Located on the first floor of Hayden Library, the Luhrs Arizona Reading Room is a reading room that is open to all. An interactive collections exhibit space invites visitors to explore the scope and variety of print collections pertaining to Arizona.
AAPI Food and Culture
The AAPI Food and Culture collection encapsulates the diverse and vibrant food cultures that define the AAPI experience. Through mouthwatering photographs, heartfelt stories, and expertly crafted recipes, we invite you to embark on a culinary journey that celebrates the 50 distinct ethnic groups that comprise the AAPI community. Whether you're an experienced chef or a curious home cook, this collection offers something for everyone, serving as a delicious reminder of the beauty found in shared meals and shared experiences.
In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) culinary traditions, we collaborated with faculty and staff across the university to bring you this featured collection. Special thanks to Qian Liu, Orkhon Enkhtuvshin, Xia Zhang, Young Oh and Rudy Guevarra Jr. for their contributions to this featured collection.
BIPOC Playwrights
The BIPOC Playwrights Collection is dedicated to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) playwrights of the 20th and 21st centuries, whose works are in English or with English translations widely available. The collection is intended to serve as a resource for the performing arts community at ASU and to amplify the work of historically marginalized artists. There was an identified gap in our collection holdings, particularly for audition resources that authentically represent our BIPOC students. We aim to disrupt the pattern of white actors and narratives being centered onstage. This collection is a testament to the rich, powerful storytelling amongst BIPOC playwrights. We will continue to update the collection to make visible the intersectionality of race, identity, and nationality of these playwrights.
This particular project is inspired by the upcoming production of Detroit ‘67 directed by ASU graduate student and MFA candidate in Directing, Crestencia (CeCe) Ortiz-Barnett, at ASU. Alongside ASU faculty member Rachel Finley, Associate Professor in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre (MDT), CeCe Ortiz-Barnett (‘24), ASU Performing Arts Librarian, Caelin Ross collaborated to create original play list and for people interested in learning more about this topic.
This collection is dedicated to the ASU students, faculty and artists whose stories deserve to be uplifted, both on and offstage. To support our theatre community, please visit: https://musicdancetheatre.asu.edu/events
Black Speculative Fiction
This book collection serves as a compendium to the exhibit celebrating the understanding of the umbrella term Black Speculative Fiction and its representation within the Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, and (Alternate) History fiction genres.
Black Speculative Fiction uses forward-looking perspectives from Black and African creators to imagine a better future for Black and African American people across the globe. With these new identities created by the Diaspora through Black Speculative Fiction, we reclaim our erased and colonized identities and reckon with the horrors wrought upon us by the legacy of colonialism. Our contested place in history is reimagined and used as a blueprint to seize our identity and future as Black and African American people.
This book collection also supports the Griots and Galaxies podcast, which examines Black Speculative Fiction as a tool for social and technological change. The podcast is a production in partnership with the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University and includes publications by two of its podcast hosts, Chinelo Onwualu and Yvette Lisa Ndlovu.
Luhrs Arizona Reading Room Collection
An open stack collection in the Luhrs Arizona Reading Room features books and materials concerning Arizona and the southwest region. Materials in this collection reflect the Greater Arizona Collection, the Chicano/a Research Collection and the Labriola National American Indian Data Center.
#Landback
Indigenous Peoples are deeply connected to the lands they come from. Our spirituality, language, songs, stories, and ways of life express our relationships with our lands. At all ASU campuses, you are on Akimel O’oodham je:ved (O’odham word translating to land/Earth). Due to the lack of settler consciousness in today’s society, the Indigenous #LandBack movement is a way to assert Indigenous sovereignty through political advocacy and direct action. The goals of the Land Back movement align with past Native activist movements like the Red Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, #IdleNoMore in 2012, and #NoDAPL in 2016, to name a few. These movements sought to protect Indigenous land and culture by any means necessary. Since many students may not be aware of contemporary Indigenous cultures and activism, Labriola would like to continue to celebrate, acknowledge, and educate our University about efforts like #LandBack. We feel our heritage should be celebrated beyond Native American Heritage Month. Labriola Center’s mission with this display is to share crucial contemporary contributions to Indigenous Peoples to society. This book display consists of six different themes focused on Indigenous self-empowerment and self-determination. Indigenous and non-Indigneous people will gain a better understanding of Indigeneity and Indigenous resiliency, and of how we thrive in the 21st century.
NEA Big Reads
The NEA Big Reads collection is inspired by the NEA Big Read grant, awarded in 2021 to the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU. In celebration of Anishinaabe author Louise Erdrich’s 2012 fiction book The Round House, the collection includes books by this author and touches on topics discussed in the novel, including Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and jurisdiction and legal matters on Indigenous land.