F.L.O.W.



The Feminist Library On Wheels (F.L.O.W.) is a node of the Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW) founded by members Jenn Witte and Dawn Finley, both lifelong bookworms and devoted cyclists. They are building a multimedia collection of feminist books, artifacts, and ephemera to make available to as wide an audience in Los Angeles as possible, by bicycle.

They promote a feminist approach in three ways: through the riders who participate; the personality of the items donated to the library; and the use of bicycles. The collection will be searchable online, and available both at regularly scheduled locations as well as at special events (CicLAVia, farmers’ markets, fairs and parades, etc). Anyone can fill out a short membership form to get a library card, check out a volume on the honor system, and either return it to a designated drop-off spot, or bring it back when F.L.O.W. is out and about. One routine they’d like to have is a reading hour outside the Woman’s Building, at 1727 North Spring Street, a special location in the feminist history of L.A.

Dawn Finley Co-Director of FLOW

Dawn likes to think: about love, words, politics, images, writing, ethics, relationship, nature, aging, food, and feminism. Until she started working with the WCCW on a feminist reading group, consciousness-raising group, and F.L.O.W., she’d lost track of how much she really does like to think, talk to others about what and how they think, and discover ways to nurture hope and generate sparks. Doing all that from the saddle of her road bike is her new definition of joy.

Jenn Witte Co-Director of FLOW

Jenn is all rough-and-tumble and has made herself a patchwork career as a reader in many forms, with a heavy emphasis on the physical. You’ll find her at FLOW, the Feminist Reading Group, Clash Forward, Work Doodles, Fash Mash, on the Care & Concerns Committee, and riding along the river bike path.