IRL Moments with Seen Library

A memorable book exchange established by Jordan-Risa Santos

This feature is a special one as Jordan and I have been friends for quite a bit of time - working together online on most occasions in the social media landscape. When she started Seen Library it caught my attention for how unique it was. I love how devoted she is to making sure this experience stays strictly offline. After all, those are the moments that tend to stick with us in the end. Meaningful memories made by powerful conversations.

I’ve been a follower of Seen Library since its humble beginnings and it’s been such a delight to see it blossom the way it has. She began with some pop-ups and events in Los Angeles and has now expanded to New York, Paris, and London! If you haven’t been to one of Jordan’s events, I highly recommend it. Each are thought-provoking and intentionally crafted to encourage you to have discourse with one another in a safe and loving space. You’ll leave feeling like you’ve made new friends who are just as excited about reading as you are.

Why did you decide to start Seen Library?

Unofficially, the beginnings of Seen Library kind of started back in 2015, simply because I wanted to get friends together in a new, fun way. I saw a photo of a “blind date with a book” online - probably on Tumblr! - and wanted to try it out with friends. I had 5 of us (friends and my cousins) meet at a park and told everyone to bring a book wrapped with clues written on top. It wasn’t very chic at all - we all used old paper grocery bags and took a sharpie to scribble some clues. Since then, I began doing them here and there through 2019, and over time, more friends and acquaintances became interested in joining. When covid lockdowns happened in 2020, they were put to a pause.

At the same time, I had been working in the social media industry since 2013 and around 2020 / 2021, I really felt the shift from social media being a tool for connection to becoming a tool for self-promotion, whether it's for a brand or an individual. I know that I myself contributed to that and still do! But I guess that realization kind of made me disillusioned about an industry I initially loved and had so much fun working in… During that time, I read Severance by Ling Ma, which made me reflect and think seriously about my relationship with work and who I am and what I do outside of work.

It was then that I committed to cutting back on work. I decided I would make less money and take on less clients so that I could figure out what I really wanted to do with my time. I realized two things: 1. how much I enjoyed reading and putting together these book-centered gatherings and 2. that I wasn't necessarily sick of working in social media but that I just really missed that feeling of connectivity I enjoyed so much in its early days - meeting new people and actually getting to know them in person. I wanted to find a way to get that back, which is why I created Seen Library, officially. I loved the conversations and relationships that formed from the book exchanges I was hosting and saw how different they were to the conversations I was having at the brand-centered events I was going to and the people I was meeting through work. 

In 2021, I started Seen Library and brought the book exchanges back with more intention - as a way to not only get existing friends together, but also like-minded people who may not already know each other in hopes that it would lay the foundation for new friendships. It was such a natural desire, after finding ourselves so isolated during lockdowns in 2020.

Since then, Seen Library has evolved the more interest it has received. The book exchanges turned into book givings, where I curate books for people to choose from, and I also began doing pop ups, book drives, meet ups and volunteer days with an organization called Reading to Kids.

Can you tell us a bit about why you called your project 'Seen Library'? What's behind the name?

For most of my life, I had read books written mostly by white authors. It was mostly because of school curriculum but also just what I was exposed to. I grew up reading the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen books and Harry Potter and Gossip Girl as a kid. When I got to high school, we were required to read a lot of classics - almost all written by white men. For fun in my late teens and early 20s, I read Nicholas Sparks and 50 Shades of Grey and The Hunger Games… again, all white authors. 

It wasn’t until my late 20s that I began reading books by more people of color, especially women of color, and I felt like my whole world changed. I learned more in one fictional book about a certain topic than in the years spent in a history class. I read things that I resonated with so deeply but never saw put into words. I enjoyed reading as a child, but fell out of love with it as I got older and I found myself loving it again, because I discovered stories that I could relate to or that I really learned something from. 

With Seen Library, I am intentional in sharing books that hopefully leave the reader with a better understanding of the world, its history and the people in it - especially those written by BIPOC, women or queer authors. In the pages of these books, I hope we see and understand ourselves, and just as importantly, the perspectives of others. 

What's one of your fondest memories at a Seen Library event?

Every single book giving is so special that it’s hard to pinpoint just one. Overall, I am just blown away at how complete strangers can come into a new space, with such openness and curiosity and vulnerability, and be able to share something about themselves with people they don’t know. It's so beautiful to see and I feel so lucky to be able to witness it each time. 

There’s a group of 5-6 people who were at my very first public book giving. They have come to nearly every event since - I’ve lost count of how many they’ve gone to - and they’ve become best friends. They celebrate birthdays together, have gone to each other's weddings. It’s really cool to know Seen Library helped create those connections and that these friendships were able to deepen outside of Seen Library events. 

One of my fondest memories, though, was from the very first public Seen Library book giving. I had curated the books around the theme of love - whether platonic, romantic, familial or the self - and everyone went around sharing which part of the clue resonated with them most. Of the 20 people, about 5 shared that the part of the clue that resonated with them most had to do with a strained mother-daughter relationship. There were no duplicates of any book which meant I had unintentionally chosen multiple books that dealt with that topic in some way. We all realized we had mommy issues and laughed and cried about it together. I accidentally exposed myself in my curation - but with that, learned the commonalities we shared because of it.

It’s also crazy how sometimes the book really chooses its reader. At one book giving, a young woman chose a book about the immigrant experience, which ended up being Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. She shared that she was currently working towards just and humane practices at the US border for migrant families. At a recent book giving, my friend had chosen a poetry book and her jaw dropped - she is a florist and was scheduled to create a floral arrangement for that same poet the following day. At the same book giving, an artist friend of mine was working on a painting that dealt with grief and loss. She flipped to a random page in her chosen book and read it - she said it put into words exactly how she was feeling. She told me that she found her missing puzzle piece for her show and wanted to incorporate the poem in her exhibit.

Any events coming down the pipeline that you are excited for?

I’m doing a book giving dinner in New York on October 9 and a mini pop up at a super chic cafe called Dae in Brooklyn on October 12. I’ve really been wanting to do more things outside of LA so I’m so excited for the two!!

Also doing a bigger pop up in LA on December 7 and 8, just in time for thoughtful holiday presents :) 

Lastly, what are you reading right now?

The School for Good Mothers Novel by Jessamine Chan, a book about the pressure and unfair expectations mothers face, especially in a time when social media exacerbates those pressures. 

Follow Seen Library and Jordan to be the first to know about upcoming events and pop-ups.

All images courtesy of Seen Library.