Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for contacting the city regarding the Main Library project! About 40% of the emails the city received came from all of you, and we are immensely grateful for your support.
As you may have heard, on Tuesday, November 27th, the Boise City Council voted to move The Cabin as part of the planned library expansion project. They did not, however, vote to make a final decision on our new location. The council considered three options — one next to the band shell, one between the Black History Museum and Lincoln Statue, and one a little further north adjacent to the park in an area that is currently a maintenance yard. The latter is our preferred option and the only one approved by the Cabin’s board.
Although it hasn’t been rejected completely, the council seems to dislike our preferred option because of the future development potential of the maintenance yard site. So where does this leave us? The Cabin board will spend the next few weeks working with city staff to study the options, gather more information, and see if there are any other possibilities that were missed in our initial discussions. The team will report back to the city council in early January in the hopes they can make a final decision at that time.
We are disappointed that the council did not agree with our preferred site, but are cautiously optimistic we can work out an option that aligns the future goals of both the literary center and city.
In the meantime, we’ll keep planning and hosting the innovative literary arts programming you’ve come to expect from us. Nationally renowned poet Danez Smith took the Ghosts & Projectors crowd by storm this week, and we are looking forward to listening to Tayari Jones’ Readings & Conversations lecture in January and reading your Writers in the Atticsubmissions in February. Writers in the Schools and Adult Workshops are going strong and soon, believe it or not, we’ll be revving up for Summer Writing Camps. Our staff couldn’t deliver this level of programming without the friendship and support of The Cabin community.
As you consider your end-of-year giving, please remember The Cabin. Your gift will ensure we can continue to share quality arts programming with the people of southeastern Idaho. Our literary community will have challenging times ahead, but if we stick together, we can turn it into an opportunity to grow and evolve.
As always, thanks for being a part of the Cabin family.
Kurt Zwolfer
Executive Director
THE CABIN, a center for readers & writers
