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Since its founding in 1958 by James P. Elder Jr. 鈥�60, the Liberal Arts Forum continues to bring unique academic speakers to 麻豆视频 and encourage meaningful conversations around the arts and humanities, mathematical and natural sciences, and social sciences, inside and outside the classroom.

During her speech, Maze gave the audience background on how her work started as a “radical street librarian.鈥澛燬he used this term to refer to someone who improves access to literary resources in underserved communities through unconventional ways.

Maze started at her home front stoop, reading books to her nieces in Baltimore. However, kids from the neighborhood began to join, begging Maze to re-read books.

After a couple of rounds, she would say, 鈥淥kay, you guys go home and read a book at home.鈥� The children would respond, saying, 鈥淲e don’t have any books at home.鈥�

She then started Stoop Storytime where she鈥檇 read to neighborhood children on Saturdays, giving away books she had available. Eventually, she began a career in libraries but noticed that the children who visited her stoop weren鈥檛 the ones coming into the library.

Maze says she then did some research and came across the term “book desert,” a geographical area where access to reading materials is limited or challenging. She found that Baltimore experiences one of the highest levels of book deserts, with one child to every 300 books.

Although libraries are an option, Maze says barriers such as transportation, costs, fixed addresses and a valid ID to get a library card prevent young children from accessing them.

In the past, librarians fought against these barriers. Maze referenced work from pack horse librarians in the 1930s, where they would take pounds of books in pillowcases on mules or horses for children in the mountains.

鈥淭hey traveled in rain and snow and heat because there weren’t roads,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey navigated through creek beds and rivers and animal trails along fence lines, often covering 20 miles a day.鈥�

Maze brought to light the barriers that Black communities specifically have faced with books and reading.

鈥淭hose who were caught were often violently punished or sold or even killed,鈥� she said. 鈥淓nslaved people had to be strategic and resourceful when learning to read and write.鈥�

The barriers and violence that Black communities experienced didn鈥檛 legally stop until 1960, when the last anti-literacy law against Black individuals was repealed.

鈥淢y mom was born in the ’50s, so sometimes we’re just one generation away from these circumstances,” she said.

Because of these barriers, both current and past, she needed a solution.

Maze gave TikTok a try. She posted a video that described her journey of providing books to local children. The next morning, the video had over one million views, and she had messages from people she didn鈥檛 know before.

She went to work at the library and came home to find piles of books from her Amazon Wishlist at her front door.

鈥淚t was super overwhelming,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t just kept coming and coming and coming until the whole garage was filled鈥�

Through her journey, Maze created free public book vending machines, pop-up free bookstores and street-corner storytime. She even started Storybook Trolley, a mobile vehicle with a built-in library.

To date, she has distributed 7,000 books, and her goal is to give away 500,000 books in Baltimore and nationwide over the next five years.

鈥淲e’ve built a foundation,鈥� Maze said, 鈥渁nd we’re going to scale our little free libraries and our book vending machines and our trolleys. And I want to launch an army of radical street librarians all over this nation.鈥�