Sofia Akel on founding the Free Books Campaign: "Books liberate our minds"
The Free Books Campaign founder reflects on making books more accessible, from discovering the library as a child to becoming a leading advocate for authors-of-colour
On 23rd June 2021, the day before Cut Short was published, I walked the residential streets of Brixton, south London, carrying a rucksack of signed hardback copies. I was delivering each with a personal note to local people who’d played important roles throughout my journey of becoming a youth worker. Some had contributed their voices, experiences and insights to the book’s pages; others had mentored or advised me on my process, descriptions and arguments.
That evening, as I nervously counted down the minutes to publication day, I received a message from Sofia Akel, a cultural historian and writer, offering her encouragement and support. Months before, Sofia had founded the Free Books Campaign, an initiative to distribute books written by authors-of-colour to readers who can’t otherwise afford them. The initiative started as a humble partnership with Verso Books during the tense summer lockdown of 2020.
“They were giving out a couple of e-books about policing, but I can’t read loads of text on a digital screen, it’s uncomfortable. It got me thinking about how there are so many people who don’t even have e-readers or access to computers,” Sofia says now, nearly three years on, when we meet for juice in central London.
So she asked Verso if they could send out some physical copies, and they agreed. After advertising the campaign on social media, authors, publishers and readers started reaching out offering help. Sofia’s vision started growing and hasn’t stopped.
“For all the negatives that were happening that year, I feel like people were generous, too. When I set up a fundraiser, the first one was for £1000, and we exceeded that. So I upped it, and then exceeded it again. So I upped it again, and it kept going and going.”
The 28-year-old has since given out over 6000 free books, including copies of Cut Short.
Since 2010, over 800 libraries — or one-fifth of the total — have closed as part of a 29.6% reduction in spending across the UK. The internet means that information is more democratised than ever before. But the bricks-and-mortar spaces in which books can be found, available to all under the shelter of a public service, have never been more at-risk.
“The people who are traditionally in power know how important education is. It can narrow social divides and gaps, which is probably why libraries are being attacked and permanently closed and the arts in education are getting reduced and considered less important — all of those things that make us more aware of society and our place within it, how we came to be, how this country came to be. Without access to that knowledge and education, we are vulnerable to the whims of the people in power,” she argues.
The seeds of Sofia’s passion for reading were planted in her childhood. She grew up with her mum, Patricia, and siblings in Romford, east London. There was a community library directly across the road from her block which incubated her love for reading. She remembers discovering it and her life changing.
“I would spend ages there. You know when Matilda gets that trolley and fills it up with books? That’s what I wanted to do. I’d bring stacks home. It was my first bit of independence. They had computers, I would see the same kind of people each time, so there was a community and they got to know me.”
As a volunteer, Patricia founded Sofia’s primary school library. Sofia remembers entering summer holiday reading competitions and being called up to accept awards for them in assembly on return to school in the autumn. As her collection of books grew, she would set up a table on the communal balcony outside her front door so that other children on her estate could rent them from her.
“I truly believe in the transformative power of literature. My vocabulary would be significantly reduced, and there are so many things I wouldn’t have learned, without books. My imagination was expanded reading as a kid. I was growing up on an estate in Romford and books allowed me to travel outside of that. Reading helps your mental health, your literacy skills. It helps you if you want to be a writer yourself.”
Fast-forward through her teenage years, two degrees at Lancaster University and a career as a researcher at Goldsmiths, and reading, education and literacy have remained at the centre of Sofia’s personal and professional identities. Last year, she designed and taught the first Black Studies course at London Metropolitan University, for which myself and Demetri Addison, one of the main characters of Cut Short, were invited to deliver guest lectures, alongside a host of other writers.
Now a freelance cultural history and archival consultant for projects ranging from exhibitions to music videos, Sofia has settled in south London, where much of her community work is based. Last summer, she organised the Free Books Festival at Copeland Gallery in Peckham, which gave people access to workshops, conversations with professionals from the literary world, and, of course, the opportunity to take books home.
This Saturday, in partnership with Vintage books, she has organised the Free Books Day at the 2000 Community Action Centre in Deptford, a longstanding and essential lifeline for residents of the local Pepys Estate. The centre runs a social supermarket which allows families to take several days’ worth of shopping home for a few pounds.
“When I was younger we used to have food delivered to us in a box of vegetables that we couldn’t get otherwise. That’s also why I wanted to do the event there,” Sofia says.
The event will aim to celebrate literature by running a free programme of workshops by Vintage authors and books for people to take home.
“I want to give people a home away from home for the day, where they don’t have to think about money or feel like there’s another thing in London that isn’t accessible to them. They can come, take home some new books, and feel like it’s a level playing field, because they can meet authors who they wouldn’t be able to meet otherwise. We’re hopefully closing a gap where people can meet people who work in publishing and ask them a question, straight up.”
The event is another stepping stone on Sofia’s path towards making books free to all.
“Books are one way that we get to liberate our minds and discover who we are, unadulterated by other people. When you’re reading, it’s just you, a book, and how you choose to interpret it.”
By Ciaran Thapar
ALL CITY aims to document or inspire social impact through storytelling.
I teach a monthly course, ‘Writing for Social Impact’, at City, University of London.
The next course is Friday 12th & Saturday 13th May 2023.
A fully-funded place is available for a young adult (18-25 years-old) from an underrepresented background and/or facing financial difficulty.
Sofia Akel on founding the Free Books Campaign: "Books liberate our minds"
Wow, I knew youth centres had closed but hadn’t realised so many libraries had been closed too (I’m an expat). I left the UK 10 years ago and used the library all my life before that.
I experienced that printed book is more comfortable to read as compared to ebook. My book on “Maktab e Ishaq “ in Urdu language comprised of stories of Punjabi poets published this January and I have distributed books costing £ 1000 free among the 100 plus book lovers in Pakistan.