Texarkana’s second READvolutionary pop-up library will take place on Monday, December 21st from 12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the Literacy Council of Bowie & Miller Counties, Inc., located at 4014 Summerhill Road.
READvolutionary is a non-profit pop-up library that offers free multicultural books to students. The movement was started by Kierra Robinson of El Paso, Texas and its purpose is to place multicultural books in the hands of not only children, but teens and adults as well. READvolutionary was quickly adopted and brought to the Texarkana community in September of 2020 by local Educational Consultant, Taryn Givan, who felt inspired after seeing the event on Facebook.
“With me being an educational consultant and just starting my business in July of this year, I said I think that would be something great for me to do for the community and to give back here in Texarkana,” said Givan. Givan is a native of Texarkana, Texas with 19 years in the educational field as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal in the K-12 setting, and has recently started her 20th year as the Founder and CEO of Divergent Educational Consulting, LLC. Givan hosted Texarkana’s first READvolutionary, pop-up library event in September of this year at The Beverly Community Gardens.
This month, Givan partnered with Jenny Walker, Director of the Literacy Council, to have the event at that location. “When you think about literacy and READvolution, it goes hand in hand,” said Givan. “So, she has agreed for me to set up there on the 21st and we are excited for people to be able to come through,” she added.
According to Givan, all books in the Texarkana READvolutionary Pop-Up Library celebrate diversity, are FREE to those that visit, include fiction and non-fiction, and range from Pre-K to adult. “It’s basically a come-and-go,” said Givan. “Of course, because of COVID, I’m making sure we take those precautions. I do have gloves and also additional masks just in case someone comes without it,” she added.
Givan is accepting donations continuously. Ongoing monetary donations can be made by visiting https://www.divergenteducationalconsulting.com/services
Books can also be purchased and shipped to Taryn Givan by contacting her either via email: divergenteducationalconsulting@gmail.com or by phone (903) 244-7715.
Givan also keeps track of books that students have requested and has added them to a Book Outlet Wishlist and an Amazon Wishlist. Donors have the option of selecting books from either of these lists and having them shipped directly to Givan.
“This is just something that I continue to replenish along the way, and then I’ll have another pop-up library when I feel as though I have enough books for students to come through,” said Givan. “Representation matters of course with our current climate, you know, national climate. We want to make sure that students of course see themselves, and that they belong, they feel safe, they feel respected; and when we talk about literacy, obviously it’s just pushing the importance of students to read for leisure, not just connected to something for their school assignment,” she added.
Additional information can be found on Givan’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
