“Here is our chance to claim Library Plaza as our community’s front porch of stories,” said Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation Executive Director Lauren Trujillo as she welcomed more than 200 guests to Library Night Live on May 14. “This is a place where people come together to learn, to connect, and to imagine what’s possible,” she continued.
A fundraiser for literacy programs, colorful literary characters from Tinkerbell and Michael Darling to Albert Einstein and Jane Austen–era heroines came alive thanks to actors from Carpinteria Improv and Santa Barbara Improv, there were also literary themed cocktails from The Good Lion, as well twinkling light installations and art installations throughout the plaza, making for a uniquely creative fundraising event, which raised a net of more than $160,000 in support of Santa Barbara Public Library literacy programs serving children, families, and adults throughout the community.
Other highlights of the evening was a moving keynote talk from award-winning author Matt de la Peña, whose heartfelt remarks on storytelling, belonging, and the transformative power of libraries were very moving. De la Peña — a late substitute for actor/comedian Max Greenfield, who had to bow out after being cast in the new season of White Lotus — is a Newbery Medal award winner who specializes in young adult fiction. His books include Mexican WhiteBoy, Last Stop on Market Street, and Milo Imagines the World, among others.
“When I was growing up, I was always a reluctant reader, and I was never one of the top students in my class. And when I was young, I used to think the only kid who’s going to go on and get a really cool job is probably the number one kid in the class, or maybe the top three, and I was always so average, so I never thought it would be me,” said De la Peña. “But one thing I found out that I think is amazing is that average, ordinary kids can go on to do incredibly cool things with their lives. When I think about the kids who come in here who may have the benefit of a program that you all are supporting, I think about my childhood.”
He grew up near the border of San Diego and Mexico, “in a place where nobody went to college, nobody was a reader. I had never met anybody who had gone to college who wasn’t a teacher until I got to high school. … For me, the way I found literature was great teachers. I had one teacher in particular; she introduced me to one book. Have you guys ever heard of this book? It’s called The House on Mango Street by Sandro Cisneros. That book changed my life, and I’ll never forget thinking, wow, maybe there’s something for me in these books.”
De la Peña also spoke movingly of his father’s later in life journey to literacy “Sometimes, when you give a kid like me the right book, or an adult like my dad the right book at the right time, you’re not just giving them a book, you’re giving them a new way to navigate the world.”
The program also featured powerful personal stories from Danny Arroyo, the library’s Adult Literacy Program lead, as well as a tutor and parent of a student, Barbara Wagner and Jennifer Harris, who shared moving reflections on the impact of literacy, learning, and human connection through the library’s programs. The auctioning of a private Party on the Plaza and the opportunity to name a character in author Gail Kvistad’s next book also helped raise additional funds for the library’s literacy initiatives.
For more information, see sblibraryfoundation.org.
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