was removed from the site Feb. 27.
Swancy said this is not the first time that community members or groups have felt discriminated against by the library. However, in the past, the library’s response was to talk out the concerns and try to find a solution, she said.
“We do welcome all cultures,” Dixon said. “I’m just really dismayed at the narrative that is happening around this whole situation … It’s very reckless and it’s dangerous and it doesn’t represent who we are as a library or who I am.”
Staffing cuts
Two positions, including Swancy’s, were recently eliminated. Swancy, who served as the restorative practices coordinator on the community engagement team, said she feels the community engagement team was targeted by the library’s leadership. Swancy added that leadership told her she would be able to continue her diversity, equity and inclusion work in the new role, but she said she felt most of her position would change and was disheartened by the communication.
“My role was one of the few at the library that was explicitly dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices and modeling anti-racism and equity,” she told Wednesday Journal in an email.
Dixon acknowledged that two positions were eliminated, and said it was because of budget constraints. It was not a reaction to the Jan. 21 event, she said. The two community engagement team members were offered an opportunity to move laterally to another open position and to split responsibilities for that role. One accepted, and Swancy declined the offer, she said.
The library is operating on a deficit, spending about half a million dollars too much each year, Dixon said. Next year, no reserves will be left if they continue that pattern, so the library has to find ways to cut costs, she added.
“It’s not personal, it’s just business,” she said. “It’s happened to everyone.”
Further, the entire library staff should be working toward antiracism and equity initiatives, Dixon said, rather than having just one position dedicated to it.
“If the library actually believes this, then this is only more proof that they need more DEI training,” Swancy said at the meeting.
The previous deputy director of the library, Jim Madigan, said library communications need to be mutually respectful. Several other commenters said library staff do not feel safe to share their concerns about equity and leadership and are concerned about censorship.
“It is time for leadership that leads, and not divides,” one commenter said.
Library leadership plans to listen to community concerns, Dixon said, and work to reduce misinformation.
“That’s [public comment] a great thing about democracy,” she said. “If you’re not doing something that bothers someone, you’re not doing much.”
Update, Feb. 28, 2024, 4:27 p.m.: This story was updated to add comments by Juanta Griffin, the library’s multicultural learning coordinator.
