SALA COMúN: Biblioteca de los Ausentes / On the Knowledge We Carry
About this experience
A day with the absent, and the books they left behind.
Writers leave, but their books stay on the shelf, still speaking. For one day, Ojalá opens a curated library of writers who are no longer with us, from across Latin America to Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, alongside writers of exile and memory from Harlem to Eastern Europe. Their work carried language, land and memory across borders and generations. We gather to ask what they carried, and what we carry now.
Morning · Sala Común (9:30am–12pm, ticketed)
Our monthly collective study gathering. We read together in the room, each at our own pace, then come together in conversation. No prior reading needed.
Our monthly collective study gathering. We read together in the room, each at our own pace, then come together in conversation. No prior reading needed.
What’s included: one book from the Biblioteca to take home, chosen from the session’s featured titles.
Afternoon · Biblioteca de los Ausentes (12–5pm, free and open to all)
No ticket needed.
No ticket needed.
At the heart of the day is a book ofrenda: an installation built from the works of writers who are no longer with us. Inspired by the ritual basketry of the Ngiwa people of San Luis Temalacayuca, Puebla, where woven tenates hold the presence of ancestors, the books are gathered in woven baskets among cempasúchil flowers. Come sit with the writers, read from the shelf, and leave a word for someone you carry.
Stay for:
- Live screenprinting on an original print by Ximena Amaya, with ink pressed from cempasúchil flowers by Cayetano Talavera
- Oracle readings by Sandy Saravia, reverential artist and cosmic channeler of the sacred, profane and unseen
- Candles by Oeste Studios
- Coffee by Café Santo
Sala Común is a monthly public-learning series at Ojalá on technology, care, culture and social transformation, hosted by sumaq alvarado del aguila. Biblioteca de los Ausentes is part of a three-part sequence supported by the Reimagining Refuge Connection Funds.
All ticket sales are final. No cancellations, refunds or exchanges will be issued for any reason.